Albuquerque Journal

To Win, or Not to Win? Stage Is Set for Questions
RICK WRIGHT Of the Journal

O
pening night onstage, I’m sure, is fraught with anxiety. Still, when “Mamma Mia!” made its debut, I’m pretty sure the leading lady never got cut-blocked in the middle of “Dancing Queen.”
   
When Hamlet first clutched the skull of his deceased pal Yorick, I doubt that anyone tried to force a fumble.

   
Saturday, when the New Mexico Lobos open their 2008 football season at University Stadium, the only script will involve a handful of offensive plays at the start of the game.
The only score will be a thoroughly non-musical set of numbers on a big board. And there’ll be a bunch of guys dressed in purple whose sole purpose is to make the Lobos fold like a bad Broadway play.
   
A college football opener is, perhaps, the most unpredictable thing in sports.

   
Pro teams in the major sports have exhibition games. High school teams usually scrimmage other high school teams before playing for real.

   
Saturday, the Lobos will line up against the purple and white-clad TCU Horned Frogs having tested themselves only against themselves.

   
Saturday afternoon, seven days and some two hours before they’ll line up against TCU, fifth-year seniors Wesley Beck and Rodney Ferguson — veterans of a combined 10 preseason camps — were asked how prepared the Lobos are.

   
“I think we’re very ready,” said Beck, a starting nose tackle. ... “I just feel like, as a team, we have great unity, and I think we came into this
fall camp with a chip on our shoulder, knowing who the first game was against.”
   
Historically speaking, it’ll take more than a chip on the shoulder to beat TCU. A whip and a chair would help; the Horned Frogs are 3-0 against the Lobos and have outscored them 113-49 since entering the Mountain West Conference in 2005.

   
In terms of motivation, as opposed to preparation, Ferguson has a truckload. Since missing last December’s New Mexico Bowl because of academic problems, UNM’s star running back has been aching for center stage.

   
“I’ve been mentally ready since the bowl game,” he said, “but (opening against TCU) just adds to it. We haven’t beat TCU and we haven’t had a schedule this hard, so this is the year to knock down some barriers.”

   
Ferguson, a Manzano graduate who came to UNM in the fall of 2004, said he believes this is the best
preseason camp he has experienced.
   
“I think we’re more ready,” he said, “because of what’s at stake this year.”

   
Beck, a former walkon from Houston, said awareness of the 2008 schedule — the opener against TCU, nonconference tests against Texas A&M, Arizona and Tulsa, no bye week in a 12-game slate — got the team’s attention long ago.

   
“We know it’s gonna be tough on us,” Beck said, “so we made sure we did all the mental things and the physical things to (get ready).

   
“I think we’re going in with a great mind-set. The coaches gave us a great game plan, and we’ve been working on that. Hopefully, that will proceed into the game.”

   
The Lobos’ record in opening games has been checkered, at best, under coach Rocky Long. They’re 4-6 during his tenure and riding a two-opener losing streak, failing to score a
touchdown in defeats to Portland State and UTEP. Then again, UNM opened with a 26-6 thumping of UTEP in 2001 and smashed Texas State-San Marcos 72-8 in `03.
   
If the Portland State loss arguably was UNM’s most disastrous opener, its 25-21 upset of Brigham Young in 1980 arguably was its best. Long, then an assistant coach, watched as defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn’s blitzing defense dismantled the Cougars and repeatedly sacked quarterback Jim McMahon. Long built his own defensive scheme on those same principles.

   
Unpredictable? Absolutely, to the extent that coaches probably would rather not play an opener. But you kind of have to.

   
When the curtain goes up on Saturday, expect to see plenty of hits.

   
But will the Lobos be one? Check out the reviews on Sunday morning.