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Reider: 3 final takeaways from New Mexico's comeback at Hawaii

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Three final thoughts from New Mexico’s 21-10 comeback win Saturday at Hawaii:

1. Uncomfortable as it was, that might’ve been what the Lobos needed

All teams face adversity at some point, in some way. Sometimes it’s self-inflicted. Sometimes it’s due to circumstances out of their control.

In UNM’s case, it was all of the above — and then some — against Hawaii.

To the latter category, the Lobos missed a pair of defensive starters in linebacker Jaxton Eck (shoulder) and cornerback Frankie Edwards III (concussion). Then, in the second quarter, backup quarterback James Laubstein came in for one snap, picked up 12 yards on a designed run up the middle and went down with an undisclosed injury.

As the sixth-year player was carted off the field, Laubstein was seen shouting at his teammates — “Let’s go,” he yelled more than a few times — before returning to the sidelines with a leg brace and crutches.

“Could be maybe his last play of football,” coach Jason Eck said, “and he’s not feeling sorry for himself. He’s encouraging his teammates and trying to motivate those guys. He’s a winner.”

Apologies for the bad video.

Before Laubstein was carted off, he repeatedly screamed “LET’S GO” at the rest of the team. https://t.co/OqT7SdgWQA pic.twitter.com/xqzhB42EwL

— Sean Reider (@lenaweereider) October 18, 2026

To the former category, well, the first half tells the story.

The Lobos were whistled for 12 of their 16 total penalties over the first two quarters, a ghastly start for a team that hasn’t had a real issue in that department. Quarterback Toa Fa’avae turned it over twice, throwing a pick to Jeremiah Hughes and losing a fumble at midfield. And if you take out the final play of the half, UNM gained just 108 total yards on four drives, averaging 4.5 plays.

As the Lobos’ second-year coach held court in the visiting locker room at halftime, it’s not a stretch to think Eck probably sprinkled a colorfully-worded let’s go or two into a message he’s leaned on a few times during his UNM tenure.

“I said, ‘This is good for us because we gotta see if we have the championship mettle to respond,’” Eck said. “I talked about it — it was more the Lobos beating the Lobos than the (Rainbow Warriors) beating the Lobos.

“ … I thought the players really listened and responded the right way.”

Now, was UNM’s 21-point second half a masterpiece? No. After all, the Lobos very well could have been down 17-7 in the fourth quarter if safety Drew Speech didn't punch the ball out of quarterback Micah Alejado’s hands at the goal line.

But was that a meaningful response to some adversity that — with the exception of a 14-6 loss at Oklahoma — UNM really hadn’t faced this year? Yes. And the Lobos will probably be better off for going through what they did Saturday.

Then again, they’ll only be able to reap those benefits by playing much better than they did at Hawaii.

“Sometimes you gotta win games where you don’t play your absolute best,” Eck said. “That’s what championship teams do.”

2. Thanks to UNM’s defense, Fa’avae was able to take a mulligan. Whether he can repay them remains a question

Fa’avae’s final line from Saturday: 5-for-10 passing, 59 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions with 77 rushing yards to boot. He also lost a fumble in the first quarter before ripping off the go-ahead score in the fourth, a positive end to a game that was more of a struggle for UNM’s second-year quarterback than anybody reasonably expected.

How concerning should that be? I’ll contend that, in general, progress is rarely linear — and that’s especially true with the development of young QBs. That Fa’avae was going up against a capable, aggressive defense — one that has now held five of its first seven opponents to fewer than 30 points — shouldn’t be ignored, either.

If his performance against Hawaii wasn’t even close to as encouraging as what he did against UTEP, I’m not sure it was concerning enough — although it got close — to make me think the Lobos need to go back to the drawing board under center.

“I thought we put him in some tough situations,” Eck admitted. “We gotta be careful. They were (running) a lot of drop eight (coverages) on third down, and some of it was like, drop eight and they were spying him. It was thick coverage.”

All that can be true while acknowledging UNM needs Fa’avae to be better — again, especially as a passer. It’s also a major credit to the Lobos’ defense that he was able to take a mulligan and learn from those mistakes.

But after Saturday, whether Fa’avae’s able to return the favor and help carry UNM’s defense when they don’t have their best outing remains a question. Even with how good the Lobos have been on that side of the ball, it still feels like a test he’ll have to pass at some point.

3. Defensively, UNM got a different result by not doing anything too different

Last season, run-and-shoot variant offenses from the likes of San Jose State and Idaho State gave UNM’s otherwise strong defense some real fits. And with that in mind, Eck indicated that there would be a different approach against Hawaii, the closest thing to a proper run-and-shoot in all of college football.

That approach? Instead of overadjusting to what Hawaii was doing, the Lobos played much more true to themselves and base principles.

No surprise: it worked. And in doing so, UNM can now lay claim to the best scoring defense (10.5 points allowed per game) in the country.

“We played more like who we are on defense,” Eck said, “where last year, I think we adjusted our base defense a lot.”

Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at @lenaweereider.