The numbers and the noise arrived at the same time. New Mexico walked out of the Rose Bowl with a 35–10 win over UCLA, and word circulated that UCLA cut a 1.2 million dollar check to bring the Lobos to Pasadena.
The game outcome dropped UCLA to 0–3 and marked a jarring second straight loss to a Mountain West opponent after last week’s trip to UNLV.
The scoreboard was not kind, and the context made it sting even more. This was a buy game that turned into a bad night and an expensive lesson. On3’s Brett McMurphy commentary framed the mood in blunt terms. He joked on X that the last time he saw someone from Albuquerque “totally annihilate someone this bad” was Walter White in the final season of Breaking Bad, then followed with a quip that back-to-back losses to UNLV and New Mexico had UCLA “officially clinched last place in the Mountain West this season.”…