LAS VEGAS — Jack Layne remembers what New Mexico’s rise felt like before the rest of the Mountain West began expecting it. The Lobos entered last season with a new coach, a reconstructed roster and little evidence that one offseason could erase years of losing. They finished it with nine victories, a share of the Mountain West regular-season title and their first bowl appearance since 2016.
Their victory at UNLV became one of the clearest signs that the transformation was real. Layne threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns inside Allegiant Stadium as New Mexico defeated one of the conference’s established contenders, 40-35. The victory made the Lobos bowl eligible and moved them deeper into a championship race few outside the program expected them to enter so quickly.
“Last year’s game was cinema,” Layne told The Scarlet Standard during an appearance on Rebel Daily Drive at Mountain West Football Media Days. “That was really fun. Probably one of the greatest experiences I’ve had. Great environment, great atmosphere, great team, and it’s going to be another battle this year.”
New Mexico will not receive the same opportunity to surprise anyone in 2026. Jason Eck’s first season established that the Lobos could rise quickly, and the second will determine whether the structure behind that rise is strong enough to withstand higher expectations, another wave of roster movement and a conference that has spent an entire offseason studying what New Mexico became. The Lobos are no longer asking whether they can compete with the Mountain West’s best teams. They enter the season expected to remain among them.
Layne and linebacker Jaxton Eck are central to whether New Mexico can meet that expectation. Layne returns after setting the program’s single-season completion-percentage record in his first year as the starter. Eck returns after recording 129 tackles, sharing the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year award and becoming the most visible part of one of the country’s largest defensive improvements.
Their responsibility now extends beyond reproducing those individual seasons. New Mexico needs Layne to provide offensive continuity while becoming a stronger voice across the roster. It needs Eck to preserve the defensive standard that allowed the Lobos to win when the offense could not control the game by itself.
Layne has used the offseason to become more vocal. He already directed the offense, but he wants his leadership to extend beyond the quarterback room as New Mexico attempts to turn one successful season into a program standard.
“I’ve been trying to be a more vocal leader within the team,” Layne said. “Not just on the offense, but the whole team as a whole. It’s been a good opportunity for me to grow my leadership.”
That growth matters because the circumstances surrounding Layne have changed. Last season, New Mexico needed him to stabilize a position that had experienced significant turnover and learn an offense while building relationships with a roster filled with newcomers. He started all 13 games and completed 65.1% of his passes for 2,486 yards, 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also rushed for four scores.
His efficiency gave the Lobos something they had lacked entering the season: a quarterback capable of keeping the offense organized while creating explosive plays when New Mexico needed them. The performance at UNLV showed the ceiling of that approach. Layne completed 17 of 22 passes and connected on touchdown throws covering 80 and 84 yards during the second quarter. The Lobos did not merely survive against a conference contender. They created enough offense to win a game that required nearly every possession to matter.
That victory helped redefine what New Mexico believed it could become, but the rematch will feel different. UNLV will visit Albuquerque with full knowledge of what Layne can do and what New Mexico’s offense looks like when it creates space for explosive plays. The Lobos will not enter as a program attempting to earn respect. They will be expected to defend the position they claimed last season.
Layne believes that is how recognition should work. Individual awards and attention are more likely to follow players on teams that consistently win meaningful games.
“You don’t see a lot of high-accolade guys coming from lower-rated teams,” Layne said. “You’ve got to win first. That’s our goal, to win every week, put our best foot forward each game and compete with the best.”
Jaxton Eck reached the same conclusion from the other side of the ball. He enters the season as the Mountain West Preseason Defensive Player of the Year after finishing among the national leaders in tackles. Eck added 6.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, two pass breakups, a forced fumble and a recovery while helping New Mexico transform one of the country’s most vulnerable defenses.
The recognition confirms what Eck accomplished, but it does not change how he intends to approach the season. He was not selected to the preseason all-conference team before last year. Eck knows other players around the Mountain West will enter 2026 with the same frustration and motivation that helped drive him during New Mexico’s breakthrough.
“I’m not too worried about all that preseason stuff,” Eck said. “Last year, I wasn’t picked for anything. I wasn’t picked for preseason all-conference or anything like that. There are plenty of guys who are hungry to make their mark on the league.”
That perspective explains why Eck measures success through the team’s performance rather than his tackle total. New Mexico allowed 38 points and more than 490 yards per game before Jason Eck arrived. One season later, the Lobos allowed 22.3 points and 341.9 yards while becoming one of the most improved defenses in college football.
The turnaround gave New Mexico different ways to win. Layne and the offense produced explosive plays against UNLV. The defense later held Air Force to three points and 161 total yards. New Mexico finished the regular season by defeating San Diego State in double overtime, completing a five-game conference winning streak and earning a share of the Mountain West title.
Eck’s 129 tackles were part of that change, but the defense did not improve because one linebacker reached every ball carrier. His production mattered because the players around him understood their responsibilities well enough to make those tackles meaningful. That is the standard New Mexico must carry forward while integrating another group of newcomers.
