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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Title Is Elusive Goal for Lobos

By Rick Wright
Of the Journal
      Tale of Ekati.
    Racecar Rhapsody.
    Macho Again (with an asterisk).
    In case you've forgotten, or more likely never knew in the first place, the above are the fourth-place finishers in this year's Triple Crown horse-racing events. Macho Again gets an asterisk because he actually finished fifth, but two horses ran a dead heat for third and both finished in the money.
    The principle, though, remains the same; no one remembers the horse that finished fourth, unless it's a bitter bettor. And no one who finishes fourth in the Olympics gets a medal, only heartbreak.
    Sunday, it was announced that the UNM football team has been picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West Conference this fall. Though this wasn't announced, it's also true that the Lobos have the fourth-best conference record among MWC teams since the league began play in 1999.
    Put an asterisk next to that one, too, since TCU, which ranks No. 1, has been in the Mountain West for only three seasons. Keep in mind that fourth is better than fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and and a whole lot better than ninth. Take note that UNM, which hasn't had a losing conference record since 2000, just last season nudged erstwhile league kingpin Colorado State back to fifth in the all-time standings.
    And remember that in college football, unlike horse racing and the Olympics, running fourth doesn't mean leaving empty-handed. The Lobos finished fifth in 2006 but still went to the New Mexico Bowl.
    If the International Olympic Committee handed out medals the way football does bowl games, those medal platforms would stretch from Beijing to Pasadena.
    But, fourth? Depending on one's attitude and/or expectations, it's not bad and not good. Or good but not good enough. One step ahead of mediocrity, with mediocrity closing fast.
    Attitudes and expectations, of course, are no friends to a football coach.
    From 2002-04, UNM coach Rocky Long guided the Lobos to three consecutive second-place conference finishes. Then, in 2005, amid the highest expectations surrounding the program in more than three decades, the Lobos finished — you guessed it — fourth. Even last year's third-place finish, 9-4 record and New Mexico Bowl victory, it seems, hasn't persuaded the fan in the street that this once again is a program on the rise.
    And now, the Lobos are picked fourth. It's only the news media doing the picking, and the media has been wrong about the Lobos before. They — I mean, we— had the Lobos sixth in 2002. They finished second.
    Yet, in 2008, fourth seems eminently reasonable.
    TCU's invitation to the ball has been good for the league's profile but bad for the Lobos. Former UNM assistant Bronco Mendenhall has lifted Brigham Young back to its customary rung at the top of the Mountain West ladder. Utah, which shared third place with UNM last year, returns 16 starters (to the Lobos' 10).
    Long is a competitor, but he's also a realist. Year in, year out, New Mexico has neither the resources nor the population base to compete on an equal basis with BYU and TCU. His stated goal has been to make the Lobos competitive each year and — from time to time — leap up and grab a conference title.
    One goal accomplished, one still out there. The composition of the 2008 Lobos, with large holes to fill at wide receiver, kicker and the offensive line, suggests this won't be the year that conference title gets won. Third place seems a realistic and worthy goal.
    Fourth? That's for also-rans, cruel though it might seem.
    Life, and sports, tell us that.
   

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