RENO, Nev. (AP) — New Mexico coach Jason Eck admitted the No. 22 Lobos' 31-3 victory over Nevada and coach Jeff Choate felt extra sweet.
When Choate took the head job at Montana State in 2016, one of his first moves was assembling a new staff that did not include Eck.
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“I kind of tease (Choate) that the best thing that ever happened to me was him firing me,” Eck said. “That led me to South Dakota State and that was a good thing. ... I didn’t work for him, he was new, and I get that now, probably more that I am a head coach. You want your own (coaches) in there and stuff, but it makes it probably a little sweeter, no question.”
Toa Fa’avae led two first-quarter touchdown drives, Brett Karhu forced a fumble on a sack to set up a score and New Mexico (8-1, 5-0 Mountain West) won in the first game in the AP poll in school history.
“When I hit him, I didn’t even know the ball came out,” Karhu said. “Defense wins championship. I feel like we have the best defense in the conference, maybe even the country. If you’re looking for a team that’s going to compete no matter what, I think defense is definitely the metric you want to look at.”
Fa’avae was 14 of 20 for 150 yards and a touchdown and ran for 34 yards on eight carries. Scottre Humphrey had 17 carries for 107 yards and two touchdowns.
New Mexico held Nevada (3-6, 2-3) to minus-9 yards rushing, forcing 10 punts. Nevada’s average starting field position was its 21.
Humphrey capped New Mexico’s opening drive with a 2-yard run and followed Darren Agu’s third-quarter fumble recovery at the 5 with a 1-yard scoring run. Kiefer Sibley had a 31-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.
Fa’avae threw a 25-yard TD pass to tight end Cade Keith early in the fourth quarter. Nick Romero finished the scoring with a 37-yard field goal.
AJ Bianco completed 14 of 31 passes for 106 yards for Nevada. He lost the fumble on Karhu’s sack.
Nevada scored on Jacob Fernandez’s 32-yard field goal in the final minute of the first half.
With three regular-season games remaining, New Mexico inches closer to a potential playoff berth, but has an uphill battle down the stretch as a G6 team competing with the likes of No. 20 Boise State. “That’s something we can’t control the outcome,” Eck said. “We can control our outcome of winning the conference title. ... Playing well, especially in these national TV games that are late, there’s probably some voters from the selection committee watching from their couches. They saw a really good football team tonight.”
New Mexico: Hosts UNLV on Saturday, Nov. 14.
Nevada: At Northern Illinois on Saturday, Nov. 14.
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