The UNM football team has already dubbed their offensive line the “Hitmen.”
Now head coach Mike Locksley is calling for his linemen to block — and his team to execute.
After taking two beatings this season, schematic wizardry is not going to get the Lobo football team over the hump against Air Force, Locksley said. The team only needs to execute the fundamentals.
“It has nothing to do with keying on Air Force,” he said. “It’s about keying on New Mexico. I have said it time and time again — and it’s not going to change. When we start taking care of our business and doing the things that good football teams do — when we execute the fundamentals of offensive football — we’ll have success.”
The Lobos (0-2) head into Saturday’s game pitted against Mountain West Conference rival Air Force, which is 1-1 on the season. And as the heavyweights in the conference — BYU, TCU and Utah — jockey for position in the top 20 in the nation, UNM heads into Saturday’s contest with a lot on its plate.
“The pressure of winning your first game is enough,” Locksley said.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the Lobos also have a laundry list of fundamentals that need correcting if they’re going to have a chance against the Air Force Academy Falcons.
In the last two weeks, Lobo opponents have put up a combined 1,051 yards of offense, compared to the Lobos 402. Opponents have also out-scored the Lobos 85-16, some of those points coming off turnovers.
The Lobo offense fumbled six times last week, losing three of them to Tulsa.
Much of the offense’s success will be predicated on converting third downs. UNM totaled 171 yards of offense against Tulsa, but the Lobos were a sorry 1-of-15 on third-down conversions. That kept the defense on the field for 20 minutes in the second half.
Locksley said the offense is fine on the practice field, but, for some reason, things get lost in translation on game day.
“I haven’t had any problem with the way we practice,” Locksley said. “They prepare the way we ask them to. They are into it. They have a lot of enthusiasm. Someway we have to just transfer it over to games.”
The defense also has to play the way they practice. Last week, Tulsa put up 44 points on UNM’s scoreboard, 28 of those points came off passes 17 yards or longer.
Tulsa receivers burned the Lobo secondary several times.
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“We can’t continue to give up those big plays,” said George Barlow, UNM’s defensive backs coach. “A lot of that (will be fixed) by cutting down on assignment busts, and some of it is just technique.”
With the exception of Frankie Solomon, the secondary is relatively inexperienced.
At the very least, the Lobo secondary will get a break from the high-powered passing game on Saturday. Run-heavy Air Force employs a triple-option scheme.
Last week against Minnesota, the Falcons ran the ball 66 times compared to 17 pass plays. In the game before that, the Falcons only went to the air seven times.
“I don’t think we are matched up any better (against a run team),” Locksley said.
“But if we can find a way to limit the big plays, I think we’ll maybe have a little more success on defense.”
Up Next
Football vs. Air Force
Saturday
5:30 p.m.
University Stadium
