Story by
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Lobos football opens 2026 season with fall practice, high expectations
- Story byThe Santa Fe New Mexican
- Lobos football opens 2026 season with fall practice, high expectations
ALBUQUERQUE — The University of Akron 's football team recently announced it will give one lucky season ticket holder the chance to script the opening drive in the Zips' first home game Sept. 12 against Robert Morris .
Considering the team hasn't had a winning record in 11 years, it's not the worst idea of all time.
Advertisement
Will the same be true for the University of New Mexico when it hosts Central Michigan one month from now? The Lobos, after all, have hit social media pretty hard the last year or so trying to encourage their fans to get involved.
Don't bet on it.
"Yeah, it's probably like a $20 million donation toward NIL," said Lobos coach Jason Eck, just moments after his team wrapped up the first official day of preseason practice Wednesday morning. "You just gotta buy season tickets [at Akron] and do that. That would be a pretty big NIL donation to do that, but if someone happened to have 20 million lying around and wanted to do that, we could work something out."
And with that, the most unprecedented season in the history of Lobo football is officially underway. Never before has the program set sail under such lofty expectations unheard of around these parts.
Advertisement
The team won nine games last season, going undefeated at home and walking off with a share of the Mountain West Conference regular-season title. The Lobos accepted a Christmastime bid to the Rate Bowl in Phoenix, where they pushed the Big Ten's Minnesota Golden Gophers into overtime before taking a loss while making believers out of doubters of all kinds.
If you can win at New Mexico, some said, you can win anywhere. With Eck retained for another year under a justified contract extension (and raise), fans hope the momentum of 2025 will carry forward over the coming months.
Fourteen starters return from last year's roster. They're joined by a slew of experienced newcomers cobbled together from the 2025 depth chart or acquired from other teams via the transfer portal.
What's here is a mix of size, talent and potential that has a team that could barely pull 15,000 fans to the stadium two years ago into one that's the talk of a basketball-crazed state.
Advertisement
With national observers pointing the spotlight in UNM's direction, some say the Lobos have just as good a chance as anyone to not only win the restructured Mountain West but make a run for the (gulp) College Football Playoff.
All it would take is an 11-1 or better regular season, a win in the conference title game and a respectable showing against mighty Oklahoma in the third game on the schedule.
"Yeah, no pressure right?" said incumbent starting quarterback Jack Layne. "I think last year everything was so new, and there were a lot of unanswered questions about who we were, but a lot of us have been here a while, and the belief from a lot of people is we can do some good things here."
No one has a bigger question mark over his head than Layne. He arrived on campus last season, a transfer from Idaho who tagged along when Eck left that program for the perpetual rebuilding project that is UNM. Layne was coming off an injury in his throwing arm when he got here.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, that same arm kept him out of practice. But like last year when he missed valuable preseason time, he filled the idle moments by dressing in full game gear and miming the plays as he stood a few yards behind the offensive backfield. As the players lined up for the snap, he assumed the typical quarterback posture and mirrored the motion of the QB who was actually running the play.
"It has always been my way of staying ready, of learning the timing of the plays and doing whatever I need to do to stay sharp," Layne said. "But, yeah, my arm isn't where I want it to be. I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been a struggle."
Five other quarterbacks dot the roster, led by Oregon transfer Luke Moga and last year's celebrated backup, James Laubstein. Moga looked sharp in several full-speed drills, threading passes into traffic and buying extra time when he needed.
After practice, the team escaped the rising heat outside and settled inside the indoor practice facility for a few minutes. At one end of the building was an easel with a whiteboard showing all the interview requests from the assembled media. At the bottom was a large, outlined number: 31.
Advertisement
That's how many days were left between Wednesday and the Sept. 5 season opener against Central Michigan. Thirty-one days to fine-tune a machine whose assembled parts hold the promise and pressure of living up to expectations that seem otherworldly to an ordinary Lobos fan.
"I think the feeling I get with this team is we're ready to get to work, to get out there and prove something," said linebacker Jaxton Eck, the reigning Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year — and the preseason pick to do the same this fall. "It's all about putting together the right people at the right time, getting people who set the example in everything we do. The leaders on the team, the coaches who coach us; we're in this. We're ready."
