Forced by the schedule-maker to hit the road for four straight Western Athletic Conference games was arduous enough.
Forced to do it against the WAC's four best teams was cruel and unusual punishment.Add a 47-7 drubbing by Colorado State as a prelude to this week's game at 12th-ranked Brigham Young, and you can understand New Mexico coach Mike Sheppard's consternation.
What chance does the rebuilding New Mexico program have against a BYU team which had last week off and seems primed for another WAC title? Consider this bit of history: BYU routed CSU 52-9 one week ago. Then CSU crushed UNM 47-7 on Saturday.
Does that make BYU 83 points better than New Mexico? And if so, what has happened to the supposed balance in the WAC? Something is askew here in a conference where parity has become commonplace.
In the only other conference game of the weekend, Utah snapped a four-game winning streak by defeating Texas-El Paso 37-23 in Salt Lake City. Unbeaten and 21st-ranked Wyoming got past stubborn Weber State 21-12 in Laramie, and Hawaii whipped Fullerton State 45-21 in Honolulu. BYU, Air Force and San Diego State were idle.