Thursday night, Lobo Football kicked off their season exactly how we thought they would: with a convincing win against the South Dakota Coyotes. Although a 48-21 victory against a FCS team doesn’t necessarily tell us a ton about this year’s team, I did come away from University Stadium with a few thoughts:
The Offense Looked Dynamic
Going into this game, there were certainly some questions about aspects of the offense – namely how the quarterback situation was going to work and how effective the offensive line was going to be – but at least in this game, all of those questions were answered. The offense racked up 615 total yards, and although 428 of those on the ground, the passing game looked as strong as we’ve seen in a while.
A lot of that has to do with Coach Davie’s choice to forgo the dual-quarterback plan in favor of just having Austin Apodaca take the reins by himself. It’s certainly a common thought that Apodaca is the best passer on the roster, but he wasn’t good enough at running the triple option – which is still the backbone of this offense – to be the sole quarterback. However, although he’s not the same threat to break off a 50-yard run that Lamar Jordan is, he showed that he can still run that part of the offense effectively. And with the quality of the running backs that he has behind him, that’s all that he really needs to do. With Apodaca behind center, not only is the running game still effective, the passing game becomes a threat too, and on every down.
Last season, the quarterback situation was never settled because neither guy separated himself enough to force Coach Davie to make a decision. It’s only one game, and against an FCS opponent, but Apodaca might have just done that.
As for the rest of the offense, the offensive line held South Dakota’s rush in check and opened some big holes for the running backs to go through. It will be interesting to see how well they do against stiffer competition, but they definitely passed the first test. There is still a bunch of depth at running back, with Teriyon Gipson still being a one-man highlight machine and Richard McQuarley is a wrecking ball on short yardage. The wide receivers look to be a much-improved unit as well, with Dameon Gamblin still providing a sure-handed target in the middle of the field, Patrick Reed looking like he can be a go-to receiver, Matt Quarrels showing that he can be a deep threat, and Q’ Drennan making his debut with a great catch for a touchdown. I don’t want to overreact based on one game, but I’m as optimistic about our receivers as I have been in a while. With all of these ways that the Lobos can now beat you on offense, I wouldn’t be surprised for the Lobos to return to being rated as an above-average offense.
The Defense Was Hard to Read
Let’s get this out of the way: at the beginning of the game, the defense looked terrible. South Dakota’s quarterback, Chris Streveler, ran all over the Lobos, including touchdown runs of 55 yards and 42 yards in their first two possessions. Now, it’s not necessarily a surprise that Streveler was able to compete against the Lobos, given that he was originally a quarterback at Minnesota, but the way he was dominating was shocking. The excuse given was that the Lobos thought a different quarterback, Ryan Saeger, was starting, so the game plan was designed to stop a more balanced attack, not a power runner. Still, against better teams, being caught off guard and giving up 14 quick points is going to make it hard to stay in the game.
Thankfully, the Lobos were able make some adjustments and settle down. That’s most evident by the fact that in those first two possessions, the Coyotes racked up 165 yards and scored two touchdowns, while for the rest of the game, they picked up 158 yards and a single touchdown. If we take out those first two possessions, it was truly a dominant performance by the defense, as they barely allowed South Dakota to do anything. Unfortunately, those two possessions still count and are a little hard to get out of my mind. Overall, I’d say that the defense was generally good, but it will be important for them to not come out flat in the future.
On a side note, Dakota Cox looks like he is primed for a huge senior season. As usual, he seemed to be everywhere on the field, picking up 14 tackles – 9 of which were solo – a forced fumble, and an incredible interception. He’s been the rock of the defense basically since he stepped foot on campus, so I hope that he has the sort of season that gets him noticed the way he deserves to be. He just won the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week, so that’s a good start.
The Crowd is a Work in Progress
I’ve seen a lot of concern about the crowd size, given that is one area where we are clearly lagging behind other wannabe Power 5 candidates, and this game probably didn’t do much to help that concern. Just over 20k people were there, which made the stadium about half-full (I’m an optimist). It didn’t help that this game was on a Thursday night, I’m sure, and it also didn’t help that the opponent was an unfamiliar FCS team. I will say this, though. If the Lobos can pick up wins these next two weeks on the road against NMSU and Rutgers, I like to think that enough people will be energized by a 3-0 team that just beat an opponent from the B1G conference for there to be a good crowd the next time they play in University Stadium.
Up Next:
The Lobos head down to Las Cruces this Saturday to take on the NMSU Aggies. The last time the Lobos lost to the Aggies was in 2011, so hopefully the win streak continues. These games tend to be both close and high scoring, so it should be a fun one to watch.