BYU Football: Cougars Play Final Mountain West Home Game This Week

Saturday’s game against the New Mexico Lobos will mark the final Mountain West Conference game to ever be played in LaVell Edwards Stadium.

BYU fans are ecstatic that it will also be the final football game that The Mnt./Versus/CBSCS will ever broadcast from Provo.

BYU becomes a football independent next year and begins an eight-year television marriage with ESPN.

In the interim though, the Cougars have some unfinished business to take care of, mainly winning its final two conference games and getting to a bowl for a sixth consecutive season.

Despite their many difficulties in 2010, these rebuilding Cougars (5-5, 4-2) have battled back from a disastrous start to the season and are now in a position to qualify for a bowl with a win over the lowly Lobos.

A win Saturday could also put the Cougars in position to play for second place in the conference the following week at Utah, something that few connected to Cougar nation would have thought possible just a few weeks ago.

The Lobos come into Provo this weekend with quite possibly the worst team in the FBS. Their embattled head coach Mike Locksley may well be gone at season’s end after winning just two games in his two years as coach.

Defensively, this team won’t ever be confused with Rocky Long’s Lobos. The folks in Albuquerque now realize how very good Rocky was as a coach.

New Mexico is 118th in the nation in total defense and 119th in scoring defense giving up 42.6 points per game. They are 113th in pass efficiency defense and 120th—or dead last—in defending the run.

Things aren’t any better on the offensive side of the ball either. The Lobos are 116th in total offense, 115th in scoring, 104th in rushing, 114th in pass efficiency and 98th in passing offense.

Now you know why UNM is just 1-9 on the year and has consistently been ranked in Mark Schlabach’s ESPN Bottom Ten, checking in at No. 4 this week.

A couple of bright spots for the Lobos’ offense though the past couple of weeks has been the play of true freshman quarterback Stump Godfrey and sophomore running back Kasey Carrier.

Godfrey is the fourth quarterback to start for Locksley this year and the second true freshman. He led New Mexico to a win over Wyoming in Albuquerque two weeks ago, then helped the Lobos score 23 points in a loss at Air Force last week.

In those two games Stump is 31 for 44 for 310 yards passing with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He has also rushed for 110 yards.

Meanwhile Carrier has carried the ball 27 times for 176 yards and two touchdowns. He is averaging 6.5 yards per carry in the last two games.

However, given the Cougars’ resurrection from the dead in recent weeks, a loss to the Lobos would be a significant upset, something you couldn’t have said a month ago.

Looking at where these two teams currently stand, there just isn’t any real way you can say that the Lobos have a legitimate shot in this contest.

Even with its uptick in offense in the past couple of weeks, it’s tough to see New Mexico being able to sustain many drives against Mendenhall’s current Band of Brothers Defense, and the way the offense has gotten into its groove, it's entirely plausible that the Cougar could hang 50-plus on what is the worst defense in college football.

Unless the Cougars turn the ball over several times, this game should follow the same course as BYU’s last two games against Mountain West bottom feeders—a blowout that will be decided before halftime.

It should be a fitting way for the folks in Provo to bid goodbye to the Mountain West Conference as well.

Prediction: BYU 52, New Mexico 10

Injury Notes

With the season-ending injury to nose tackle Jordan Richardson (knee), the Cougars are razor thin at the nose with Fuga and Richardson gone for the year.

Eathyn Manumaleuna will move over to NT, a position he has filled in for this year and played prior to his mission. Bronco Mendenhall said that walk on Simote Vea (5 for 11, 243 Jr.) will be the likely back up to Manumaleuna.

Moving Eathyn from defensive end means true freshman Graham Rowley will see more action there. Bronco said this week that Rowley will be cross trained at the nose as well.

Meanwhile linebacker Jordan Pendleton (knee) is still trying to comeback from his injury, but it seems unlikely that he will see any major playing time against the Lobos. Expect to see him try to get healthy for the showdown at Utah.

Unfortunately for safety Steven Thomas, his career is now over. He sustained a concussion earlier in the season and has decided to quit football for health reasons.