Quotes from New Mexico’s weekly football media lunch prior to this week’s contest against Air Force.
Head coach Rocky Long
(On playing against the wishbone.)”Here’s my experience on playing against the wishbone. I learned this in a very untimely manner at the University of Wyoming. My first year there we played a particular defensive scheme and won the game 14-7 against Air Force. The next year we played the same scheme and lost 49-3 and gave up over 600 yards rushing. So, you don’t play the same defense two years in a row against Air Force.”
(On Air Force’s ability to make adjustments in the wishbone.)”They have three or four different options and they can block each one three or four different ways. If they get locked in, where they know where you are going to be, then they have all of the advantages. Most of it is a lot like what Nebraska does. Nebraska has been running the same offense for so long, no matter what you throw at them, they’ve already seen it. Somewhere along the way they know how to attack it. The trick is to try to give them something different.”
(On what you are going to different this year on defense.)”Last year we lined up in one front and part of the time played a standard-type defense where people played techniques. One guy was responsible for the dive, one for the quarterback, and one for the pitch. The other half of the time we played our defense where we blitzed and stunted and tried to make them have some bad plays. This year we are not going to line up in the same front as we did last year and our blitzes will be different from last year.”
(On ignoring the pass.)”You can’t. If you ignore the pass they will throw it for over 200 yards and beat you just as bad as if you ignored the run. That’s what has made them better over the last few years. I was out of the league for a while and I don’t know where they made the transition, but in the old days if you threw the ball ten times out of the wishbone that was unbelievable. There were games last year where they threw the ball 31 times. If you make enough people responsible for the run you can make them throw it, but with their play action, those throws can end up being 70 yard touchdowns.”
(On keeping Air Force’s offense off of the field.)”You’ve got to keep the ball away from them, or you’ve got to score 60 points. It’s hard to break up Air Force’s drive because they have eight and nine play drives and then they score. It’s harder to disrupt Air Force than it was BYU. We want this to be the shortest game in history.”
(On Air Force’s defense.)”They’ll play a seven man front in order to play pass coverage. If you run the ball effectively they will slide a safety in and run an eight-man front, which makes it a lot harder to run but a lot easier to throw. If you use play-action pass there is a lot of one-on-one situations, even though they are a zone coverage team. If they play a seven-man front then we will run the ball.”
(On Casey Kelly checking at the line.)”They do some of the same blitzes we do so there are keys that tell Casey a blitz is coming by the way the safeties line up. He is going to have to be able to pick it up. The better they disguise it the better off they are. He had a lot of freedom last week. He checked to a lot of plays last week. I hate to say this about a team that is so good, but BYU’s defense is the easiest to read. That doesnt mean that you can move the ball because they have great athletes, but they’re simple to read. This week is going to be a tougher challenge reading what they do.”
(On other teams in the league using the Lobo defense.)”I guess it is a compliment, but the more people that run it the less effective it becomes. Air Force doesn’t run it full time but in more specific situations. Wyoming runs it a lot.”
Defensive coordinator Bronco Mendenhall
(on the Air Force option attack):”The option is different in and of itself. We have been fortunate enough to have a bye week which really helped. That has helped alleviate some of the pain in preparing for Air Force. You never exactly know if your plan is going to work against the Air Force until you get out there and play. Last year, we defended them very well for the majority of the game. They started coming back at the end. We didn’t know that plan would work until the end and we dont know how this one will work until we get out there and play.”
(on defending Air Force): “The traditional train of thought is it is assignment defense. When you look at our defense where there are so many moving parts and so many variables, it’s more of a first threat – whoever has the ball, if he is near you, hit that guy. As opposed to BYU, who lines up the same on every play and your defense knows who has the dive, who has the quarterback, who has the pitch man, we really don’t know that with Air Force until the ball is snapped and the blitz is executed. Whoever is free takes the guy with the ball and it kind of works its way out.”
(on the UNM defense):”In our defense, the margin for error is so slim and there are so many moving parts. If one part does not execute right, the ball can go out the gate quickly. What Air Force does magnifies that part even more so, and that is why we don’t really limit what we do but we work more on really recognizing the plays that happen and where we need players to be.”
Quarterback Casey Kelly
(on the bye week):”I think it was good for our team. We had some players who were bruised up a little bit and needed the week to get healthy. At the same time, we got a couple of more practices in to work against Air Force. I think it will help us a little bit and we will come out fresh this weekend. I think the extra week helps with the game plan and also for the coaches. I think we will come out with a good game plan and hopefully we will have stuff that will work against Air Force.”
(on Air Force):”I have watched a little of the Air Force-BYU game film. I don’t think it is a matter of us being able to say that we played BYU close (24-20 loss on Oct. 13) and the Cougars beat up on Air Force (63-33 last week). Air Force is going to come out with a little bit of an attitude this weekend, especially knowing we beat them the last two years. With the game they had last weekend, we are going to have to come out here prepared for a tough game.”
(on the recent two-year win streak vs. the Falcons):”It means that we know we can play with any team in the league. I don’t know if it makes that much of a difference knowing that we beat them the last two years. We are going to have come out and play a well-played ball game to win. That is how we approach every game though. It might give us a little extra confidence knowing that we beat them the last two years. But at the same time, it is a different team this year, so that is what we will have to prepare for.”
(on the Falcons’ defense):”They don’t do too many things – they don’t run a defense like we do where they bring guys from all over the place, but they do have some threats that we have to take a look at and design our game plan around. They run a little different defense than BYU did. Air Force will blitz guys, they will roll their coverage up. I think the extra week helped with that.”
(on UNM’s red zone woes): “We get down there in the red zone and we are settling for field goals. That might just be a mindset thing. We just have to get over that hump in terms of punching it in and getting seven points when we get down there. We really just have to go for the throat as they say. Maybe if we start executing a little bit better we can develop that mindset that we need to not settle for field goals.”
Running back Jarrod Baxter
(on the bye week):”It helped health wise. Any nicks and bumps we had, we pretty much got rid of. It helped a lot mentally too, just not having to prepare for a game this weekend, just getting to sit around and watch a game on TV and get a little homework done.”
(on the Air Force defense):”Pretty much I think they will line up base a little bit and then not adjust. They will try and attack us with the people that are out there. Hopefully we can take advantage of that, move some people around. That seems to be the way to attack them.”
(on the UNM offense after six games):”We are giving everyone a chance to compete. We are putting balls on hands and giving people a chance to catch it. The offensive line has given me some room to run, so everyone is getting there. We are not at the level that I truly wanted to be at but we will be there by the end of the season.”
(on UNM’s recent success against AFA):”It could be just a little bit of the size difference. In 1998, I think we were about the same size or maybe we were smaller than they were. Nowadays, we are looking across at people and they are smaller than us. We have had a little bit of weight advantage and size advantage against Air Force the last couple of years. I hope that will continue.”