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Monday, November 17, 2008

Lost Season for Lobos

By Greg Archuleta
Journal Staff Writer
          FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Senior tailback Rodney Ferguson was referring to a first-half gaffe that left UNM without any points after time expired during Saturday's 20-6 season-ending loss to Colorado State, but he also was summarizing the 2008 University of New Mexico football season.
        "It's always a letdown when you can't get in the end zone or you can't score points," he said.
        Welcome to UNM's offseason of discontent after capping a disappointing 4-8 campaign with the team's first four-game losing streak since 1998 — head coach Rocky Long's rookie season at UNM.
        Ten years later, he almost has come full circle, with the Lobos turning in their worst season since going 3-9 in '98.
        The underlying problem that has prevented Long from getting UNM to whatever is the "next level" after bowl-eligibility is getting an offense — and an offensive coordinator — to mesh with his highly successful pressure defense.
        "Whenever you're not winning games, someone has to be accountable and that is me," Long said earlier in the week. "It's not the players. If an offensive coordinator sends in a play that I think was the wrong call, that's my fault, not his, in reality. Because if I didn't have confidence in him calling the right things, I wouldn't have put him in charge."
        After Saturday's loss, in which UNM managed just six points in three trips in the red zone, Long said, "We haven't been able to put the ball in the end zone, that's for sure. If you take one game out of our season where we scored a lot of points, I'll bet that's the lowest point total we've had in 11 years that I've been the head coach."
        He's right. Take out the 70-point performance against San Diego State — and what an aberration that performance seems to be now — and the Lobos averaged 16.6 points per game for the other 11. That's 2.5 points fewer than that 19.1-point average in 2000, when UNM averaged 266.6 yards per game behind quarterbacks Jeremy Denson and Rudy Caamano.
        The offensive woes in 2008 obviously started with the season-ending injury to three-year starting junior quarterback Donovan Porterie during the Lobos' 56-14 loss at Tulsa in week four. Ask any coach in the country to give you one key to a successful season, and he'll respond, "a returning starting quarterback."
        Porterie, however, struggled mightily in his four games this season, and the offense didn't get any better with redshirt freshman Brad Gruner.
        Subtracting the Oct. 18 game against the Aztecs, the Lobos converted 12 of 35 opportunities in the red zone into touchdowns in 2008.
        Long and second-year offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin clearly were at odds during the last half of the season — Long being more critical publicly of the offense and Baldwin defending his unit in a 13-10 loss to nationally ranked Utah, saying it played well enough to win the game.
        Long said during the week he has no plans to make any offseason assistant coaching changes but acknowledged that he anticipates "losing a coach or two because that happens every year."
        Asked after Saturday's game whether he planned to return in 2009, Baldwin said, "You know, this is about us here today. It isn't about me. I don't comment on anything that's speculation."
        Long gives his offensive coordinators almost free reign but does reserve the right to make certain decisions on game day, including when to go for it on fourth down. Though Baldwin never has commented publicly on some of Long's decisions in 2008, he could be baffled by what appears to be a Long pattern of inconsistency.
        A touchdown pass negated by penalty against Brigham Young that would've closed the UNM deficit to 14-10 in the fourth quarter has been well-documented. Two plays later, however, the Lobos faced a fourth-and-21 from the Cougars 23. A successful field goal would have made the game a one-possession deficit. Instead, Long told Baldwin to try to get the first down or a touchdown, and a Tate Smith throw to the end zone fell incomplete. BYU scored on its next possession and went on to win 21-3.
        Two weeks later against Utah, the Lobos trailed 13-10 with four minutes left in the game when Long again elected to go for first down on fourth-and-3 at the Ute 48. UNM couldn't convert. Utah used the field position to pin UNM back at its 1 with less than two minutes left, and the Lobos couldn't get into field-goal range.
        Long, however, seemed to reverse his strategy a week later against UNLV. Trailing 27-20 with just less than four minutes left, the Lobos faced a fourth-and-five at the Rebel 43. Long sent in the punt team. The Rebels got a first down, forcing the Lobos to use all their timeouts and pinned UNM at its 31 with 36 seconds left.
        Gruner completed a pass to the Lobo 48 with 27 seconds left but didn't spike the ball. By the time he threw an incomplete pass, the Lobos had 12 seconds left and ran just one more play. Long clearly was irritated that Gruner, who didn't spike the ball in a similar situation against Air Force, made the same mistake again against the Rebels.
        Then came Saturday's game, in which the Lobos trailed 10-3 in the closing moments of the first half. Gruner drove UNM to the Ram 12 with 11 seconds left. A spike and an incompletion left :05 on the clock.
        Long elected to try one more play, rather than send in the field-goal unit. He said he hoped Gruner could make a split-second decision whether to find an open receiver or get rid of the ball before time elapsed. Gruner double-pumped on the play, and by the time he threw an incompletion, the half was over.
        "Coach Long said go for it, so we've got to play," Baldwin said. "We've got to throw it quick, and he didn't throw it quick. He tried to make a play; he didn't. We didn't execute."
        Long could be looking for his fifth different offensive coordinator and fourth in sixth years. UNM's offense has a reputation for being one of the most physical in the MWC but never has been able to translate a power running game into a conference championship. The one season UNM tried the spread-option, the defense fell apart and Long said that side of the ball lost its capacity for physical play.
        While UNM has enjoyed great success recruiting effective tailback and offensive linemen, it hasn't produced even an honorable-mention all-conference quarterback under Long, and outside of self-made wide receivers Hank Baskett, Travis Brown and Marcus Smith, has had little success beating schools for talented wide receivers.
        Long received a healthy raise that put his annual salary at $750,000 through 2012. He didn't suddenly forget how to coach after receiving that raise in August. But he now faces more pressure to produce a balance on offense and defense that has eluded his teams for 11 years.