Aug. 29, 2008
Lobo Football
Who: Lobos vs. TCU
When: Saturday (Aug. 30), 4:06 p.m.
Where: University Stadium
Last time: TCU won 37-0 in Fort Worth
By Richard Stevens
Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
It’s too bad the Lobos can’t find some way to take coach Rocky Long’s eyes onto the field in their Mountain West Conference opener against TCU.
If they could, it would be all over for TCU. The Horned Frogs would wilt under Long’s biting gaze. The University of New Mexico could name the score.
Rocky Long’s eyes can become beady storms of pure defiance toward any thought other than honest effort and victory. They can bore into you the way an angry dad’s eyes bore into a child who did wrong. You know the look.
Long’s laser eyes have teeth and bite and lightning bolts ready to jump out at you and sear flesh. Long’s eyes can be scary – cold, blue pits of pure challenge.
The Lobos players saw the storm in Long’s eyes in a team huddle in University Stadium when Long gathered his pack around him and told them what he expects against TCU.
He expects his Lobos to hit Frogs harder than Frogs hit Lobos.
He expects them to play at a higher level and longer than TCU.
He expects Frogs to be taught a whole lot about the pain that comes from playing Lobos in University Stadium.
He expects Lobos to remember what happened last year.
He expects a win.
Judging by the oddsmakers – who have TCU favored by a touchdown – and national media picks, nobody expects UNM to win.
Which isn’t exactly true. Long expects to win. His Lobos expect to win and surely most of the Lobo fans in University Stadium expect a win.
But it’s going to be tough – real tough.
The TCU Horned Frogs are good, fast, big. They kicked the Lobos 37-0 last season in Fort Worth. In their three MWC wins over UNM, the Frogs have outscored the Lobos 113-48 overall and 72-0 in the first half.
The Lobos have fallen into deep, first-half holes against the Frogs in those losses: 28-0, 24-0 and 20-0.
The shutout in Fort Worth is still a bitter and embarrassing memory for the Lobos.
“We haven’t forgotten,” said senior cornerback Glover Quin. “That one kind of stays with you.”
The Lobos had six first downs, 28 yards rushing and 119 yards in total offense in that game.
Lobo senior Rodney Ferguson said the Lobos are fired up “because of the things we allowed them to do to us last year. We didn’t show up mentally.” Ferguson had 28 yards in that game.
The loss was ugly and Long is bringing out all the tools he can in order to stimulate his Lobos toward revenge.
“I think any kind of motivating factor helps,” said Long. “I think the team that plays the hardest for the longest will win. I expect that to be us.”
The bad memories of Fort Worth should have the Lobos fired up. But here’s another huge motivation factor: This is a Mountain West Conference game.
There are still a lot of MWC games to be played, but a loss to TCU on the Lobos’ home turf would be a serious blow. A Lobos win would be a huge push.
The Lobos were picked in a preseason poll to finish fourth in the MWC. TCU was picked to finish third.
The winner of this game might have a shot at the title. The loser will have to start climbing out of a 0-1 hole.
Long said his biggest concern going into the season opener is on special teams where Long has a first-year kicker, a first-year punter and a first-year long snapper.
“The field position battle is a big positive or negative for a team,” said Long. “If we give them good field position all night, it will make it look like we’ve played bad defense. It also doesn’t help your offense get into the end zone.”
Another concern is TCU’s speed. Long says they are the quickest team in the league.
“It’s impossible to duplicate their speed in practice,” said Long. “It usually takes us a quarter and a half to adjust. In the past, it’s taken us so long to adjust that they’d get way ahead of us and we were fighting an uphill battle the whole game.”
It would be good for the Lobos’ cause if UNM scored a lot of points, too. The Lobos did not score touchdowns in their past two season-opening losses.The burden of getting Lobos into the end zone falls a whole lot on the shoulders of junior quarterback Donovan Porterie, who appears to be much improved from 2007. Porterie is quick, dynamic, talented. But will he be poised against the fierce TCU charge?
“We need and we expect him to be focused and make good decisions,” said UNM’s offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin.
A key for Porterie’s focus also is a key for the entire season: the offensive line.
“You have to have a foundation,” said Baldwin. “If you don’t have the building blocks up front, you aren’t going to have a lot of success.”
Said Long: “Three of the five starting linemen are starting their first game. That’s always a concern.”
The Lobos have a few things to prove up front on the right side with transfer guard Joshua Taufalele and redshirt freshman tackle Byron Bell. The left side has more experience behind senior Matt Streid at guard and senior Sylvester Hatton at tackle. Junior Erik Cook lookssolid at center. The top backup linemen are juniors or sophomores.
The Lobos also have inexperience at wide receiver, but the backfield appears to be solid behind the bullish Ferguson and the quicker Paul Baker.
Coach Long is worried about kicking the ball, but there are other concerns on defense, too. And some strengths.
The defensive line is one of Long’s biggest at UNM, but once you get past three-year starter Wesley Beck at nose tackle, there’s not a lot of experience. Kevin Balogun and Kendall Briscoe are first-year starters on either end, though both have seen action off the bench along with back-up nose tackle Jeremiah Lovato.
At the linebacker spots, seniors Zach Arnett and Herbert Felder are expected to be consistent forces, but that group also will battle inexperience and youth.
The strength on defense going into the TCU game is the backfield. Seniors DeAndre Wright and Glover Quin could prove to be the best cornerback tandem in the Mountain West. If they can lock down the big-play receivers on the edge, it opens up UNM’s blitz package and run support.
The safety positions are solid behind Blake Ligon, Frankie Solomon, Clint McPeek and Ian Clark. There also is depth off the bench in Frankie Baca, Bubba Forrest, Jake Bowe andJoe Harris.
The Lobos obviously have talent with 38 lettermen back, but this game might not come down to simply experience or talent.
It might come down to which team wants it the most, plays the longest, plays the hardest.
The Lobos would be smart to want it the most and pull out a win for Long.
If not, they’ll have to face the eyes, see the storm.
Editor’s note: Richard Stevens is a former Associate Sports Editor and sports columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net. Previous articles are available at The Richard Stevens Corner