New Mexico Football Report

 "We had everything before us, we had nothing before us"

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair" This is the tale of two cities, Albuquerque and Las Cruces,  two college football squads going in different directions.  We need not wait for the first snowfall to despair over the Lobos. "Now is the winter of our discontent" a pair of games into the season and they are toast.

The right thing to do, the honorable, manly thing to do, would be for Mike Locksley to just walk away.  Locks is not a FBS caliber head coach, he is in over his head, he lacks direction, imagination and leadership qualities. The man inspires only by intimidation, he can't recruit because nobody wants to play for him. In effect he has nailed his own foot to the floor and is now stuck in that one spot waiting for the hammer to fall.

College football coaches at this level operate on a different set of rules, they are given too much power for the what the schools get in return. For every Bronco Mendenhall or Chris Petersen there are a handful of Mike Locksleys. More and more they are of a brutish, arrogant nature, overly defensive and prone to verbal abuse. Sure, the same things were said about Vince Lombardi, but Locks is no Lombardi. You get away with it if you're great. Questionable coaching decisions can be overlooked if the payout is good.

DeWayne Walker, given much less to work with, competing in a lesser (and soon to be much lesser) conference is on a verge of making miracles happen. Why the difference? DeWayne Walker is a leader, NMSU has a franchise Qb. in Andrew Manley and Coach Walker inspires his players to rise up and play beyond their talent level. Other than the first half of the Ohio Univ. season opener, the Aggies have played with heart and pride. Which is something we haven't seen from the Lobos in a Long time (as in Rocky Long!)

Locks has yet to beat the Aggies and the way things look he won't beat them this year. He has been out recruited, not just within the Mountain West Conference, but within the state. DeWayne Walker has lined a Qb. stud and a corps of fearless receivers, to help maintain superiority over the Lobos. Please! Locksley, go away... these dark wretched days could be made glorious summer by your departure. 

NMSU 28 Minnesota 21

Last week I said, "Stranger things have happened, but an Aggie win over Minnesota would be very strange indeed." Well just call me Dr. Strangelove, The Aggies a team that had never been within 49 points of beating any Big Ten team pulled off what can only be called a mild upset. 

They're feeling Minnesota up north, The Golden Gophers are not a good football team. As things stand they'll be the cellar dwellers of the Leaders, Legends, Pitchers, Catchers or whatever the fuck the Big Ten calls their divisions. Knowing this takes a little something away from the Aggies' victory as does the Minnesota coach almost dying on the sideline.

The Aggies came out and throttled the Gophers. Just like Brock Lesnar in that YouTube video where he's blasting the varmints with a high caliber rifle, Gophers were flying ass end up in the air as the Aggies rolled across the gridiron. By halftime the goofy mustachioed shitkickers were up 19-3 and grinning like they had just fucked some kind of critter.

MarQueis Gray, who had sat out the entire third quarter came back in and rallied the Gophers to within a touchdown. Then with a chance to tie the game, snap up momentum and put the Aggies in their place, Gray and Minnesota choked... big time. 

Midway through the fourth quarter, Gray was stopped just short of a td on third down. The play was initially ruled a touchdown, but after a long look by replay officials the ball was placed at the one yard line.  After which, Gopher Rb. Lamonte Edwards was stopped one foot shy of the goal line by the Aggie defense.

NMSU burned five minutes off the clock on their ensuing drive, before punting the ball back to the Gophers. With Gray eating up big chunks of real estate, Minnesota marched 89 yards down the field to the Aggie 20 yd. line. Two incomplete passes brought up a 4th & ten with :20 seconds on the clock. 

That's when Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill collapsed on the sideline, thrashing his arms and legs violently in the throes of a seizure. The game was delayed for 15 minutes as Kill was attended to by emergency personnel. Once the game resumed, Gray and the Gophers still shaken by the sight of their coach going out on a stretcher, were unable to compete a pass play. This allowed the Aggies to run out the clock and claim a momentous win on the road.   

Andrew Manley was 20-31 passing for 288 yds. and 2 tds. Rb. Robert Clay carried 20 times for 93 yds and 1 td. Aggie receiver Taveon Rogers had a big game, 4 recs. for 88 yds.  2 tds. The Aggies' next game will be against their bitter I-10 rivals the UTEP Miners, who are 1-1 coming off a loss to SMU.

UNM 3  Arkansas 52

When the Lobos highlight the fact that they didn't allow any sacks (after giving up ten against Colorado St.) and didn't fumble the ball away. You know there wasn't much to talk about after Saturday's game The Razorbacks ripped the Lobos a new one 52-3, in a game that wasn't even as close as that score would indicate.

Arkansas outgained UNM 632-297 in total yardage, they dominated the Lobos in every single aspect, stopping just short of making them their prison girlfriends. There was no bright side for the Lobos, this was no moral victory (although 52 pts. is better than the 72 they gave up to Oregon in the season opener last year) 

Now we know how the Aggies felt during the Hal Mumme era. The Lobos showed up with nothing, their effort amounted to nothing and as fans we received nothing. "Obviously very disappointed in the loss" said UNM head coach Mike Locksley "Arkansas is a talented team and very deserving of their ranking" he then trailed off, almost as if talking to himself "We've still got a lot of work to do."

 UNM sophomore Qb. Tarean Austin was 15-28 passing for 162 yds. and was spelled by B.R. Holbrook who wasn't any better.  The UNM running game featured James Wright rushing 10 times for 20 yds. (a whopping two yards per carry) Crusoe Gongbay doubled Wright's average by carrying  2 times for 8 yds. 

The Lobos' next opportunity to score three points will be at home against The Texas Tech Red Raiders, a real honest to Gawd! Texas football team. Tech is well rested, coming off a bye week following a season opening win over Texas St. Univ. 

Afterwards Mike Locksley was heard to say: " A horse, A horse... my kingdom for a workhorse running back, that can carry the goddamn rock more than two fuckin' yards per carry"  And this concludes this week's performance of The Left Nut Players.... see you Tuesday with The Raider recap.