Aug. 30, 2008
By Richard Stevens
Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
It wasn’t suppose to be Brad Gruner’s afternoon and it definitely wasn’t his day. It wasn’t the University of New Mexico Lobos’ day either.
Gruner, the Lobos’ backup quarterback, took hard New Mexico’s 26-3 Mountain West Conference loss to TCU Saturday afternoon at University Stadium. He also was angry – at himself.
“I’m disappointed in myself. It hurts,” said Gruner, who was forced to lead the Lobos in the second half after junior Donovan Porterie never returned to the huddle after injuring his neck late in the second quarter.
“It was unexpected (to play), but you have to be ready when your name is called. I didn’t live up to it as well as I would have liked. I just didn’t take care of things.”
Gruner’s stats were not pretty, but they weren’t much different than Porterie’s.
Gruner went 3-of-13 passing with one interception. Porterie went 4-of-10 with one interception. Gruner and Porterie were each sacked twice. Gruner threw for 93 yards and Porterie tossed for 37 yards. Neither quarterback got the Lobos into the endzone.
“He (Gruner) made some mistakes,” said Dave Baldwin, UNM’s offensive coordinator. “A young quarterback will make some mistakes and we put him in a situation where we had to throw more than we would have liked to.
“For a guy filling in, who didn’t think he was going to play, I thought he did a decent job.”
The Lobos biggest fear going into this game was to once again fall behind TCU at the half. TCU had outscored the Lobos 72-0 in the first half in the past three games. The Lobos were down 16-0 going into the third quarter with Gruner, a redshirt freshman, taking command of the huddle – and being asked to lead a come-from-behind charge. The Lobos had 72 total yards of offense in the first half.
“To put that kind of heat on a redshirt freshman quarterback who hasn’t got all the reps (offensive snaps) that the starter has, that would have been a miracle (to get a win),” said UNM head coach Rocky Long.
Gruner was instrumental in two big plays in the second half. One good. One bad.
His first pass as a Lobo went for 81 yards. Gruner threw out to the right side and UNM’s Chris Hernandez cut back in front of the TCU defender, who fell down on the play.
“It’s always good to have something like that right off,” said Gruner. “Confidence is everything back there.”
The other big play went TCU’s way. Gruner was looking to throw a short pass to a cutting Lobo running back, but failed to get the ball over the head of TCU’s Jerry Hughes. Hughes stole the ball at the UNM 20 and returned it to the Lobos 12-yard-line. The turnover eventually led to a TCU field goal which put the Frogs up 19-3.
“That was all my fault, said Gruner. “The line did their job and the running back did his job and my job was to get the ball over the top. I under threw it. Didn’t get it high enough.
“This loss hurts because we prepared so hard. We knew this was our opener and to come out and not put any points on the board except for a field goal, well, that’s really disappointing.
“We have to let it go now, not dread on ourselves and not dread on the loss. We have to start thinking about next week.”
The Lobos play host to Texas A&M next Saturday (Sept. 6) at 3 p.m. The Lobos next conference game is Oct. 4 against Wyoming at University Stadium.
The Horned Frogs beat UNM in almost every statistical category: rushing, 171-to-56; total offense, 291-to-186; pass completions, 16-to-7; time of possession, 34:52-to-25:08; turnovers, 3-to-1.
Long said a lot of this was attributed to the battle of the trenches.
“It’s obviously the line of scrimmage,” said Long. “You have to at least hold your own. Most of being physical is attitude. The real problem is that if you have new guys out there and they’re thinking too much, they can’t be physical. They’re worried about what they’re supposed to be doing and so they’re hesitant.
“We’ll get better. We’re going to be a good football team before it’s all over. Whether it’s next week or not, I don’t have any idea. But we’ll be a good football team before it’s over.”
Another question next week is who will be UNM’s starting quarterback? Porterie or Gruner.
“All I know is I’m going to work as hard as I can to be ready,” said Gruner.
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