"Dog Days bright and clear, indicate a happy year
but when accompanied by rain, for better times our hopes are vain."
It's hard to come out of these contests on a positive note when the scores are so lopsided and the teams so mismatched. As summer wanes and autumn creeps into our days and nights, must we sacrifice a brown dog to appease the rage of Sirius? Success on the gridiron is elusive and once discovered it can be a fickle mistress. UNM is locked into an impulsive pattern of "keeping up with the Jones" that leaves it no choice but to pursue football glory with Quixotic impracticality. UNM is suffering from "over-idealism" but it doesn't suffer alone.
It's absurd for cash strapped educational institutions to invest millions of dollars in order to chase the tail of the dog (a BCS bid) in hopes of getting invited to a BCS bowl game with few returns on your initial investment. Now we're seeing schools like Boise St. toss caution to the wind, like some giddy teenager with a bad case of Yolo and the keys to a fast car. All that, just to step up one more rung on the ladder to a mythical national championship (and until there's a true college play off system, that's all it really amounts to)
The Texas and Texas Tech games are more indicative of what UNM can't do on the football field, than what they're capable of doing. "The Quixotes of this Age fight with the Wind-mills of their owne Heads" or by proxy through the young men lured to their campus by any means necessary, "Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup" Thy loyal sons are we, Marching down the field we go, Fighting for thee. RAH! RAH! RAH! As the days fly past will we lose our grasp on our ability to distinguish between reality and imagination?
Hail to thee New Mexico, now we pledge our faith to thee (and by faith we mean dollars) never shall we fail... to ask this poor state for more ... fighting ever, yielding never, but seldom winning. Clap for the Wolfpack - you gonna dig 'em till the day you die. Across the country, the turnstiles are turning at an ever slower rate, empty seats dot the stadiums, where once a solid sea of humanity rooted for their armoured football warriors. "The weekend at the college didn't turn out like you planned"
At least, attendance is one area where UNM is holding steady. That 28,000 seems like a million compared to the U. of Miami and Univ. of Maryland, who find themselves playing in front of a few thousand fans. Fallout from the Penn St. fiasco, a bad economy or a perfect storm of indifference brought on by the greedy scramble to realign the college football landscape without regard to the fanbase or traditional rivalries? "The things that pass for knowledge I can't understand"
Far above Rio Grande waters,
with its waves of brownish goo
Stands our noble Alma Mater, glorious to view
“We’ve got some problems, we really do. We’re going to get exposed against teams like Texas Tech.” Bob Davie, head coach UNM.
A killing frost and a brutal schedule will surely kill these Lobo whelps, “That’s what you call getting exposed right there,” first-year New Mexico coach Bob Davie said. “We knew coming in here that it was going to be difficult. I knew this would be a more difficult game than Texas, just because of their style of offense against our defense. But, to be honest, I didn’t think we’d be that bad on defense" Football is a game of stops and starts, if you can't stop your opponent's offense.... you start to lose faith in your defense.
“If (Texas Tech coach) Tommy Tuberville hadn’t called them off, they would have scored a lot more points.” Playing without starting free safety Freddy Young and then having DB Matt Raymer and Cranston Jones leave with injuries on the game's first series, spelled doom for UNM's out manned defensive unit. “It hurts, because they’re practicing all week and they get all the reps and they know what the calls are,” said junior linebacker Dallas Bollema, who was in on a career-high 14 tackles.
“But we’ve got to have new guys jump in and be ready and available to go. That’s football.” Bollema concluded, to which The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal retorted "Football?... too often, this game resembled a track meet, a one-side one, at that" The Red Raiders moved up and down the field, like they owned it, which they do. But, that's often the case when these two teams meet, whether the game is Lubbock or Albuquerque. The Lobos did manage one offensive touchdown on a glorious 17 play, 79 yard drive... boolah, boolah!
Six of the Lobos eight first downs (for the entire game) came on that one drive. UNM's offense could only muster 127 yards of total offense, 43 passing. "They were just where they were supposed to be, making the right plays, the right reads" said Lobo RB Chase Clayton about the Tech defense. Hmmm... maybe they got hold of the Lobo playbook? or as Marty Schottenheimer once said, "I could give you our playbook a week in advance and still beat you on any given Sunday" (mind you, that's not an exact quote, but you get my drift)
There's few stats worth mentioning on the Lobo's end, but Texas Tech had a day that would make bean counters swoon. Seth Doege had another career day against UNM, passing for 302 yds in the first half alone. The Red Raiders rang up 455 yds total offense during those first two quarters, paced by Eric Stephens 85 yds rushing. Doege would finish with 340 yds. on 27-35 passing, including SIX touchdowns. The Red Raiders also rushed for 325 yds, averaging almost 8 yds. per carry, for the sum total of 702 yards total offense, that's fucking awesome!
