Philadelphia, PA (Best E Casino) - 2007 SEASON IN REVIEW: Head coach Rocky Long began his tenure at New Mexico by upgrading the team's final results in each of his first six seasons, going from just 3-9 in 1998 to 8-5 in 2003. But with that second trip to the Las Vegas Bowl, the Lobos seemed to hit a ceiling and subsequently stumbled both in 2005 and 2006.

Last season it appeared to be more of the same when UNM opened the first of September with a disappointing 10-6 setback to UTEP on the road. The slip-up was only momentary however, as the Lobos ripped off six wins in the next seven outings, with the lone defeat coming at the hands of the eventual Mountain West Conference champion BYU Cougars (31-24). At 6-2 overall and 3-1 in league play, the Lobos appeared to be cruising along but then a trip to Fort Worth disrupted the happy days with a demoralizing 37-0 loss versus the Horned Frogs of TCU. There was one more defeat still to come, this one a 28-10 decision against Utah in Salt Lake City, yet that still came in between victories over Colorado State and UNLV, which earned the team a place in the New Mexico Bowl for the second straight year. The 23-0 win over the Nevada Wolf Pack was huge on many levels for the Lobos because it not only ended a 46-year bowl victory drought, the team's first postseason triumph since the 1961 Aviation Bowl in which it defeated Western Michigan by a score of 28-12, it also marked the first time since 1980, a span of 329 games, that an opponent had figured out how to shut out a Nevada team.

Thanks to five games during the season in which New Mexico held opponents to a touchdown or less, the team ranked not only fourth in the MWC in terms of scoring defense with just 19.0 ppg allowed, but also tied for 14th in the nation and was 13th in the country in overall defense with 319.9 ypg given up.

2008 ANALYSIS:

OFFENSE: Take away the 44-point effort against rival New Mexico State and the crushing 58-point win against Sacramento State and the offense for the Lobos in 2007 wasn't all that impressive. In fact, the squad ranked seventh in the conference and 79th in the nation in scoring offense with less than 25 ppg, which is something returning quarterback Donovan Porterie will have a tough time improving upon after losing his top two deep threats in Marcus Smith and Travis Brown who combined for 167 receptions, 2,156 yards and 10 of the unit's 16 aerial scores. Porterie's growth and health is paramount when it comes to this team's success because none of the players behind him have ever stood under center at the college level.

The top returning receiver for UNM is junior wideout Roland Bruno, a former walk-on who collected 21 balls for 186 yards in 2007. Throw Chris Hernandez and Jermaine McQueen into the mix and there's quite a bit of talent to look towards. Despite losing Brown and Smith, Porterie doesn't seem all that worried about the action downfield.

"We have a lot of six and seven receiver rotations this year...I have high expectations of all those guys and those guys know what's at stake right now."

Perhaps the most important component of the offense for the Lobos is senior running back Rodney Ferguson who was a preseason all-conference pick. The owner of back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons, Ferguson is anxious to get back on track after being left out of the New Mexico Bowl victory because he was academically ineligible. Expect that to be motivation enough for Ferguson to pick up the pace in this his final season.

DEFENSE: Tyler Donaldson (15.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks) and Michael Tuohy (14.0 TFLs, six sacks) were the two guys that the Lobos looked to for an impact as far as disrupting opponents at the line of scrimmage in 2007, but those two are gone and the New Mexico defense will have to adjust accordingly.

"We alternate usually 22 guys on defense," coach Long said about the unit when referring to last season, but it might be hard to replicate such shifting and scheming this year. "We probably don't have that kind of depth this year at linebacker so if he (Zach Arnett) plays the entire game he'll lead this league in tackles." Arnett, now a senior, isn't even listed as a returning starter for the Lobos, yet he has to live up to the expectations of coach Long who has seen plenty of promise from a player who placed fourth in tackles overall.

Because of Donaldson and Tuohy last season this unit was ranked second in the MWC and 13th in the country in terms of total defense with 319.9 ypg allowed and 14th in scoring defense (19 ppg), numbers that will be extremely hard to duplicate.

Coach Long sees the promise in his defensive backs stating, "We probably have three or four really good players in the secondary. DeAndre Wright, Glover Quin, Ian Clark and Clint McPeek so we think we'll have a strong secondary, but we have a lot of young guys in every other position." Wright is a First Team All-MWC pick from a year ago when he led the team with 12 passes defended and four picks.

SPECIAL TEAMS: More than just a strong defender in man coverage, Wright also led the Mountain West in kickoff returns in 2006 with an average of almost 26 yards per opportunity and has been counted on for better than 23 yards per return his career. As far as the kicking game is concerned, the Lobos have been extremely spoiled recently with John Sullivan who was not only a First Team All-MWC pick but also an All-American. The team has done well to pick diamonds in the rough and push them into action, which means the pressure on both James Aho and Drew Zamora, just freshmen, is still rather heavy. The punting duties will also have a new face after the departure of Jordan Scott, yet another all-conference kicker for New Mexico. Now a junior, it appears as Adam Miller will earn the job there, despite needing to work on his consistency.

OUTLOOK: Now that the Lobos know what it's like to taste victory in the postseason, the squad should be well aware of just what it takes to make it to a bowl game yet again. The squad jumps out with a conference matchup against TCU right out of the chute, and while the team's first three games are at home in 2008, the second and third outings come against non-conference powers Texas A&M and Arizona. Playing back-to-back road tests versus Tulsa and New Mexico State to close out the month of September will be no treat and neither will trips to BYU and Air Force the following month. However, the Lobos do have the advantage of playing both UNLV and Colorado State the last two weeks of the season, which the team will use to improve its postseason status in all likelihood.