New Mexico Football Report

Dennis Latta, editor for Loboland.com (a UNM fan site with strong homer tendencies) went heavy with the purple prose this week: "But no one has really thought about those young men who put on their pads and go out to practice and then play every week. Maybe they are going to slaughter, but they still are going. This is a football team that could qualify for the Charge of the Light Brigade as they ride into the valley of death every Saturday." Both Grantland Rice and Lord Tennyson just rolled over in their graves. 

Let us not compare, the trials and tribulations of these football Lobos with men who sacrificed their very lives for something greater than themselves. The only slaughter this sad cast of put upon footballers will ever witness is at the training table.  Soldiers steel themselves to face death, rather than San Diego St.  College football is not life or death, it's a sleazy every man for himself cluster fuck orchestrated by greedy bastards. These selfish young men are not victims, they play football for the simple perks and prestige that come with being a varsity athlete. 

Not tho' the soldier knew, someone had blunder'd... 

The four games left on the Lobo's schedule hardly resemble a path of glory. The Lobos are not heading into Balaclava, they're merely going to San Diego to take on former head coach Rocky Long & The Aztecs. Dennis Latta, the schlockmeister that he is, seems to be talking to himself:  "We wonder how bad Boise State will run it up against New Mexico in the final game and if Rocky Long is out for revenge this week and will have SDSU keep scoring." Boise St. head coach Chris Petersen can name his number against the Lobos and I'm not sure where the Rocky Long revenge angle comes from.  

If the Aztecs pour it on the Lobos it'll be because the defense can't stop a tumbleweed rolling uphill.  

It's probably safe to say that Rocky Long doesn't carry a grudge against The Lobos, why would he? He was relatively successful at UNM, although since taking over for Brady Hoke at SDSU,  he's barely above .500. The Aztecs are coming off an upset loss to Wyoming, which Long attributes to the fact that SDSU had two weeks off prior to playing the Cowboys. According to Rocky the lack of playing time left them a step behind their opponents. Rocky Long's final game as Lobo head coach was a 70-7 shellacking of San Diego St. in 2008.   

UNM 0  Air Force 42

The Lobos have been shutout for two straight games, since George Barlow replaced the fired Mike Locksley, the offense has scored.... 7 points.  For the fifth time this season UNM lost by 40 plus points, The Lobos have now lost 11 straight. Crusoe Gongbay, a freshman and one of the bright spots for the offense this year, sounds like a man with one foot out the door. “It’s definitely different and frustrating, I thought I was coming into something that was going to be on the uplift but that isn’t the case.” said Gongbay who led the Lobos in rushing with 10 carries for 63 yds.

The nuts and bolts came down to this: The Lobos did have a couple of opportunities to score, however James Aho missed easy field goals from 30 and 40 yds.   Air Force scored touchdowns on it's first two possessions. UNM muffed a punt and The Falcons scored again. At halftime Air Force was ahead 35-0, and this was without starting Qb. Tim Jefferson who was injured in the first quarter. Connor Dietz stepped in and rushed 6 times for 87 yards,  including a 39 yd. td. dash. Mike DeWitt had a career day against the Lobos scoring four rushing touchdowns. Air Force, as a team had 335 rushing yards.

“Everyone is mad” said Crusoe Gongbay, “Mad after every game.” That includes the fans, or at least the ones that haven't moved on to basketball already. Loboland.com's Dennis Latta prophetically writes: "Obviously, a new head coach will try to turn the program around next year." Locksley got $700,000, the new coach will get more than that. I say that $800,000 to $1,000,000 should at least get us a few feeble tries. But, it won't happen with this current group of players, this bunch is beyond redemption. “We went into the game thinking we’d like to have a lot better effort than we had last week” George Barlow said.  Once again, We (the fans) didn't get it.

NMSU  34  Nevada 48

The schedule certainly doesn't favor The Aggies. After a long trip to Hawai'i they returned home to face off against a resurgent Nevada Wolfpack.  Behind the stellar play of Qb. Matt Christian the Aggies came out smokin' and caught the Wolfpack on their heels. Christian threw for 315 first half yards and connected with WR Taveon Rogers six times for 177 yds. and two touchdowns. As they headed into the locker room up 27-20, Aggie fans were grinning like a dirt farmer on the day his government subsidy check comes in.

However, they play two halves in football, and once Matt Christian aggravated a nagging left shoulder injury, the momentum shifted. Nevada Qb. Cody Fajardo who scored on four rushing touchdowns, tied the game at 27-27 with a six yard run in the third quarter. He quickly added another touchdown to give Nevada the lead for good at 34-27. The Wolfpack used their gang of four backs to rip through the Aggie defense, Fajardo, Mark Lampford, Mike Ball & Stephon Jefferson ran at will  against NMSU racking up 374 yds. on 48 carries total. 

The Aggies, who's running game consists of Kenny Turner, rushed 29 times for 48 yds. This broke Turner's streak of four games with 100 yds.+ rushing. With no ground attack to speak off, The Aggies were forced to drop back and pass on most downs. Making Christian an easy target for Nevada's aggressive defense. Nevada would sack him three time and then add insult to injury, by picking off three of his passes. 

On the Aggies  inability to stop Cody Fajardo from scoring, Teddy Feinberg sports scribe for The Las Cruces Sun-News overstated the obvious: "Fajardo scored four touchdowns on the evening - all on the zone-read run to the outside, a play the Aggies defended OK for much of the night until the Wolf Pack got on the goal line." Damn! those pesky goal lines. Cody Fajardo has now had career days against both UNM and NMSU, making him more feared in this state than a prolonged drought. 

The busted up Aggies now stupidly break from their conference schedule to travel all the way to Athens, Ga. for a game with Georgia.  NMSU also has a non-conference road game with BYU coming up. Even for a school like NMSU that's willing to go on the road and get throttled for cash, that's bad scheduling.  Boston McKinley or is that McKinley Boston? (I always forget, and I'm a card carrying Aggie) is to blame for these suicide missions, per shame!