Lobos Destroy Aztecs 70-7 For Eighth Straight Series Win
Oct. 18, 2008
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
Lobo Football
Saturday: Lobos 70, San Diego State 7
Next: Lobos at Air Force, Thursday, 6 p.m.
By Richard Stevens
Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Lobo cornerback DeAndre Wright called it a “feel-good” win. Yeah, you win 70-7 and what is there to feel bad about?
Maybe UNM head coach Rocky Long ought to figure out a way to bottle up whatever it is about the San Diego State Aztecs that brings this feel-good feeling to his Lobos.
The University of New Mexico destroyed the Aztecs 70-7 Saturday night at University Stadium to give the Lobos their eighth straight win over the hapless visitors from San Diego.
“Once the tidal wave shows up, there’s not a whole lot you can do about stopping it,” said Long. “You like winning, but I have a lot of sympathy for the other side.”
The timing of the victory had to be sweet for Long’s side. His Lobos were coming off an emotional 21-3 defeat at Brigham Young and needed a win to muscle up their psyche as well as balloon their hopes to become a bowl-eligible team in 2008.
They got the win in a big way, an easy way. UNM rolled to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and strolled into the locker room at the half sitting on a 49-0 lead.
“All we talked about at halftime was trying to keep the intensity for the start of the second half,” said Long. “I don’t know if anybody has ever come back from that far down before.”
Long must have relaxed after the Lobos went up 56-0 at the 10:29 mark of the third quarter. He went heavily to his bench, playing Lobos who hadn’t seen much action during the 2008 campaign.
Of course, there is another benefit to using the bench. It rests your starters. The Lobos have to do a quick turnaround with a 6 p.m. Thursday kickoff at Air Force.
“I’m sure it (resting starters) will help us on Thursday night,” said Long.
Said UNM tailback Rodney Feguson, who rushed for 149 yards and tied a career-high with 4 TDs: “We have to turn it around so quickly that we can’t celebrate too much.”
Still, there was lots of reason to celebrate Saturday against the Aztecs. The Lobos were dominant in balancing their overall record (4-4) and their Mountain West Conference record (2-2).
The Lobos totaled 565 yards on offense while allowing SDSU 227. The Lobos’ defense held SDSU to 66 yards rushing. The Lobos had to punt only twice on the night, converting 11-of-16 third downs and 2-of-2 fourth downs. UNM’s scored seven times out of eight after entering the red zone.
The statistical beating was almost as savage as the beating on the scoreboard.
“We knew we could do this as at team, if we could just put it all together,” said Wright. “And that’s what we did. We put the BYU loss behind us and now we have to put this win behind us and start thinking about Air Force. Air Force really plays hard at home. There is a whole lot of mental preparation when you play them.”
The Falcons come at teams on the ground with an option attack: dive, QB keep or pitch. Sometimes pass.
“You first look for the dive and then you have the quarterback, who can keep it or pitch it,” said safety Frankie Solomon. “And then they can pull up and throw the option pass. There is a lot of concentration with all the assignments.
“It’s tougher to prepare for them in a short week. You are trying to prepare for something entirely different, so we might be putting in some overtime.
“But it’s great that we came out and played so well against San Diego State. A lot of the younger guys got to play and you leave a game like this feeling good about a whole lot of things.”
The Lobos’ rushing attack was awesome against the Aztecs, but that came as no surprise against a defense that is last in the nation against the rush. UNM ran for a whopping 419 yards. UNM also got 110 yards from redshirt freshman James Wright, 62 yards from sophomore Terence Brown in his season debut and 42 yards from starting QB Brad Gruner.
The Lobos only passed for 146 yards, which actually is a good night for UNM’s arms. Gruner went 8-of-11 and Tate Smith was 1-of-3. Gruner had 92 yards and hit senior tight end Chris Mark on a 19-yard TD pass.
The 70 points was the most by a UNM team since a 72-8 win over Texas State in 2003. UNM’s eight rushing TDs tied a school and Mountain West record. The 49 points in the first half is the most points UNM has scored in a half, since football statistics became official in 1946.
“The game got out of hand,” said Long, who also added: “One game doesn’t mean we’ve arrived.”
Said San Diego State coach Chuck Long: “I’m hoping that this is the lowest point of our season. We have a very fragile football team.”
The Aztecs shattered early against the Lobos. The game really was over at the 8:07 mark of the first quarter and, for a change, it was the Lobos looking down at a team in a deep hole. The Lobos scored on their first two offensive possessions and the UNM defense scored at 8:07 to push UNM up 21-0.
The Aztecs wasted no time in looking like the offense that has spent less time on the field than any other offense in the nation. On SDSU’s first offensive series, UNM cornerback Glover Quin intercepted Ryan Lindley’s third-down pass on the Aztecs’ 46-yard line.
The Lobos also didn’t waste any time in scoring on their first offensive possession for the first time this season. The Lobos went the 46 yards in one minute and 26 seconds with Gruner finishing the drive on a 20-yard TD scamper.
The Aztecs got one first down before punting and UNM quickly marched down the field. The big play on the 67-yard drive was an end around by Michael Scarlett that turned into a 40-yard pass to Roland Bruno that set up UNM at the Aztecs’ 11-yard line. Ferguson ended this 4-play drive with a 4-yard TD run.
The Aztecs were pretty much buried one minute and four seconds later when Lobo nose tackle Brett Kennedy smacked into Aztec tailback Brandon Sullivan, leaving the football on the ground. UNM defensive end Jaymar Latchison scooped up the loose ball and rambled 28 yards into the end zone. UNM’s James Aho added the PAT and UNM was up 21-0. The rout was on.
UNM’s fourth TD of the first half was set up by a 50-yard punt return by Ian Clark. The offense took over at the 9-yard line. Ferguson ran for five. Ferguson ran for four. Aho added the PAT and it was 28-0 with 13:17 left in the first half. Ferguson added a 5-yard TD at the 6:41 mark to fatten UNM’s lead to 35-0.
Things continued to go just awful for SDSU and great for UNM. The Aztecs fumbled the ensuring kickoff and UNM’s Carmen Messina crawled out of the pile holding up the football. Gruner ended this drive from 13 yards out on a fourth-down QB sneak. Aho again. 42-0. The Lobos were approaching the school mark for most points scored in a half (46) in the modern era.
The Lobos got the record with 23 seconds left in the half when Gruner spotted Mark on a slant and Mark reached back with both hands to pull the ball in. Aho booted the extra point and UNM had its 49-0 lead.
The Lobos ended the first half with 290 total yards while SDSU had 80 yards in offense. The Aztecs had three turnovers to zero for the Lobos. UNM converted 6-of-10 third downs and 2-of-2 fourth downs. The Aztecs had six yards rushing in the first 30 minutes of play to 152 yards for UNM with Ferguson getting 84 yards and three TDs.
The Lobos went up 56-0 in the third quarter on a 35-yard run by Ferguson. SDSU put together a drive to avoid the shutout and UNM took a 56-7 lead into the fourth quarter. The Lobos jumped up 63-7 on a 4-yard burst by senior fullback Matt Quillen off the left side – his first career TD – and Aho’s PAT. The Lobos crashed the 70-point barrier when Brown went up the middle, broke to his right, turned the corner and outraced the Aztecs to the end zone. The 37-yard TD came on Brown’s second career carry as a Lobo.
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