This is the assignment they gave the grizzled - maybe fizzled - old-timer:

Find the greatest games the Lobos have ever played against the teams they face this year.

Gulp.

I looked high and low. I cheated when it was convenient. I found a couple of forgotten heroes and remembered a few goats.

I found 12 great weeks - well, sorta - of New Mexico football. Take a look, and see if you agree.

WEEK 1

LOBOS VS. TEXAS-EL PASO

Date: Nov. 5, 1977

Site: University Stadium

Score: Lobos 33, Miners 17

Mike Williams was a kid from El Paso, shunned by his hometown school and forced to head north.

UTEP paid for the mistake.

Williams carried the ball 47 times for 236 yards in an easy UNM victory - a "take that" moment if there ever was one.

Forty-seven carries in 60 minutes. It's amazing he could walk when it was over.

Thirty years after his time at New Mexico, people tend to forget about Williams, who played several years in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs. With the possible exception of Don Perkins, he's probably the finest back the Lobos ever had: durable but not a plodder; tough but sleeker than a lot of safeties.

Williams' monster game against UTEP was a bench mark by which all UNM running backs are judged. His single-game total of 236 yards stood until Quincy Wright rushed for 265 against Division I-AA doylie Weber State in 2002. DonTrell Moore got 242 against Colorado State a year later, but neither player was in Williams' league for grit.

Forty-seven carries. One game. Amazing.

WEEK 2

AGGIES VS. LOBOS

Date: Sept. 12, 1987

Site: Aggie Memorial Stadium

Score: Aggies 17, Lobos 14

The game itself was not so memorable. A bad New Mexico State team outlasted an even worse group of Lobos, mostly because UNM starter Barry Garrison couldn't throw the ball accurately - except to the Aggies - due to a sore arm.

What sticks out was what the loss portended. It was only the second game of the Mike Sheppard coaching era, but it offered many clues about the future.

The Lobos had only brief flashes of respectability during Sheppard's tenure; he was 9-50 in five years with the unlucky, under-funded and facilities-poor Lobos.

Still, the Aggies loss sticks out. During the game, assistant coach Dan Plater and Sheppard got into a beef, and Plater was gone before the season's end. Nobody knew it at the time, but this game had bad karma written all over it.

WEEK 3

LOBOS VS. ARIZONA

Date: Oct. 25, 1975

Site: Arizona Stadium, Tucson

Score: Lobos 44, Wildcats 34

Perhaps the most underrated quarterback in Lobos history was Steve Myer, a skinny gunslinger enslaved by coach Bill Mondt's run-oriented offense.

Mondt unsheathed Myer against a heavily favored Arizona team, and the Lobos pulled a huge upset. Myer was 26-of-38 for 351 yards and four touchdowns. He hit 10 different receivers that day, but eight passes went to a player UNM fans would come to love - wide receiver Preston Dennard.

If the game was as pass-dependent as it is today, or if Mondt had adopted an attack similar to Brigham Young's before everybody in college football started throwing the football, Myer might still hold a lot of UNM's records.

He was incredibly accurate. His shredding of a fine Arizona defense that sultry afternoon in Tucson was as sterling a performance as any Lobos quarterback had in the 1970s.

The Lobos of that era were always around .500, underachievers in the eyes of many. Several players from the `75 team - Myer, Dennard, Andy Frederick and Robin Cole - played in the NFL.

WEEK 4

SACRAMENTO ST. VS. LOBOS

Date: Aug. 30, 2003

Site: University Stadium

Score: Lobos 72, Texas State-San Marcos 8

The Lobos have never played Sacramento State, thank goodness, so we'll concentrate this week on their games against Division I-AA opponents.

For all the terrible scheduling choices the Lobos have made over the years - they seemed to spend the entire 1980s getting their helmets cracked at places like Tennessee, Florida, Nebraska and Texas (the one in Austin, not San Marcos) - this game was a joke in reverse.

UNM should never have put Division I-AA San Marcos on the schedule. But it did get an unexpected national boost when Katie Hnida kicked two extra points, becoming the first woman to score points in a major college football game.

Hnida had a terrible experience at Colorado, transferred to New Mexico and became perhaps the Lobos' best-known player for a time. Games against Division I-AA schools will do that for you. But they probably don't make you any better.

Hmmm.

