2023-10-25 07:00:00
A look ahead to Saturday’s (7:30 p.m.) Mountain West football game between the Nevada Wolf Pack (1-6, 1-2) and New Mexico Lobos (3-4, 1-2) at Mackay Stadium:
HOW TO WATCH, LISTEN: TV: CBS Sports Network. Radio: 105.7 FM.
THE POINT SPREAD: Nevada is favored by 1.5 points.
AT STAKE FOR NEVADA: The Wolf Pack needs to win its final five games this season to qualify for a bowl invitation.
AT STAKE FOR NEW MEXICO: The Lobos need to win three of their final five games to qualify for a bowl invite.
HOME DOESN’T MEAN VICTORY FOR NEVADA: The Wolf Pack will bring an eight-game losing streak at Mackay Stadium, the longest in the stadium’s history (since 1966), into Saturday’s game. The last Pack win at Mackay was on Sept. 3, 2022, over Texas State (38-14).
The Wolf Pack’s last home victory over a Mountain West team (six losses in a row) was 27-24 over San Jose State on Nov. 6, 2021. The Pack’s longest home losing streak in school history is 10 games (all five home games in 1956, all four in 1957 and the first home game in 1958).
NEW MEXICO LAST WEEK: The Lobos beat Hawaii, 42-21, at University Stadium in Albuquerque. Dylan Hopkins threw three touchdown passes to Jeremiah Hixon (28 and 17 yards) and Ryan Davis (3).
Jacory Croskey-Merritt scored on runs of 1 and 14 yards. Hopkins was 20-of-25 for 202 yards and Andrew Henry had 112 yards rushing on 13 carries.
NEVADA LAST WEEK: The Wolf Pack broke its school-record 16-game losing streak by beating San Diego State 6-0 on the road. Brandon Talton had field goals of 39 and 37 yards in the first half for the only points of the game.
The two teams combined for just 28 first downs (17 by Nevada) and 446 yards (242 by Nevada).
LOBOS, PACK SEEK STREAKS: New Mexico hasn’t won two games in a row since it won four in row over the final two games of 2020 and the first two in 2021. Nevada is seeking its first two-game winning streak since it won the first two games in 2022 over New Mexico State and Texas State.
THE SERIES: The Wolf Pack is 5-3-1 against New Mexico in the series, which began in 1941. The two schools did not meet between 1942 and 2007.
The Pack has never lost to New Mexico in the state of Nevada, going 3-0-1 in Reno and 1-0 in Las Vegas (in the pandemic season of 2020). This will be the first Pack-Lobos game at Mackay Stadium since a 21-10 Pack win in 2019.
DOUBS, STRONG DOMINATE NEW MEXICO: Former Wolf Pack wide receiver Romeo Doubs (now with the Green Bay Packers) and quarterback Carson Strong (now a member of the Pack’s football support staff) only played against New Mexico twice in their Pack careers that spanned from 2018-21.
Strong and Doubs, though, certainly left an impression on the Lobos in a pair of Pack wins, 21-10 in Reno in 2019 and 27-20 in Las Vegas in 2020.
Strong was 52-of-78 for 641 yards and five touchdowns against New Mexico in his two games, while Doubs caught 16 passes for 239 yards and four scores. Doubs’ touchdowns were from 33, 57, 59 and 61 yards out.
THE LAST LOBO-PACK MEETING: This weekend will be the Pack’s first game against New Mexico since the two teams met in Las Vegas in 2020 (a 27-20 Pack win). Doubs caught three touchdowns and Strong passed for 336 yards in the game. Just 250 fans attended the game in 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions.
New Mexico played its 2020 home games at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas because of COVID-19 restrictions in the state of New Mexico.
FIRST MEETING IN RENO: The first time Nevada and New Mexico met in the state of Nevada was at Reno’s Mackay Field on Halloween Day in 1942.
The game ended in a 0-0 tie as the Pack’s Marion Motley, who beat Santa Ana Air Base 3-0 the previous week with a 27-yard field goal, missed two field goals.
The Pack got inside the New Mexico 35-yard line on five different drives but failed to score.