Lobo So. Chase Clayton accounted for a good chunk of the Lobo total offense during a 98 yd. kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter. “The kick-return team blocked it perfect,” he said. “I just hit my gap, hit the hole and turned the burners on.” Clayton had a 98 yd. return against Southern, so he's good for one every other game. Fr. Qb. Cole Gautsche led all Lobo rushers with a paltry 36 yds. B.R. Holbrook (who shouldn't be running the ball) carried 10 times for 9 yds.... that's what you call negative yardage.
Holbrook completed 6 of 11 passes for 43 yds. and Gautsche, for the second consecutive game failed to complete a pass. In order to keep Holbrook alive, if not healthy the rest of the season, New Mexico has opted for the "two headed monster" option at quarterback. That's two ugly quarterbacks with some really ugly stats. The Lobos will actually have a fighting chance next week as they travel down I-25 to face off against in-state rival New Mexico State Univ. Let's win one for the Gipper, or better yet let's just win one!
"Wolf, my Wolf! waiting for you has made me ill,
your lack of success has soured the mood
Do you not hear your whelps pining from hunger?
NMSU Aggies 28 UTEP Miners 41
I would never say that the UTEP Miners are a good football team, because they're not. Yet against the Aggies they play like world beaters, go figure? In 2011 coming off a huge road win over Minnesota of the Big 10, NMSU was primed to hand the woeful Miners a beating, instead Andrew Manley goes down for the season and UTEP stumbles its way to an ugly win. Expectations weren't as high going into this year's game, but nonetheless, NMSU was expected to put up a fight.... they didn't.
For UTEP it was their fourth straight victory over the Aggies in the epic "Battle of I-10" series that dates back to leather helmets and actual pigskin balls. In fact, the rivalry even pre-dates I-10, to when it was known as "the battle of that dirt road that connects those godforsaken burgs along the border" Ho-Hum! excuse for not getting all worked up about this game, but it's only NMSU & UTEP, between them they've amassed a legacy of college football futility that would be damn near impossible to match.
"We had them on their heels in the first half. We were executing real well," UTEP head coach Mike Price said. "We're tough, we're aggressive and we have great character. We get up for every game." Price is an inebriated lame duck blowhard playing out the option year of a contract that won't be renewed. He has the luxury of running his mouth whether UTEP can back up his words or not. I will say this for Price and the Miners, compared to say UNM or NMSU, they are tough, and that will get them another 4 win season and a new coach next year.
They do keep score in college football, which means that you have to score points, at times by the bushel. Coming into Saturday's game UTEP couldn't find the end zone, that changed against NMSU. The Miners opened the game with two scores on their first two possessions. On the other side of the ball, UTEP's defense forced the Aggies to punt four times, plus one NMSU turnover. The Miners jumped out to a 27-0 lead before, NMSU finally scored just before halftime. Game over... thanks for coming and see u next year, Aggies!
In all fairness to NMSU, they did come to life in the second half. Andrew Manley started to connect with his receivers and following a 1 yd. plunge by Tiger Powell (that's about his avg. per carry) the Aggies had narrowed the score to 27-14. UTEP however, would need just three plays to respond, stretching their lead to 34-14. The Aggies would score two more times with the Miners matching them on one, but by then it was garbage time, as the cleaning crews swept in after the fans cleared out in droves. Last one to Chico's Tacos is buying!
The numbers don't lie, Nick Lamaison had his best game of the year, 21-32 passing, 300 yds., 4 touchdowns and no interceptions. WR Jordan Leslie had a career against the Aggies, 7 catches for 147 yds. and a touchdown. UTEP added 177 yards rushing led by Audrey Golden with 71 yds. Andrew Manley recovered from a slow start to finish at 20-47 for 290 yds., 3 tds., 1 int. As a team NMSU rushed the ball 35 times for 112 yds. For an individual running back those would be good numbers, for a team that's just pathetic.
Next week the Aggies load up the six shooters and get to do some varmint hunting as the UNM Lobos strut into town with their fancy new coach and high faluting triple option offense. I have to give NMSU the edge in this one, Andrew Manley is fully capable of decimating the Lobo defense in the same fashion as Seth Doege. UNM can't pass, can't run and their defense spends too much time on the field to be effective beyond the first half. Either way, at least one D-1 FBS school in New Mexico will be victorious.
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