Lobos facing buzz saw against Auburn

The Lobo football team boarded a plane and headed for eastern Alabama on Friday morning, doing so under a massive cloud of doubt and speculation regarding the schools future in college athletics.

Among those packing his bags for Saturdays game between Auburn and New Mexico was Interim Athletic Director David Williams, who admitted he hadnt begun to pack when he finally dragged himself through his front door after an exceptionally long day at work Thursday.

I tell you, in three weeks in an interim role as head of this department, Ive had a few things to deal with, he said with a laugh.

Prior to Wednesdays bombshell announcement the Mountain West Conference was splintering with the exit of four marquee programs to the Pac-12, theres the lingering impact of the Sept.

5 decision on the House vs.

NCAA settlement, a $2.7 billion antitrust lawsuit that threatens the business model of college sports and potentially puts a structure in place to limit the way NIL deals are done.

Williams was installed as UNMs interim AD on Aug.

21 after his predecessor, Eddie Nunez, accepted the ADs post at Houston.

Its been anything but quiet on the South Campus ever since.

Wed heard rumblings about a week or two ago something was going to happen, Williams said when asked if he was caught off guard about the latest shift in conference realignment.

We never could make sense of it, and by that I mean a collective group of ADs around the league and people here at UNM.

We couldnt figure out what the end game was but everything just seems to make sense now.

Theres no panic, Williams said.

UNM and the rest of the Mountain West are handling the news of Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Boise State joining the Pac-12 by the 2026-27 school year.

What happens next is anyones guess, but Williams is confident the moving and shaking is far from over.

The potential exists for more schools to leave the Mountain West, but theres also preliminary talks that the league could try to pilfer rival conferences to bolster its membership.

So much remains in doubt.

In some ways, it makes heading into the heart of SEC country seem like a welcome distraction.

The Lobos (0-2) are 2612-point underdogs to Auburn (1-1), a team coming off a lackluster home loss to Cal and one that made headlines for all the wrong reasons last season when it was beaten handily at home by New Mexico State.

The Tigers loss last week was a mistake-riddled mess in which the offense struggled to move the ball consistently.

A number of drives were undone with costly miscues that coach Hugh Freeze said are impossible to overcome given the personnel he has on hand.

It was just one of those really, really poor games for us to play in, he said.

Were not at a point to turn it over five times and beat anybody.

Were going to get there.

Were adding talent, and these young kids are playing hard and well and they want to be coached.

Were going to add a great class to them in 25.

Itll take a great game from UNMs defense to pull the major upset.

The unit ranks last in the country in total defense, giving up 1,194 yards in its first two games.

Injuries have already had an impact on the Lobos defensive depth, a fact that adds even more concern to coach Bronco Mendenhalls already-long list of things to worry about.

I thought wed be a little deeper than we are at this stage, so thats probably off plan a hair, he said.

And the rest, it feels like forging a football program.

NOTES Taking on the best: The Lobos are in the midst of a seven-year run where at least one SEC team appears on the schedule in all but one season.

The exception is next year when they head to Michigan and UCLA.

They have a trip to Oklahoma in 2026 and one to Texas A&M in 2027.

The previous three seasons theyve visited A&M twice and also LSU.

Against the SEC: New Mexico is 1-20 all-time against teams currently in the Southeastern Conference, although it has never actually beaten a team that was a member when the game was played.

The lone win was against Missouri in 2005 when the Tigers were in the Big 12.

Sweet home Alabama: The Lobo football roster has players from seven countries, but only one from Alabama.

Offensive lineman Richard Pearce, a 6-foot-2, 320-pound native of Hueytown, is a junior on UNMs roster.

Icy hot: The Lobos may have teased their uniforms for Saturdays game in an Instagram post Friday morning.

The team had to wear its cherry jerseys with silver pants and helmets for the first two games because its secondary white jerseys hadnt been shipped.

In the post, it shows players modeling all-white looks with white helmets, jerseys, pants and socks.

The only color was the cherry red cleats..

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