SACKS RARE FOR NEW MEXICO: New Mexico’s defense has just eight sacks this season. No Lobo has more than 1.5 (defensive lineman Tyler Kiehne).
New Mexico’s offense, though, has allowed just 10 sacks all season, meaning that quarterbacks on both teams have been sacked just 18 times combined in seven New Mexico games this season.
Quarterbacks in Wolf Pack games, by comparison, have been sacked 33 times. The Pack defense has 13 sacks, while the Pack offense has allowed 20.
Linebacker Marcel Walker-Burgess and defensive lineman Ike Nnakenyi lead the Pack with two sacks each.
THE HEAD COACHES: Nevada’s Ken Wilson is 3-16 overall and 1-10 in the Mountain West, in his second year as head coach.
New Mexico’s Danny Gonzales is 10-28, 4-22 and in his fourth years as Lobos’ head coach. The 47-year-old Gonzales, a former New Mexico safety (1994-98), was an assistant coach at New Mexico (1999-08), San Diego State (2011-17) and Arizona State (2018-19).
PACK PARADE OF LOSING COACHES: The Wolf Pack will see three of the least successful head coaches in the Mountain West over the next four weeks.
The Pack has the least successful coach currently in the Mountain West in Ken Wilson. Wilson has lost 13-of-16 games since becoming head coach (.158 winning percentage) last year.
New Mexico’s Danny Gonzales has lost 28-of-38 games (.263) since taking over the Lobos in 2020.
Hawaii’s Timmy Chang, whose Rainbow Warriors come to Mackay on Nov. 4, has lost 16-of-21 games (.238) since getting the top job last year.
Colorado State’s Jay Norvell, whose Rams will host the Pack on Nov. 18, has lost 13-of-19 games (.316) since taking over the program last year.
NEW MEXICO OFFENSIVE LEADERS: Jacory Croskey-Merritt leads the Lobos with 545 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns. His 11 rushing touchdowns are tied with Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty and San Jose State’s Kairee Robinson for the most in the Mountain West.
Croskey-Merritt rushed for 1,164 yards and 13 touchdowns in four seasons at Alabama State before transferring to New Mexico.
Dylan Hopkins has completed 104-of-176 passes this season for 1,367 yards and 10 touchdowns. He was 318-of-506 for 4,472 yards and 31 touchdowns at Alabama-Birmingham the past three years before transferring to New Mexico.
UAB offensive coordinator Brian Vincent also headed to New Mexico after last season.
The Lobos average 29.9 points a game.
NEVADA OFFENSIVE LEADERS: Brendon Lewis has started all seven games at quarterback, completing 101-of-181 passes for 1,005 yards and two touchdowns with six interceptions. He also leads the team in rushing with 351 yards and three touchdowns.
Sean Dollars has 290 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 89 carries. Jamaal Bell leads the team with 27 catches for 250 yards and a touchdown.
The Wolf Pack averages 15.7 points a game.
JOHNSON STEPPING UP: Wolf Pack defensive back Emany Johnson, who has played in 50 games since his first season in 2018, has become arguably the best defensive player on the team.
He is certainly the most active.
The physical 6-foot-2, 216-pound Johnson has led the Wolf Pack in tackles in each of the past five games. Johnson now leads the Pack this year in tackles with 54, a dozen more than second-place Tongiaki Mateialona (42) and double that of the next defensive back (Richard Toney, 27).
Johnson is tied for ninth in the Mountain West at 7.71 tackles a game. He is also second among all defensive backs in the conference, behind just Jack Howell of Colorado State (10.3 a game).
Johnson has averaged nine tackles a game over his last five games.
Johnson, who had his first two career interceptions this year against Fresno State, had just 36 tackles the last two seasons combined after getting 30 each in 2019 and 2020. He now has 150 career tackles.
PACK HOMECOMING
Who: New Mexico (3-4, 1-2) at Nevada (1-6, 1-2)
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Mackay Stadium (27,000)
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: 105.7 FM (John Ramey, Mike Edwards)
Spread: Nevada by 1.5 points; total of 49.5
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