Sept. 22, 2008
Lobo Football
Saturday: Tulsa 56, Lobos 14
Up Next: Lobos at New Mexico State
When/Where: Saturday (Sept. 27), Aggie Memorial Stadium
Television: Aggievision – Comcast Ch. 53 in Albuquerque
By Richard Stevens
Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
The hurt put on Rocky Long’s Lobos in their 56-14 spanking by the Tulsa Golden Hurricane has turned into one of a coach’s worse nightmares.
The experienced quarterback expected to lead Long’s team all season is gone for the year and an inexperienced rookie is now in charge of the young UNM huddle.
Lobos junior quarterback Donovan Porterie was lost for the season Saturday late in the second quarter when he limped off Tulsa’s H.A. Chapman field nursing an injured knee that was later diagnosed as a torn right ACL and MCL.
The Lobos must now head to Aggie Memorial Stadium for a 6 p.m. kickoff this Saturday against a New Mexico State team riding high after a 34-33 comeback win over UTEP Saturday night in the Miners’ Sun Bowl.
And it gets even worse: Junior safety Ian Clark, a product of Albuquerque’s Highland High, is not expected to play against the pass-happy Aggies due to a dislocated shoulder he suffered in the Lobos’ wipeout at Tulsa.
The UNM huddle will be turned over to backup Brad Gruner, a redshirt freshman who has looked very much the rookie so far in his two game appearances. Porterie also missed the second half of UNM’s season-opening loss to TCU.
Porterie ends the season going 50-of-75 for 372 yards with no touchdowns and five interceptions. His passing rating was 95.00. Gruner will open the game at NMSU having completed 10-of-26 passes for 191 yards, one TD and four interceptions. His QB rating is 82.09. He has completed 38.5 percent of his passes. He went 7-of-12 for 96 yards against the Hurricane, but he threw three interceptions, one that was returned 41 yards for a Tulsa touchdown.
“It looks to me like (Brad Gruner) is our starting quarterback now, so he had better get better a lot quicker than he has up to this point,” said Long. “I think we are going to have to re-tool a whole bunch of things. We are going to have to redesign our offense to what Brad Gruner does the best; adjust the offense to his special abilities.
“On defense, it probably eliminates us playing six defensive backs, if Ian can’t play, and it looks like that. We’ll probably have to go back to our base defense (3-3-5) which probably eliminates a lot of coverages we might be able to play.”
The loss of Clark hurts even more when you consider the offensive philosophy Hal Mumme’s Aggies like to take to the field – pass, pass, pass with an occasional run.NMSU quarterback Chase Holbrook went 29-of-39 through the air for 329 yards and five TDs at UTEP. He was intercepted twice. Aggies senior Chris Williams, a Rio Rancho High graduate, caught seven passes for 119 yards and junior Marcus Anderson pulled in three TDs.
Gruner probably hasn’t played enough for Long to figure out Gruner’s “special abilities,” which means the Aggies might be looking at a whole lot of Rodney Ferguson Saturday in Cruces.
Ferguson ran for 122 yards on 27 carries against the Hurricane. It was his third straight 100-yard game.
The loss of Porterie and Gruner in the Lobos backfield probably has Joe Lee Dunn, NMSU’s defensive coordinator, licking his chops. Dunn, a former Lobos head football coach and former UNM defensive coordinator, is known for his attacking defenses which first got Long’s attention when Long was an assistant at UNM.
The Lobos weren’t in the game very long at Tulsa as the Hurricane blew to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and went into the locker room at the half up 28-0.
“It’s one of those nightmare games,” said Long after watching his Lobos drop to 1-3 on the season. “No matter what we tried, it didn’t work and everything they tried to do seemed to work.
“Those games happen every once in a while, but they aren’t any easier to take.”
The Lobos might have been looking at New Mexico State as a small step down from the competition UNM has faced so far this season: TCU, Texas A&M, Arizona and Tulsa. Now, with a redshirt freshman leading the offense and an injury-weakened secondary, the 1-1 Aggies have to be viewed as a major threat.
The Lobos, for the third consecutive week, will have to stop a hot quarterback in order to slow down the enemy. Holbrook is the challenge in Cruces. The challenge in Tulsa – David Johnson – proved to be too much for the Lobos’ defense.
Johnson came into the UNM game rated the No. 1 quarterback in the nation and he completed 24 passes for 469 yards and 6 touchdowns. He did give up two interceptions to UNM’s Glover Quin. Tulsa totaled 606 yards on offense while UNM had 316.
The Lobos got 13 grabs for 156 yards from the UNM trio of Chris Hernandez, Roland Bruno and Bryant Williams.
It wouldn’t have mattered how many guys we had back there or who was playing,” said Long. “It didn’t seem like anything we did was right.”
After UNM’s visit to Las Cruces, the Lobos return to University Stadium for Homecoming and an Oct. 4 Mountain West Conference game against Wyoming. UNM is 0-1 in the MWC, while Wyoming is 0-2 in conference.
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