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Looking for a college football underdog to bet on? Look for one manned by a quarterback from Albuquerque.
Arguably the two biggest upsets in Week 6 were by teams led by Duke City signal-callers.
As has been much discussed — not just locally, but nationally — Diego Pavia, a quarterback at St. Pius X and then Volcano Vista, led Vanderbilt over then-top ranked Alabama, which was favored by 22.5 points going into the Oct. 5 game in Nashville. The Commodores won 40-35 and Paviamania ensued.
On the same day, former La Cueva quarterback Aidan Armenta, in his first ever start, piloted Louisiana-Monroe over James Madison, which had been bet up to a 16.5-point favorite by game time in Monroe, Louisiana.
What did Pavia and Armenta do for encores? They led their teams to victories again in Week 7.
On Saturday, Vanderbilt went into Kentucky a 13-5-point underdog and left Lexington with a 20-13 victory. Pavia threw for 143 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 53 yards, and now the Commodores (4-2, 2-1 SEC) are on the cusp of being ranked. In the Top 25 poll that came out Sunday, Vanderbilt was atop the “others receiving votes” section, or effectively the 26th best football team in college football. It’s an amazing turnaround for a program that was 2-10, 0-8 SEC last season. Kudos to Jerry Kill, Pavia and the rest of the NMSU East crew for making magic happen a third year in a row.
We (the Journal) have spilled more than enough ink on Pavia and not nearly enough on Armenta, the former Lobo now leading the charge for the UNM East Warhawks.
ULM has been a Division I-A (later Football Bowl Subdivision) school since 1994. In those 30 years, the Warhawks have had a winning record once, going 8-5 in 2012. That was also the only year ULM has played in a bowl game, a 45-14 loss to Ohio in the Independence Bowl.
Ahead of the 2024 season, the program hired Bryant Vincent to coach. Vincent, who was UNM’s offensive coordinator last season, brought Armenta (who never did log a minute for UNM) and several other Lobos with him. In total, six former Lobo players and four former UNM coaches are with the Warhawks this season. And what a season it has been.
Armenta got the start in Week 6, helping the Warhawks upend national Group of 5 darling James Madison 21-19. He was the man behind center again Saturday, guiding ULM to a 38-21 home win over Southern Miss.
In the two victories combined, Armenta is 29-for-49, has thrown for 333 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.
ULM is 5-1, 3-0 Sun Belt Conference (their only loss in Week 4 to Texas, now the No. 1-ranked team) and the program is on track for only its second winning season and bowl game appearance ever.
Here are other athletes, teams and story lines that have my attention:
UNM football
Staying on the college football track, how’bout them Lobos? UNM’s offense has been slicing and dicing opponents, scoring 50-plus points in victories over New Mexico State (Week 5) and Air Force (Week 7) for its first two-game winning streak since 2021. It’s also the first time the Lobos have scored at least five dimes in back-to-back games since 1916. “Intolerance” (a three-and-a-half-hour silent historical epic) was the highest grossing film that year.
Sophomore quarterback Devon Dampier, the Prestige, continues to impress. On Saturday, in the 52-37 rout over the Falcons, Dampier completed 15 of 20 passes for 179 yards and one touchdown, rushed for 50 yards and two more scores, and did not turn the ball over for the second straight game.
The Lobos (2-4, 1-1) play at Utah State (1-5, 0-2) next week. The Aggies have lost five in a row. The betting line opened as a pick’em.
New Mexico State men’s golf
What an enchanting golf event Notah Begay III constructed to showcase New Mexico golfers, its golf courses and everything else #NMTrue. This year’s inaugural NB3 Matchplay brought together the men’s and women’s golf teams from UNM, NMSU, Stanford and Texas for two days of golf at Twin Warriors Golf Club on Santa Ana Pueblo.
Each team had three matches, so every squad played 18 holes against one another. The Aggie men were exceptional, not only beating the Lobos in a head-to-head match on Wednesday but also winning the men’s title, scoring 10.5 points to edge Texas, which scored 10 points.
Texas is the seventh-ranked men’s team in the country.
Though the NMSU men were the surprise of the event, UNM men’s team fared well, coming in third place, ahead of Stanford, ranked No. 22 in the nation.
Weldon Chebon
Chebon, a freshman on the New Mexico Highlands cross country team, was named the NCAA Division II Athlete of the Week by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
From the USTFCCCA news release about the award: “In just his third collegiate race, Chebon topped a field of 400 at the DBU Old Glory Gallop 8K in 23:32.6, leaving a 20-second gap to the next competitor. Perhaps even more impressive is that the Cowboy rode away from the entirety of the East Central (Okla.) roster. For those unaware, that list is headlined by four All-Americans, including Aspel Kiprop, who finished sixth at the 2023 NCAA Championships.”
Honorable mention
The truTV broadcast of the UNM-Air Force game on Saturday included a couple of gems, including kids in the stands eating cotton candy twirled taller than any UNM men’s basketball player. For parents, there might be no scarier bit of television airing this October. The sugar high, my gosh! The truTV broadcaster thought it was great the kids got such a big treat, exclaiming, “Let the big dog eat!” Also, at the conclusion of the game, Dampier does a pretty good salsa in front of the TV cameras after being interviewed by the studio crew, including former NFL receiver Victor Cruz of salsa celebration fame, and likely could have danced the night away if it wasn’t for UNM Athletics Director of Communications Frank Mercogliano hurriedly directing Dampier back to the locker room. … Chaparral football, which hadn’t won a game since 2018, is 3-3 in its last six games. … Speaking of long losing streaks coming to an end, the Santa Fe Indian School girls soccer program beat Shiprock 2-1 on Saturday. It’s the Lady Braves’ first win since 2019. … New Mexico United, despite going winless in two matches this week, wrapped up its first-ever USL Western Conference title with two regular-season matches remaining.
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