Seven takeaways, observations and notes from New Mexico's big win over Hawaii

Oct. 22—Seven takeaways, observations and thoughts from New Mexico's 42-21 win over Hawaii on Saturday:

The complete game

Even through the walls, UNM's locker room after a 42-21 win over Hawaii was loud. There were cheers, chants, music. A raucous celebration of a win nearly two years in the making.

The door swung open.

"YEAH! YEAH!" somebody yelled — crystal clear, without the muffle of the locker room walls.

A group of media waiting for post game press conferences turned to see offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent walking out of the locker room. Vincent turned to see that a group of media had just heard his celebration.

He put his hand over his mouth briefly, as if to say: whoops. He made his point, though.

That felt good.

A week after New Mexico's second-half struggles in a 52-24 loss to San Jose State left that same locker room stunned, the Lobos opened with four straight scoring drives to take a 28-14 lead over Hawaii at halftime.

Then, an offense that has struggled mightily in the third quarter capped a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jeremiah Hixon to start the second half. Score: UNM 35, Hawaii 14.

"I mean, that was such a good feeling compared to games in the past," quarterback Dylan Hopkins said of that opening possession. "We've been so bad in the second half and just kind of beating ourselves at times, too. In the first half, we've done a really, really good job on both sides of the ball.

"This was finally the complete game."

When asked about second-half struggles against the likes of UMass, Wyoming and San Jose State, Vincent and Hopkins would downplay what other teams were doing. It was on them, they'd say, to clean up mistakes and above all, execute when they needed to.

On Saturday, with a two-touchdown lead, and a couple ignominious streaks on the line, they did. Hawaii outgained UNM 220-168 in the second half (largely because of a last-minute 87-yard scoring drive) but the offense took hold when they needed to.

Hence Vincent's celebration.

"We know what we can do," Hopkins said. "And if we can play like that every game, we'll be in really good shape."

After the Hawaii win, UNM is 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the Mountain West.

Dolla, Dolla Bill y'all

Among the other scenes from Saturday night: running back Andrew Henry was in full pads and ready to walk away from a postgame press conference with his two little brothers when head coach Danny Gonzales stopped him. They'd waited long enough to do it. Might as well show it off now.

"Go ahead and turn around," Gonzales said. "Show 'em now."

Henry laughed and pulled up his jersey. "Lemme step right here for y'all," he said, turning around to reveal a $1 bill taped to his backplate.

His nickname is "Dolla," after all.

"I got in trouble for that," Gonzales said after. "That came from the league office — we gotta keep it covered (during games). But that's pretty cool."

Trouble or not, there were more than a few reasons to show off Henry's backplate. The University of Louisiana-Monroe transfer rushed for 112 yards on 13 carries with one touchdown and three receptions for 27 yards to boot, finally looking like the running back he was when he first arrived in Albuquerque this spring.

He cut well, made defenders miss. There were no signs of the high ankle sprain that had largely held him out of games as he burst up the edge for a 33-yard touchdown — the first of his Lobo career.

And now, the backfield tandem of Henry and Jacory Croskey-Merritt that was enticing in the preseason looks like it'll be a reliable option going forward.

"Me and Bill (Croskey-Merritt's nickname), us coming together is the biggest blessing I have," Henry said. "When I break a run in practice, he breaks a run. If I'm lifting weights, he's trying to lift more than me and I'm trying to lift more than him.

"Having a teammate like him is one of the biggest blessings I have. It just makes me become a better version of myself."

Off nicknames alone, that'd be "Dolla" and "Bill" — maybe not always in that order.

Praise for Vigil

Henry wasn't the only running back to have a career night. Running back Zach Vigil rotated in and out of Saturday's win, more than doubling his career yardage with four carries for 16 yards and two receptions for 11.

They weren't gaudy numbers for the Rio Rancho High School product, consistently regarded as one of UNM's best pass blockers, but Gonzales was happy to talk about how proud he was of Vigil and how he's performed in a year where UNM almost redshirted him.

"He shows up every day with the right attitude," he said. "(He) lost his stepmom about four weeks ago and battled through that — nobody would ever know that the young man was going through something personal. He deserved all the carries he got tonight and all the accolades.

"He's a tough guy and he played on special teams and he ran down on kickoff ... I mean, he's a team guy. We got a bunch of team guys in there. And I'm really proud of that."

Defense in disguise

Hawaii is a run and shoot team. But when you're throwing the ball at a higher rate than any other team in the country, and running it at a lower rate than any other team in the country, opposing teams will look to stop the shoot first and foremost.

So, with that in mind, UNM's stated game plan was to put pressure on quarterback Brayden Schager, try to make him get rid of the ball under duress and take care of business on the back end.

