Everything you need to know about New Mexico's game at Hawaii, the Lobos' first trip to Honolulu since 2024:
Who: New Mexico (4-1, 1-0) vs. Hawaii (1-5, 0-3).
When and where: 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in Honolulu.
How to watch/listen: FS1 will carry UNM-Hawaii with Carlos Jimenez (play-by-play) and Robert Smith (analyst) on the call. Robert Portnoy (play-by-play) and DonTrell Moore (analyst) will broadcast the game on the Lobo Radio Network (770 AM/96.3 FM).
Who's favored: UNM is listed as a 14-point favorite, per DraftKings. The over/under is set at 45 points.
Top storyline(s): One team is right up at the top of the Mountain West, making the preseason hype look completely warranted. The other is way down at the bottom of the league, far and away one of the more disappointing teams in the country.
One team is New Mexico — a program with all of its loftiest goals still intact as it hits the midway point of the season.
The other is Hawaii — a team once expected to contend for a league title now staring down the barrel of a completely lost season.
Jason Eck, of course, isn't interested in giving the Rainbow Warriors an opportunity to start reclaiming it come Saturday.
"They're like a wounded animal," UNM's second-year head coach said Monday. "They say sometimes a wounded animal is (more) dangerous because their backs are against the wall. And I'm sure they're looking at bowl eligibility and that type of thing — we're going to get their best shot."
At 1-5 overall and 0-3 in Mountain West play, Eck believes Hawaii's record is "deceptive" given who it's played. Unlike UNM, the Rainbow Warriors have managed two games and two corresponding losses to Power Four opponents — Stanford and Arizona State — and one against a top team in the league with a 21-6 drubbing at the hands of UNLV (4-2, 2-0).
(Hawaii has also notched a pair of less-desirable losses against Wyoming and San Jose State.)
The Rainbow Warriors play a brand of offense that UNM has struggled against under Eck. Playing schemes similar to Hawaii's run-and-shoot last season, the Lobos had a hard time putting away FCS Idaho State before giving up 480 yards of total offense in a 35-28 loss to San Jose State.
Eck said UNM took a day during spring practice to work on defending both Hawaii and San Jose State's offenses, a chance to apply some of the lessons learned from two of the Lobos' less-than-stellar defensive outings last year.
"We'll definitely have different game plans going into this game than we did last year," he added. "I don't want to give too much away (on) what's different — let them figure that out Saturday. But yeah, I think we'll definitely play them differently than we played those teams last year."
And if nothing else, this is a trip that promises more distractions for players, coaches and team personnel. The beaches. The weather. A veteran of a few Hawaii trips, Eck even called it a "great vacation destination.
"This is not a vacation," he added. "It's a business trip for us, and we gotta take care of our business. That's our focus."
Lobos to watch: With an FBS-leading 275 pass attempts, it's fair to say Hawaii will provide a more substantial test for UNM's secondary than any other team it's played so far. Keep an eye out for how veteran safeties like Austin Brawley and Tavian Combs, cornerbacks like Frankie Edwards III and Ormanie Arnold and the rest of the Lobos' defensive backs hold up against the Rainbow Warriors' passing attack.
"The bread and butter of this run-and-shoot offense is throwing the ball … You gotta eliminate big plays (against Hawaii)," Eck said. "You can't let them get big chunk plays. We want to make them drive the field against you."
Rainbow Warriors to watch: It's been an up-and-down season for quarterback Micah Alejado. The preseason Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year has completed 157 of 265 passes for a league-high 1,613 yards, but with only five touchdowns to four interceptions.
If it hasn't exactly been Alejado's finest stretch, Eck believes the 5-foot-10, 180-pound junior is an "outstanding" player, and presents more than a few challenges for the Lobos.
"That'll be a challenge for our (defensive line) — I think (Alejado) has a very quick release," Eck said. "He gets rid of the ball quick. He doesn't hold the ball … He's very savvy escaping the rush, moving around in the pocket."
What happened the last time these teams played: Well, Alejado certainly remembers.
In his first career start, the freshman completed 37 of 57 passes for 469 yards and five touchdowns to send the Lobos to a 38-30 loss on Nov. 30, 2024 in Honolulu. That loss ended UNM's hopes of snapping an eight-year bowl drought and served as the final game of the short-lived Bronco Mendenhall era.
UNM last won at Hawaii in 2016.
Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at @lenaweereider.
