A UNM-Nevada Preview

This is David - I'm finally back. Things have been rather hectic, personally. I came down with a rather nasty cold, and it's taken me a bit to get back to full strength.

First, some good news: New Mexico's top two running backs are out, according to the RGJ. Meanwhile, on ESPN, Pat Forde is also predicting a victory for us. Even Herbstreit is going with us.

You know something? We should win. Let's do a comparison, shall we?

Offense

Quarterbacks
We have Kaepernick, who is fifth in the nation in pass efficiency but is a freshman. New Mexico, meanwhile, will bring in Donovan Porterie, a decent sophomore pocket quarterback with fewer touchdowns despite playing four more games. Did I mention that Colin is the second-leading rusher on the team? Advantage: Nevada

Running Backs
We have Luke. They're down to their third string. Oh, and our QB can run, too. It's okay, though - New Mexico only averaged 3.3 yards/carry anyways. Advantage: Nevada

Receivers
New Mexico has one receiver with five touchdowns, and he leads the team in that statistic. For Nevada, we have Marko Mitchell and Adam Bishop (included in this category for simplicity sake), who, put together, have put in three times that many. Meanwhile, 71% of New Mexico's reception yards belong to the aforementioned Travis Brown and Travis Smith. Conversely, 72% of Nevada's reception yards come from our three receivers, and one of them isn't Adam Bishop. Advantage: Nevada

Overall Offense Advantage: Nevada... and it's not even close.

Defense

This is where things get ugly. They get almost double the interceptions than we do. They also are able to keep opponents down a solid ten points fewer per game than we do. Advantage: New Mexico

Special Teams

If you're a Nevada fan, you know ours are weak. I have good news, though - they've never scored a touchdown on a punt or kickoff return. The bad news is they haven't allowed any, either, which doesn't matter too much since we've never had a kickoff return for more than fifty yards. Oh, their kicker is more accurate and their punt kicker averages two more yards per kick. No matter how you slice it, special teams is a major weak point on this team - then again, when your head coach thinks "special teams" is synonymous with "walk-ons", well, you kind of have to expect that. Advantage: New Mexico

Final Analysis

If New Mexico had a running game, I'd say they were going to win this. Since both of New Mexico's running backs are out, their quarterback is a vanilla pocket passer, and they only have two receivers that they throw to, I think even Ault can think up of a defensive game plan that will keep them from making any progress on that front. Meanwhile, we have a potent running game that, if Ault uses his head, can definitely chew up some clock, wear their defense out, and keep our special teams off the field. In short, which will score points faster - our offense, or their special teams? Right. By the way, did I mention that the invincible San Jose Spartans beat them in last year's New Mexico Bowl? Final Score: Nevada 30, New Mexico 15