What Michigan coach Sherrone Moore finds ‘ridiculous’ about Jason Eck’s New Mexico Lobos

There’s no preseason in college football, so let the chaos begin. Season-openers can be chaotic, deceiving, interesting and everything in between — and preparing for them is a big challenge. However, it’s two-sided, for the most part, though Michigan Wolverines football has a unique challenge this year.

Nobody’s feeling sorry for Michigan, nor is it alone. Along those lines, nobody envies the position New Mexico — the Wolverines’ first opponent — will be in Saturday night at the largest stadium in college football.

Michigan has to prepare for an entirely new team. The Lobos are led by new head coach Jason Eck, who had a successful three-year run at Idaho, an FCS program. The Lobos have dozens of transfer newcomers, including quarterback Jack Layne, who came with Eck from Idaho and was recently named the starter. All told, New Mexico has added 53 new players to its roster ahead of the 2025 campaign, making them tough to scout.

“It’s nuts. Absolutely nuts,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Mooresaid of all the turnover New Mexico has experienced.

Moore has high expectations for New Mexico, though.

“I think they’re gonna be very well-coached. I think they’re gonna play sound, physical football. 

“There’s actually a connection. So, Coach Eck and I were both GAs for Dave Borbely. Dave Borbely is one of my closest mentors. He was the O-line coach at Louisville when I was coaching there. I don’t even know if Coach Eck knows this — well, he probably talked to Borbs about it — but he was his GA when [Borbely] was at Colorado. So, there’s a connection there.

“I know they’re going to be well-coached. I know they’re going to be well-prepared.”

Borbely was most recently Pittsburgh’s offensive line coach up until being let go in 2024. He’s worked all over college football, including at Maryland, Virginia, Louisville, Colorado, Notre Dame, Stanford, Tulane, Temple, Rice and Tennessee.

Eck worked under Borbely at Colorado from 2002-03. Moore spent the 2010 and 2011 seasons at Borbely’s graduate assistant, before working on the full-time staff as tight ends coach alongside him the next two seasons. Both Eck and Moore have offensive line backgrounds, of course, adding to the respect Michigan’s head man has for New Mexico’s. Eck played offensive line at Wisconsin, while Moore was a guard for Oklahoma.

Moore shared another interesting nugget about Eck’s teams: “They run a ridiculous amount of trick plays — kind of like we do, but I think a little bit more.”

Just ask Oregon about that. Idaho trailed by only 3 points with less than six minutes to play in a 24-14 season-opening loss to the Ducks in Eugene last season.

The Vandals scored their two touchdowns on a pair of trick plays — a double flea flicker and a sweep where Layne lined up as the running back, took a handoff, looked to throw but scrambled into the end zone.

“We got to be ready for that,” Moore added.

Michigan is a heavy favorite, and New Mexico will be out-matched talent-wise, but the Wolverines will still have to be ready for a fight when opening the season Saturday night.

“It’s gonna be a great challenge for our players, but we really just worry about the how — how we practice, how we prepare,” Moore noted. “How we get ready for this game is going to be the most important piece.”

Overall, Moore is pleased with how Michigan’s fall camp went and believes his team would be ready to play “tomorrow” if that’s when kickoff was.

“Excited for this game week,” Moore said with a smile. “This camp has been outstanding. The boys are in a really, really good place physically, mentally, emotionally.

“They’re just excited to hit somebody else. It’s been a long camp. We’ve been in what we like to call ‘the bunker.’ No social media — a challenge for the coaches, the players. I really wasn’t on it until like last week, and now I’m back off of it again. It’s kinda good not to be on it. I kinda feel good about that.

“But it’s been a really good camp. We’ve built some good depth, and answered some questions from position battles and things like that. We’re really excited to go from there.”