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FACTS & STATS: Site: University Stadium (37,370) -- Albuquerque, New Mexico. Television: The MTN. Home Record: Tulsa 0-0, UNM 0-0. Away Record: Tulsa 1-0, UNM 0-1. Neutral Record: Tulsa 0-0, UNM 0-0. Conference Record: Tulsa 1-0, UNM 0-0. Series Record: Tulsa leads, 3-2.

GAME NOTES: One of the top scoring teams in the nation a season ago, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane blow into Albuquerque this weekend to take on the New Mexico Lobos in non-conference action at University Stadium.

The Hurricane, which was second in the nation in 2008 with 47.2 ppg, launched this season under head coach Todd Graham with a convincing 37-13 defeat of the Tulane Green Wave last Saturday, giving Tulsa a leg up in the Conference USA standings.

As for the Lobos, members of the Mountain West Conference, this marks the first of three straight home games for the program following a disappointing 41-6 setback at Texas A&M last weekend. The defeat may not have been unexpected, but for first-year head coach Mike Locksley it certainly was disheartening given how poorly his UNM squad performed.

Tulsa owns a 3-2 edge in the all-time series, thanks to a 56-14 crushing defeat of UNM last season.

New Tulsa quarterback, sophomore G.J. Kinne who is a transfer from Texas, stepped right in and put the high-powered Golden Hurricane offense into gear last Saturday. The signal-caller converted 15-of-20 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown, adding another 77 yards and a score on the ground for his new team. The squad also got another 50 yards and a TD from Charles Clay on nine carries, the team producing 201 yards on the ground overall for an average of nearly five yards per attempt. Last year, the Tulsa offense was nearly unstoppable, doing damage both on the ground and through the air just as it did in the 2009 season opener. Even though the names may have changed, the fact remains that this is a team that placed fifth in the nation in rushing with 268 ypg and was ninth in passing with 301.9 ypg a season ago. Put it all together and Tulsa has some huge expectations this fall after leading the nation with a whopping 589.9 ypg of total offense last year.

While the offense for the Golden Hurricane was doing the job, the defense was also handling business by allowing Tulane a mere 13 points in the final three periods, after shutting out the home team in the first frame. Last season, Tulsa ranked 46th in the nation and fourth in Conference USA in terms of tackles for loss with 6.1 per game, but this time around the squad wasted little time in making a bigger impact in that area by coming up with 13 TFLs, for a loss of 52 yards. Mike Bryan, who was one of two players with double- digit stops with 11, had nearly half of those (five) on the other side of the line of scrimmage. Not only that, Bryan also raised his visibility by intercepting a pass and returning it 18 yards, not to mention coming up with the group's only forced fumble of the evening. Tanner Antle accounted for two of the team's five sacks after placing second on the team a year ago in that department.

The New Mexico offense was simply anaemic in the opener, coming up with just a pair of James Aho field goals in front of nearly 74,000 at Kyle Field in College Station. Quarterback Donovan Porterie managed to convert 29-of-40 passes for 210 yards, but he was sacked five times which brought the team's rushing total down to a meager 21 yards on 24 attempts. Demond Dennis carried the ball 10 times for the Lobos, coming up with a feeble 23 yards, followed by A.J. Butler with 22 yards on three attempts. Last year, the Lobos followed Rodney Ferguson's lead coming out of the backfield, with the team generating 208.3 ypg on the ground to rank third in the MWC and 16th nationally. Clearly, the squad is nowhere near that sort of team this time around, which means Porterie is going to have to carry even more of the weight. The quarterback, who suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee against Tulsa last season, is already way ahead of last year's pace when the Lobos were 110th in the nation with a mere 131.3 ypg through the air.

At no point did the Lobos appear to have a grasp on the game against Texas A&M, allowing the home team to roll up 245 yards on the ground and another 361 yards through the air. Put it all together and the New Mexico defense was stranded on the field for 90 plays, compared to just 64 offensive snaps for the Lobos themselves. Perhaps most troubling for UNM was that it watched the Aggies register 14 penalties for 123 yards and still could do nothing with those miscues. With so many plays to defend it should not come as a surprise that the Lobos had three players with double-digit tackles on the night, as Tray Hardaway logged 12 stops, including 1.5 TFLs. Frankie Solomon and Clint McPeek each added 10 tackles, while Johnathan Rainey posted seven stops, two sacks and six quarterback hurries, the latter number equaling his entire total from his freshman season a year ago. Against Tulsa last year, the UNM defense permitted 606 yards of total offense, 469 yards through the air which led to six touchdowns.

Judging by how each of these teams played in the opener last weekend, this meeting could get ugly rather quick. Pitting a high-octane offense against a weak defense is a prescription for record-breaking performances.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Tulsa 55, New Mexico 13