WEEK 5

BRIGHAM YOUNG VS. LOBOS

Date: Nov. 15, 1997

Site: University Stadium

Score: Lobos 38, Cougars 28

There's the temptation to pick New Mexico's shocking upset of BYU in 1980 as a matchup that stands out, perhaps because of an indelible image of UNM's Johnny Jackson and Jimmie Carter sitting atop Jim McMahon's helmet.

But for some reason, the memory sticks on `97, and UNM coach Dennis Franchione running down the sideline screaming "Act like you've been there before!" to his giddy Lobos as they vanquished the hated Cougars.

You could hardly blame the players for celebrating prematurely. With a 1980 upset as the lone exception, Brigham Young owned the Lobos, lock, stock and chinstrap. Beat 'em big (65-0), beat 'em close (16-15). But beat 'em every year.

Let's face it: Since the Nixon Administration, the Lobos have been BYU's personal crash test dummies.

But with Graham Leigh operating Franchione's offense and a deep, quick Lobos defense doing the unthinkable - outguessing and outgunning a LaVell Edwards offense - the spell was finally broken.

And when it was over, the tightly wound Franchione - a helluva football coach, no matter what you might think of his departure at season's end - could smile.

WEEK 6

LOBOS VS. WYOMING

Date: Oct. 6, 2001

Site: War Memorial Stadium, Laramie, Wyo.

Score: Lobos 30, Cowboys 29

The glint of light in Rocky Long's coaching tenure came in a stark place the Lobos have come to love.

New Mexico was 13-26 during Long's tenure heading toward a mid-season game at Laramie, just mediocre enough to make some wonder if the ex-Lobos quarterback was the right man for the job.

But big defense, a little luck and the Lobos' late-game grit - hallmarks of Long's UNM teams in the years that followed - turned things around. It might be too dramatic to say the victory over the Cowboys changed Long's career with UNM, but something happened. The team finished 5-2 to give Long his first winning record (6-5) at his alma mater.

That run set the stage for three straight bowl seasons.

Most teams fear traveling to Wyoming for the obvious reasons - altitude, bad logistics and a fan base that ranges somewhere between difficult and drunk. But UNM is 13-15 on the High Lonesome. And that ain't bad.

WEEK 7

SAN DIEGO STATE VS. LOBOS

Date: Nov. 25, 2006

Site: University Stadium

Score: Lobos 41, Aztecs 14

Nah. It wasn't a great game. You probably can't think of one memorable play.

To remember this, you need to remember the background. San Diego State has a lordly view of itself - shocked that it isn't Pac-10 worthy, and still upset by the fact that it has to share the back seat with the New Mexicos and Wyomings of the world.

You think BYU is arrogant? Get a load of San Diego State.

That's why last year's beaning of the Aztecs makes Lobos fans feel so good. UNM has beaten San Diego State six straight years - and realistically, there's no way that should happen. San Diego State, perhaps the greatest underachiever in Division I-A football (and basketball) has far too much talent to get punked by the Lobos.

But maybe it serves 'em right. Can you imagine what would happen if they really had to play USC and UCLA every year?

WEEK 8

AIR FORCE VS. LOBOS

Date: Nov. 21, 1959

Site: Denver University Field, Denver

Score: Lobos 28, Air Force 27

Let's put it this way: Have you ever heard of 5,000 people greeting a victorious Lobos team at the airport?

That was the import of New Mexico's 28-27 victory over Air Force in 1959.

Led by Don Perkins, perhaps the program's greatest player, New Mexico shocked the Falcons with 20 second-half points in Denver.

The victory - engineered by coach Marv Levy, who later coached the Buffalo Bills to four Super Bowls - created a stir rarely seen in Albuquerque.

Downtown was plugged with excited partiers. Those who didn't hit Central Avenue went to the airport to greet the team. Levy and Perkins and others were carried from the plane on fans' shoulders.

Air Force had compiled big wins in '59, including one over UCLA. But the real stir may have emanated from revenge: the Falcons humiliated New Mexico 45-7 the year before.

It's been that kind of rivalry. No matter the era, no matter the score, Air Force and the Lobos haven't much liked one another.

This time, New Mexico got to cheer.

WEEK 9

LOBOS VS. TEXAS CHRISTIAN

Date: Sept. 5, 1992

Site: University Stadium

Score: Lobos 24, Horned Frogs 7

Almost from the moment he arrived in Albuquerque, new head coach Dennis Franchione told everyone that winning at New Mexico was "a marathon, not a sprint."