The Lobos faced an extreme version of that challenge last season. Jason Eck rebuilt the roster with players from different programs and levels, including several who followed him from Idaho. Layne and Jaxton Eck already understood his expectations, but much of the team had to learn the system and one another at the same time.
The 2026 roster has more returning experience, but the transfer portal ensures that chemistry must still be rebuilt every offseason. Layne understands how difficult that process can be because he experienced it as a newcomer. Players can share the same playbook and still lack the trust required to respond when someone loses a position battle, the team falls behind or the season reaches its most difficult point.
“It’s hard, but it’s important,” Layne said. “You’ve got to work on those relationships if you want to be good. Chemistry is so important, and it’s about which team can come together best and play as a team every Saturday.”
New Mexico uses difficult summer workouts, player-led practices and time away from football to accelerate that process. The work gives players a shared experience, while the time outside the facility allows them to learn about one another without every conversation becoming part of an evaluation. That internal work will influence whether the Lobos can replace the production they lost without losing the identity they established.
Former UNLV receiver Troy Omeire gives Layne an experienced target who already understands the conference and the intensity surrounding the matchup between the two programs. At 6-foot-4, Omeire provides a larger option capable of winning contested catches and giving Layne a reliable target when a play breaks down.
“He’s been such a pleasant surprise,” Layne said. “Great person, great team guy, and he’s a real veteran. He’s such a big target, a quarterback’s best friend.”
New Mexico also added Cameron Mathews and Keifer Sibley to a backfield that must provide enough balance to keep every important offensive situation from falling on Layne.
The quarterback’s health makes that balance even more important. Layne played through an injured elbow during New Mexico’s overtime loss to Minnesota in the Rate Bowl. The injury limited him during the final game of a season in which the Lobos came within one victory of the second 10-win campaign in program history.
Layne said the rehabilitation process has been long, but his elbow feels good entering the season. He credited New Mexico’s training staff with helping him reach a better position before fall camp. His recovery gives the Lobos continuity at the most important position on the field, but it does not guarantee the offense will progress.
Opponents have a complete season of film on Layne and the system. They understand where New Mexico created explosive plays, how it protected him and how the offense responded when defenses changed their approach. Layne must become more than the quarterback who succeeded during the breakthrough. He must help the Lobos adjust after the rest of the conference adjusts to them.
The defense faces the same challenge. New Mexico’s improvement will no longer surprise opponents. Teams will study how the Lobos defended the run, where Eck aligned and how the defense limited explosive plays during its late-season winning streak.
The Mountain West’s new membership will make that preparation more complicated. North Dakota State brings a physical running style, Northern Illinois arrives with a similar reputation for toughness and UTEP returns to a league with New Mexico after the programs previously shared the Border Conference and Western Athletic Conference.
Those teams join a conference that already requires defenses to prepare for Air Force’s option attack, Hawaii’s passing offense and several programs capable of using heavier personnel to control the line of scrimmage.
“I think the Mountain West is on the climb,” Eck said. “One week, you’ve got four linebackers out there trying to stop power, and the next week you’re trying to stop the pass 50 times a game. Then Air Force has the triple option. Where else are you going to get that?”
The variation prevents New Mexico from surviving through one defensive plan. The Lobos must play physically against North Dakota State, defend space against spread offenses and maintain assignment discipline against Air Force. The challenge changes each week, but the standard cannot.
Eck believes all 10 Mountain West teams are capable of competing for the championship. That belief makes New Mexico’s position more fragile than its returning production might suggest. The Lobos can enter the season as a contender and still fall quickly if the roster does not reconnect, the offense becomes predictable or the defense loses the discipline that defined last season’s improvement.
A September trip to Oklahoma will measure New Mexico against a national opponent, while Mountain West games against North Dakota State, UNLV, Air Force, Hawaii and Wyoming will test whether the program can sustain its rise.
New Mexico will not receive the benefit of being underestimated. The Lobos now have preseason award winners, returning starters and a full season of results attached to their name.
Eck limits his time on social media, while Layne emphasizes maintaining an identity outside football. Both understand that praise can become as distracting as criticism when a program enters a season expected to win.
“For me, it’s staying off social media,” Eck said. “I can’t be on that. It’s not healthy.”
The milestones from Jason Eck’s first season will remain part of the program’s rise. New Mexico earned its first Power Conference victory since 2008, reached its first bowl game since 2016, won at Air Force for the first time since 2000 and tied for the Mountain West championship.
Those achievements once represented proof that the rebuild was working. They now form the standard against which the next season will be measured.
Layne provides the offensive continuity New Mexico lacked entering last season. Eck carries the defensive standard that changed what the Lobos could become. Their challenge is ensuring those strengths survive increased attention and a conference prepared to treat New Mexico differently.
New Mexico does not have to recreate every moment of its breakthrough to prove that the rise can last. It must show that the habits, relationships and leadership behind those moments remain strong enough to withstand higher expectations.
Jason Eck’s first season established that New Mexico could rise quickly. Layne and Jaxton Eck must now help prove the Lobos built something capable of staying there.
Watch the full Rebel Daily Drive interview with New Mexico quarterback Jack Layne and linebacker Jaxton Eck: