With a win under its belt, the UNM football team will look to weather the storm Saturday when it travels to Tulsa and into the eye of the Golden Hurricane.
The Lobos haven't played Tulsa since 1997. In that game - when both teams were members of the Western Athletic Conference - UNM was victorious, dismantling the Golden Hurricane 51-13 to clinch the WAC Championship title under former head coach Dennis Franchione.
UNM and Tulsa have split the series 2-2 entering their fifth meeting.
The Golden Hurricane comes into Saturday's game with a potent offense.
Tulsa is averaging 50.5 points per game, after putting up 45 against UAB and 56 against North Texas - winning both games.
The Golden Hurricane has scored 40 points or more in seven of its last eight games.
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Despite losing starting quarterback Paul Smith, who helped engineer the nation's leading offense in 2007, the Hurricane's David Johnson has done more than fill Smith's void.
At 241.58, Johnson has the highest rating of any quarterback in the nation. He has completed 79 percent of his passes and thrown for nine touchdowns and no interceptions.
"He's got a good release," UNM safety Blake Ligon said. "He reads zones very well. As where (Arizona quarterback Willie) Tuitama was struggling with our zone, this guy can pick apart zones if you let him sit back there."
Ligon said the Lobos will employ a steady mixture of zones, zone-blitzes and man-to-man coverage to upset Johnson's timing and rhythm.
"We have a lot of disguises," he said. "Hopefully, they'll start to believe we're in man and in a zone, and he'll throw us easy ones."
But the fact that Tulsa is averaging 16.3 yards per catch has Ligon worried. He said that might force UNM to play more two-deep safety formations to discourage Tulsa from throwing the deep ball.
"We don't want to give up any big plays," he said. "They're a good offense, and they like to trick you as much as they can to get you out of position."
Tulsa has nine touchdowns in the air, compared to five on the ground, but Ligon said it has a balanced attack.
"Surprisingly, you hear pass, but they run the ball well also," he said. "They have a great running back with great receivers and a quarterback that you'd expect not to be as good as last year's quarterback, but he fills right into the position."
In fact, Tulsa has called more running plays - 73 - than passing plays - 60 - this year, which has led to high efficiency.
In two games, Tulsa has had nine touchdown-capping drives of 2 1/2 minutes or less.
Ligon said Tulsa's strategy is to wear down defenses.
"It's that fast, that tiring, that confusing," he said of Tulsa's fast-paced offense. "If you're out there thinking all day, you're going to get beat, and that's how they get you."
If Tulsa does have one glaring hole, it's on defense.
The Golden Hurricane has given up 448 yards on the ground, which ranks 110th in the nation.
UNM tailback Rodney Ferguson, who averages a MWC-best 117.3 yards per game, should be able to exploit every crevice of a Hurricane defense that lost all three starters of last year's linebacking corps.
With more than half of UNM's total offense coming on the ground - 493 of 891 total yards - sooner or later the Lobos will need to establish a passing game.
UNM has 398 yards through the air in two games and has been content to dip and dunk as opposed to take shots down field.
UNM wide receiver Jermaine McQueen said it has been an issue of trust.
"The chemistry with (quarterback Donovan Porterie) was there in the spring," he said. "For some reason, we got off track during the season. But I think in this game, you'll see we got it back on track."
When asked whether he thought Porterie's struggles were a matter of imposing too much pressure and overcompensating for the loss of Travis Brown and Marcus Smith, McQueen said "maybe," but added "he just needs to trust us."
McQueen said that's one thing he, Porterie and all the receivers discussed this week.
"He's learning to have more confidence in us," he said. "We make plays in practice, and he'll know we can go out there and make plays on Saturday. It's all about confidence."
Football vs. Tulsa
Saturday at 5 p.m.
Tulsa, Okla.
