Michigan Wolverines football will look to kill the belief of New Mexico early in Saturday night’s season opener in Ann Arbor, while the Lobos will hope to hang around and make things tight.
A former Wisconsin offensive linemanand staff member, New Mexico head coach Jason Eck knows what to expect from Michigan Stadium and its atmosphere.
The former Idaho head coach (2022-24) also fared well playing up in competition in the past, with his Vandals having takken down Wyoming in 2024 and Nevada in 2023, and losing by only 10 points, 24-14, at Oregon to open last season. Idaho trailed by only three points with less than six minutes remaining in Eugene a year ago. Many of his players were with the team at the time of the loss to the Ducks, including starting quarterback Jack Layne, so the group will come in with conviction.
“The team is excited to play,” Eck said of the Lobos. “Training camp is long these days, and when you get a great opportunity to play a really good team and test ourselves against one of the best teams in the country, players are very excited to play.
“This is a historic stadium to play in. I was lucky to be there a couple of times when I was at Wisconsin as a player and graduate assistant. Great atmosphere for football. Night game, national TV. We’re going to be excited to play and ready to go.
“… We have to focus on the 11 guys on the field. They have a great crowd — 107, 110,000. They have great tradition. Tom Brady’s not playing on Saturday. We have to play the 11 guys that are out there and deal with that. It’s a little bit like the movie Hoosiers. Maybe we have to measure the goalpost like the coach did in Hoosiers [with the rim].”
Playing Michigan will be a big challenge. The Wolverines are ranked No. 14 in both major polls entering the season, and they’ve won the Big Ten three of the last four years.
“They’re a physical, well-coached team,” Eck said of the Maize and Blue. “They were very low penalized last year, which means they have good technique and are well-coached.
“Very physical front seven. Their front seven really impresses me. [Seniors Jaishawn] Barham and [Ernest] Hausmann, their two inside linebackers, are great players. [Senior EDGE] Derrick Moore is a great player, the defensive end. They lost some guys in the D-line room, but they still have a lot of good players that are left. [Graduate defensive tackle Rayshaun] Benny is good. [Graduate defensive tackle Damon] Payne, the Alabama transfer, is good. TJ Guy is good.
“And then on offense, they return three starters on the O-line. They have a good back returning, plus they picked up the Alabama transfer, who’s a good player. And they got the No. 1 recruit in the country at quarterback. They’re a very good team. Their kicker is a great player. He’s an All-American and first-team All-Big Ten. So, definitely a good test for us in the opening game to play such a good team.”
The No. 1 recruit Eck referenced is freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood, of course. He had the highest acclaim out of high school, but this is his debut in college. Eck was asked if the Lobos can exploit that.
“Obviously, that’s quite the investment they made,” Eck said, responding to a reporter who speculated that Michigan is going to pay Underwood over $12 million. “That’s probably more than all of our players, myself and all of our assistant coaches together, when you talk about $12 million.
“He’s a very good player. Obviously, you never know … some young ones are pretty good. [Former NBA star] Michael Jordan and [Los Angeles Lakers forward] LeBron James were pretty damn good when they were 18 years old, so I definitely don’t want to take him lightly.
“Last year, I coached against [Oregon quarterback] Dillon Gabriel, who was like a fifth-year senior and had started 50 games. So, I’d probably rather play a guy in his first start versus a guy who’s started 50 games, but we certainly can’t take this guy lightly.
“They’re paying him all that money for a reason. He was the No. 1 player in the country for a reason, and we better be ready to go against him. He’ll be motivated to prove them right that they gave him all that money for good reason.”
Eck said he’s stressing with his players to focus on what “you can control” while playing in an environment like the one that’ll be presented Saturday at Michigan Stadium. There will be times, he added as an example, that the Lobos lose one-on-one battles, but they have to “just keep battling.”
The 47-year-old Eck believes his Lobos don’t have the pressure on them this weekend.
“We have nothing to lose,” he said. “We’re not going to disappoint anybody’s picks if we lose this game. Everyone’s picking against us, so I really do think we have no pressure in this game. Go play loose and free, and execute. We shouldn’t have nerves that way. None of our goals can be taken away for this season on Saturday. This has nothing to do with conference play or going to a bowl game and things like that. It’s all upside possibilities.
“It’s a longshot. If we play this game a million times in a computer, they’d win a lot more than us, but that’s not how football works. It’s one game, one day.”