by Steven Fernandez
Daily Lobo
Under head coach Rocky Long the Lobos have always been known as a defensive-minded football team.
After a fast start this season, however, the Lobo offense looks like it is ready to make a name for itself.
After beating the University of Nevada-Las Vegas at home and Big-12 Missouri on the road, the UNM offense has put up some impressive numbers.
In the win against Missouri, senior wide receiver Hank Baskett caught 10 passes for 209 yards and three touchdowns. Two games into the season, Baskett is leading all NCAA Division I receivers with 341 yards and is tied for first with four receiving touchdowns.
Baskett said he is happy with the results so far, but will not be satisfied unless more is accomplished.
"It's definitely a big sense of pride and it helps my confidence out a lot," he said. "With me though, its not about what I did last week. It's what I do next week and the week after that."
The star receiver said even though he is one the nation's elite receivers right now, he knows there are still a lot of games to play.
"I'm definitely excited for it, but it's not who's ahead at the start, it's who's ahead at the finish," he said.
The man getting the ball to Baskett is off to a pretty good start as well. Quarterback Kole McKamey had career highs in completions (20) and passing yards (284) against UNLV. In the high-scoring win against Missouri, McKamey threw for three touchdowns, giving him five in the two games combined. That's pretty impressive considering McKamey threw five touchdowns all of last season.
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"More than anything it's just fun," McKamey said. "It's fun to be able to put up numbers like that and have that kind of success."
McKamey gives credit to the Lobo offensive line for this season's offensive boom.
"They've been huge," he said. "I haven't had a sack yet, and I've had plenty of time to make my reads and throw. They are getting better and better every week, and it's really going to be scary how much chemistry this offensive line will have when we get toward conference."
Along with McKamey and Baskett, the entire passing offense has made a huge jump from last season. In 2004, the Lobos' offense ranked 108th out of 117 NCAA Division I football teams. So far this season, they are averaging 401 yards a game, which ranks them 46th in the nation.
Tailback DonTrell Moore has been one of the main weapons on the team since his freshman year, and Long said the balance of passing and running is a key to success.
"I think our offense is playing much more efficiently and making more plays than last year at this time," Long said. "I think the threat of both running and passing allows an offense to be successful and makes it much more difficult on a defense."