How UNM went about executing that plan is worth recognition, though. Hawaii was coming off a 41-34 loss to San Diego State, another team that runs the 3-3-5 albeit with their own unique wrinkles. Gonzales knew this and said they wanted to give Hawaii something different — throw them a curveball and see how they'd react.

On Hawaii's first possession and throughout the first half, UNM lined up far outside of their base defense with two defensive linemen outside the tackles' shoulder on each side.

"And nothing else inside," Gonzales said. "We were inviting them to run the ball. They tried to run — they got two yards. So obviously it wasn't what they practiced (for) all week because we'd never shown that."

Those adjustments played well in the first half. Hawaii notched its first score off a tipped ball to wide receiver Steven McBride before finding a rhythm with a 10 play, 75-yard scoring drive to close the second half. In the second half, UNM shifted back to their base scheme, playing "cat and mouse" as Gonzales said, to try to see what adjustments Hawaii would make.

The change in scheme provided a little bit of a breather for regular starter Tyler Kiehne and Avery Burt coming off the bench, two defensive linemen asked to do more than what they usually do to disguise pressures.

"Those guys didn't realize how tiring it was to run around as much as they (did)," Gonzales said. "They're used to being in a three-point stance, slanting back and forth. They have to go up against 300-pound bodies every day.

"Well, now they're running into them and they're having to move around off the ball. I mean, in practice, I had to settle them down the other day."

As Gonzales told it, some defensive linemen wanted to take after the Kansas City Chiefs with a pre-snap "Ring Around the Rosie." He shut it down almost immediately.

"I'm like, 'guys, that ain't a disguise,'" Gonzales said. "'Stop that. I mean, let's just chill out and go get the quarterback.'"

Moore playing time

Gonzales has a saying about true freshmen: The more of them you play, the more you're going to lose. It's an idea that's colored a lot of answers about a lot of players this season, but few more than safety Dereck Moore and whether his role would grow in an already young secondary.

On Saturday, Gonzales ditched the saying for one word to describe Moore's performance against Hawaii.

"Unbelievable," he said. "For a true freshman to come in, who hasn't played, to not panic ... I mean, he had a great week of preparation. I thought (safety Tavian Combs) did a good job in preparing Dereck. But give Dereck credit, because it's hard for true freshmen to play that position.

"Obviously A.J. Haulcy did it last year and played well, so we've recruited that position well. But Dereck Moore played like a stud tonight."

Starting in place of Combs, Moore went from having just one career snap to issuing the best performance of his career, tying with Jermarius Lewis for a team-high seven tackles. UNM notably kept Moore out of the pass rush across 67 snaps and he held up his end of the bargain in coverage, allowing just two receptions for eight yards.

In other words, not something you'd expect out of a true freshman.

"There's a lot of times that a starting quarterback gets hurt and the backup comes in and he frickin' lights it up and tears it up," Gonzales said. "And then he starts the (next) week and lays an egg because all of a sudden, guys have had to prepare for you — it's a little different scenario (then). There's gonna be a lotta pressure on Dereck Moore if Tavian ain't fully healthy next week to not lay that egg."

Injury report

Gonzales is usually straightforward about injuries, so it was a little surprising when he backed out of an answer regarding linebacker Syaire Riley's unexpected absence.

"I don't really wanna talk about it, because it'll give other people an advantage," he said. "But Sy wasn't able to play. And so, the idea is that he'll be back next week. But it was (an injury) Thursday on a non-padded practice."

If Riley's good to go for next week's trip to Nevada, then UNM might not have anything to worry about. If not, then UNM will be rolling with a linebacker corps comprised of a decidedly banged up Alec Marenco, a reliable Dimitri Johnson, Ja'Shon Lowery, no Ray Leutele and likely missing Milhalis Santorineo for the first half after he was ejected for targeting on Saturday.

As for the other absences, Gonzales said Combs reaggravated the knee and ankle injuries that he's battled since Texas A&M and "didn't look good enough" after attempting to practice on Thursday. And a week after cornerback Marvin Covington made a mark in Donte Martin's absence, he missed Saturday's game due to a concussion.

Skids stopped

It's over now. But did players think about UNM's 14-game Mountain West losing streak? Henry said he didn't really know about it while Hopkins and safety Jermarius Lewis — the defense's star of the night — admitted they did.

"I was like, 'dang man, I hadn't got a Mountain West win since I've been here,'" Lewis said. "'We gotta change that.' And so coming into this week, we was just focused on one game at a time, one game at a time."

Were you aware that UNM hadn't won a home conference game since Sept. 30, 2017?

Lewis' eyes widened at the thought — he would've been in the eighth grade at the time. "I did not know about that," he said. That is the first time I've heard about that.

"But hey, I'm glad we got it done tonight."