Nov. 14, 2008
Lobo Football
What: Lobos at Colorado State
When: 12:06 p.m., Saturday
Where: Hughes Stadium, Fort Collins, Colo.
Television: The Mtn. (Comcast ch. 276, DirecTV ch. 616)
Radio: 770 KKOB-AM
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
It could have gone down as a throwaway game for Rocky Long. You know, slide into Fort Collins, give the seniors some token time against Colorado State, and then play the Lobos who are going to make the field in 2009.
Forget 2008. Build for next year. Maybe win. Maybe lose.
Of course, there are at least two reasons that mindset wouldn’t work for Long and the University of New Mexico football team.
1. It’s not in Long’s nature or his Lobos’ nature to play football with compromised effort.
2. Long wouldn’t do that to his seniors. They have been through too much, deserve too much.
“I’ve thought a lot about it. That’s not our team’s personality. That’s not my personality,” Long said of using the CSU game to prepare younger Lobos for the future.
“Our team hasn’t given up trying to win so why would I give up trying to win, just to get ready for next year. We are going to play the best players and we’re going to do everything we can to win.”
Said senior safety Blake Ligon: “There is not a single quitter in our locker room and out there on the field. If someone shows that mentality that they’re quitting and giving up, they will not be out there. That’s just the way it’s going to work.”
The Lobos hope to spit a hunk of disappointment out of their mouths by ending a season marred by injuries, untimely turnovers and bad luck with a victory over the Rams. It’s always nice to end a season with a win.
The Rams have a stronger motivation. They are still playing for a postseason bid = possibly the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque. “They still have a chance to go to a bowl game, if they win the last two,” said Long. “So they might have a little more incentive than we do, but it’s a pretty even match.”
Well, it’s a pretty even match, if you don’t count all the walking wounded that Long takes up to Fort Collins. It is a Lobo team battered and bruised with too many players playing below their peak because of injuries.
UNM senior cornerback DeAndre Wright, listed out for the season with a dislocated shoulder, is even planning to play against the Rams because the shoulder can’t be damaged any more. It’s a question of whether or not Wright can play through the pain; lower a shoulder against a hard-running CSU back.
It’s this way with a lot of Lobos. They play with pain because, well, they are Lobos.
“I’m counting on our team’s competitive spirit,” said Long. “It’s kind of a trademark of our program. It doesn’t matter who we play or what the situation is, we play hard.”
The effort factor will be huge against the Rams, who also have a tradition of blue-collar, hard-nosed football. The Rams also have a pretty good team. They lost to TCU 13-7 and lost to Brigham Young 45-42. They beat UNLV 41-28. The Rams might need to call on some of that competitive spirit, too. They have lost four of their past five games. They are coming off a 38-17 kicking by Air Force.
The Rams have some intangible advantages that the Lobos don’t have. It’s Senior Day in Hughes Stadium. There is the bowl possibility. The Rams are at home.
Physically, CSU has a decent rusher in Gartrell Johnson, who averages 4.7 yards per carry and 92.9 yards per game. Ram quarterback Billy Farris throws for 220.5 yards per game and has 13 touchdowns on the year. Those QB numbers are not staggering, but UNM’s Brad Gruner averages 92.6 yards per game and has thrown only three touchdowns this season.
The Lobos average 334.8 yards per game and CSU averages 371.6 yards. The UNM defense allows 330.5 yards per game, 119.1 yards rushing. CSU gives up 410.9 yards a game with 185.9 coming on the ground.
The Rams’ Achilles Heel might be their run defense. That’s the Lobos strength on defense and offense. “You go with your strengths,” said Long.
That probably will equate to the Lobos handing the ball off a whole lot to senior Rodney Ferguson, who has 1,020 yards on the season and averages 102 yards per game. Still, these teams look to be evenly matched and Long expects big plays and turnovers to be key to the final outcome.
“Most of the time if you play hard you have a chance to win. Now if you make too many mistakes, you’re not going to win,” said Long. “But if you play hard and they aren’t that much better than you athletically, you’ve got a chance to win.”
The Lobos take a 4-7 (2-5 Mountain West) mark into their season finale and have no chance of reaching the postseason for the first time since the 2000 season.
“When you look at the history of this football program, being bowl eligible for seven or eight years is unheard of in this program,” said Long. “But it is still discouraging, it’s disappointing.
“I would guess that 70 percent of the teams in the situation that we have been in all season long would have given up the ghost a long time ago. Our team hasn’t given up a lick.”
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