In his first game, Franchione looked like Carl Lewis.

It was an illusory vision, though. After beating TCU with the remnants of Mike Sheppard's administration, the Lobos and Franchione would struggle for years before finally winning a Western Athletic conference division title and getting to a bowl game in 1997.

But Franchione - detailed, ultra-intense and wired for wins - left a calling card that evening. Gone were the sad-sack, sacked-often, noncompetitive Lobos.

Franchione used running back Winslow Oliver and quarterback Stoney Case, holdovers from the Sheppard era, to fashion the win - and the rise in the Lobos' program.

Case was particularly notable. Like Franchione, was cocksure and innovative, his will to succeed large enough to hide what really was an average throwing arm.

A future NFL starter, Case became the staple of the Lobos in the early- and mid-'90s. He was another of the Lobos' Texans who played wonderfully against teams from the Lone Star State.

Franchione was smart enough to understand. Sheppard based a hunk of his recruiting in his native California. Fran was different. He concentrated on Texas' fertile recruiting soil, figuring if there was one Case, there probably were more.

Guys the TCUs of the world might not be sharp enough to keep.

He was was proven right, of course. And Lobos fans loved it - until Franchione left in 1997 for . . . TCU.

WEEK 10

COLORADO STATE VS. LOBOS

Date: Nov. 13, 1982

Site: University Stadium

Score: Lobos 29, Rams 24

The Lobos probably used up their allotment of luck for the next 20 years in a single afternoon.

But you didn't hear anyone complaining.

UNM probably should've lost to Colorado State in 1982 - a defeat that almost certainly would have been shattering to a program that had raced to a 9-1 record during an amazing season they've yet to replicate.

But the Lobos, in particular linebacker Johnny Jackson, kept turning disaster into a four-leaf miracle.

Jackson, certainly one of the best defensive players in New Mexico history, caused two turnovers in the final quarter that led to New Mexico scores. That was just enough to stop the Rams.

UNM finished 10-1 in '82, and looked primed to reach its first bowl game since 1961. But an unimpressive home crowd the next week against Hawaii, and a completely different era - now, 6-6 teams make bowl games - kept the Lobos home.

It was a shame, because Jackson, running back Mike Carter, linebacker Jimmy Carter, safety Ray Hornfeck and quarterback David Osborn deserved better.

But they'll always have CSU.

WEEK 11

NEW MEXICO VS. UTAH

Site: Sun Bowl, El Paso

Date: Jan. 2, 1939

Score: Utah 26, New Mexico 0

This rivalry has seen some pretty decent ballgames, including some crazy Nintendo-football matchups in which defenders on both sides had all the strength of potato chips.

But the 1939 Sun Bowl stands out for something that no one knew would happen.

Within three years, players on both sides would be embroiled in World War II.

Nine Lobos who played that afternoon in El Paso would die in the war. Nine. The university - every university - would give some of the best kids of its generation to the fight against Japan and Germany.

Seven years later, again at the Sun Bowl, people would remember the New Mexico Nine. Before the game, a minister said a prayer to the Lobos who'd lost their lives - a reminder, perhaps, that college football is still, and only, a game.

WEEK 12

UNLV VS. LOBOS

Site: University Stadium

Date: Nov. 1, 1980

Score: Rebels 72, Lobos 7

Most of the games between UNM and the Runnin' Rebels have been desultory death matches between two programs trying to escape the league dungeon.

This game was different. Oh, it had all the charm of an aggravated assault, and it showed the Lobos and new coach Joe Morrison that one upset - a season-opening shocker over BYU - does not guarantee a wonderful season.

In the weeks after the Lobos' victory over the Cougars, UNM had been leveled by injuries. The result was the worst loss for the Lobos since 1917 - a fairly high bar to climb, given the Lobos' often-awful fortunes in the early 1950s and late 1960s.

Many people thought New Mexico would never again approach such an embarrassment, until Fresno State humiliated UNM 94-17 in 1991. Now, that was a loss.

Only 14,250 came to see the UNLV game, but then, Lobos' fans may have been distracted by a passion play of another kind. On the same day in Colorado Springs, the troubled UNM men's basketball program was explaining itself to the NCAA.

The subject? A scandal called Lobogate.

Given those events, 72-7 didn't seem so bad.