Sneak peek: New Mexico
AUBURN | Year two of the Hugh Freeze era gets underway with five consecutive home game before spending the entire month of October on the road.
The schedule includes big home matchups against Oklahoma and Texas A&M, and road contests at Georgia and Alabama.
Today, we continue an early look at Auburn’s 2024 schedule with a matchup against a non-conference foe from the Land of Enchantment.
WHO: New Mexico (4-8 last season, 2-4 Mountain West)
WHEN: Sept. 14, 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2 or ESPNU
WHERE: Jordan-Hare Stadium (88,043)
SERIES: First meeting
WHAT’S NEW: Danny Gonzales was fired after going 11-32 over the past four seasons and replaced by veteran Bronco Mendenhall, who was the head coach at Virginia from 2016-21 and BYU from 2005-15. Mendenhall served as defensive coordinator for the Lobos from 1998-2002. He brought in a young and entirely new staff of assistant coaches to revitalize a program that has had just two winning seasons in the last 16 years.
New Mexico added nine offensive linemen from the portal after losing all five starters from last season including Jawaun Singletary from Georgia. They also signed six defensive linemen to shore up another area of weakness including De’jon Benton from USC and former Auburn walk-on Garrison Walker.
WHO TO WATCH, OFFENSE: After serving as the backup last season, sophomore Devon Dampier is expected to step in as the starting quarterback. In nine games last season, he completed 40 of 64 passes for 525 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions. He’s also a big threat on the ground, rushing for 328 yards and four touchdowns on 59 carries last fall.
WHO TO WATCH, DEFENSE: Junior safety Tavian Combs is projected as one of the top defensive backs in the Mountain West. He returned from a knee injury to total 46 tackles, 3.0 tackles-for-loss, one pass breakup and one forced fumble in just five games last fall.
OUTLOOK: Mendenhall inherited a rebuilding job at UNM and it’s going to take him more than a year to make the Lobos competitive. UNM lost 52-10 at Texas A&M to open last season and a similar outcome at Auburn in Week 3 can be expected. This is an important game for the Tigers to solve any position or player issues going into a string of six conference games over the next seven weeks.
MORE SNEAK PEEKS:
Aug. 31 ALABAMA A&M
Sept. 7 CALIFORNIA