Entering his fifth year as head coach of the UNM football program, it appears that Rocky Long finally has things down.
In person, Long gives the appearance of a man who is comfortable with himself and his surroundings. And how could he not be? After all, he is coaching his alma mater. He’s taken a program that was on the rise under former head coach Dennis Franchione and continued to improve upon the foundation Franchione and his staff started.
Long has even created a few traditions of his own — the ferocious, unorthodox no-name defense, his use of walk-on athletes and, of course, using the enduring legacy of budding NFL superstar Brian Urlacher both to recruit new players and to motivate current ones.
Under Long, the Lobos have steadily improved as the years have gone by — UNM was 3-9 in 1998, 4-7 in 1999, 5-7 in 2000 and 6-5 in 2001 — adding one victory per year to the win column.
Expectations are high after the 2001 season, which ended on a bittersweet note. UNM finished the season with a 53-0 thrashing of New Mexico State University to become bowl-eligible, but let a bowl berth slip away the week before by losing a 24-17 heartbreaker to Colorado State University, which earned a berth in the inaugural New Orleans Bowl.
The big question for 2002 is whether Long can lead the Lobos to the upper echelon of the Mountain West Conference. That’s where teams like Brigham Young University, the University of Utah and CSU reside. That’s where teams like UNM, the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and the Air Force Academy are trying to consistently become.
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The Daily Lobo talked to Coach Long at the recent UNM football media day, held at University Stadium.
Daily Lobo: How do you think the competition for the running back positions is shaping up?
Rocky Long: We use a lot of running backs. I think all three of those kids will play a lot. We would like to have one we can count on in critical situations. It’ll be of great interest to all of us who actually step forward in camp. We’ll probably play all of them in the preseason in the first couple of games to see who performs the best in actual game situation.
Running back is kind of a dangerous position, too. You need more than one of them, because people at the position seem to get hurt more often than others do.
DL: What are your expectations for the year?
RL: My expectations for the year? I think we’re going to be a very competitive football team and I expect to be in every game. If we can find the key ingredient — and I think this is not a physical deal — I think if we can find the key ingredient into winning the close games we’ll have a winning record and continue to be on the streak of getting better every year.
But my expectation is that we’re going to be a very competitive football team. And there’s going to be a lot of real close games.
DL: Does the extra game against North Carolina State help in terms of preparation, especially having the early conference game against Air Force?
RL: I don’t know if it does or not. I think to be able to play against a real good football team early will help us later on in the season because we have some critical games in non-friendly environments. We play Air Force at Air Force, we play Colorado State at Colorado State. We play BYU at BYU and we play UNLV at UNLV. So in the conference schedule we play in a lot of hostile environments. That’s (North Carolina State) going to be a very hostile environment, plus it’s gonna be their officials. It’s ACC officials. So the crowd won’t be for us and you know we won’t get a break with the officiating. So it’s about as tough a position you can be put in and it ought to help us later on in the season.
DL: Which games are the key games or are they all key games?
RL: I’ll tell you exactly what I tell the players: We want to win every game and we’ll prepare to win every game and I think that, if we play well, we have a chance to win every game. But obviously there are games on our schedule that are more critical to the future of our team and the future of our program. I think conference games are a lot more important than nonconference games — because conference games are the ones that if you win enough of them, you get to go to bowl games and that sort of thing.
DL: Are you happy with the situation the Mountain West Conference is in with bowl games?
RL: Yes. I think four bowl games for an eight-team league is about as good as you can ask for and they’re all good. I haven’t spent much time in Memphis, but San Francisco — I love San Francisco. And I love Seattle. And I love Las Vegas. So I think the destinations are pretty nice, too. I haven’t spent much time in Memphis. Is Memphis a good place? But those other three I’ve spent a lot of time in and those other three are great.
DL: It seems like a lot was made out of your comment at the Mountain West media day a few weeks back about lack of respect the media has for the team. Do you think they may be overlooking the team?
RL: I don’t think they give our kids near enough respect. I could care less where they pick us in the standings. But I thought we have several kids who were deserving of preseason all-conference mention and we didn’t have any. I thought there were a couple other kids on offense who might’ve been considered as well.
I think if you have the next-to-the-best defense in the league two years in a row and you’re in the top 20 for defense two years in a row, you must have some players. We’re not doing it with ghosts or mirrors; we must have some decent players out there I don’t know.
DL: Do you think they concentrate on the defensive system?
RL: My opinion of the whole thing is our league, as a league, would just assume that we are no good. They would just assume we are a guaranteed win for everyone else in the league because they have favorites. Every league I’ve ever been associated with has favorites that they want to be the top dog because it gives you national recognition.
DL: What’s the one underrated aspect of the program now?
RL: I think the depth in our program has improved over the last couple of years so that you have the opportunity to use five wide-outs or have the opportunity to play four tight ends at one time. Or you might get in a wishbone set because you have enough running backs to be in a wishbone set, so I think it’s the depth of our program that allows us to be more wide open.
DL: Would you say that giving walk-ons a chance is becoming a trademark of the program?
RL: I think that’s unique to our program. Our football team is a bunch of no-names, a bunch of kids who weren’t highly recruited and a bunch of walk-ons. We’re a bunch of mutts. We’re a bunch of mongrels. That’s why no one else in this league gives us any respect. That’s why no one else in this league thinks we can play. That’s why no one else in this league wants to give us any notoriety.
Obviously if you’re one of the top defenses in the country, you’ve got to have some good players. But nobody thinks so — because they don’t want anybody from New Mexico being any good.
DL: How are things looking as far as walk-on players getting scholarships?
RL: Our program is as good or better than any other Division I program in the country as far as treating walk-ons the right way and giving them an opportunity to be successful. I think a lot of kids are misevaluated in high school. I think a lot of kids mature after they leave high school. I think a lot of kids have a work ethic and heart you can’t judge and if they get a chance to prove it, then they can prove it to you. And a lot of them do a great job at developing themselves while they’re here, so two or three years into the system they can play. But when they get here they’re not Division I players.
DL: Do you and your coaches use that as motivation much? It seems like there’s plenty of material.
RL: We don’t use that much. I think our players have a lot of confidence in their own abilities and as a program we could care less what anybody else thinks about us. And I think our players could care less. They get an opportunity to play every Saturday just like all those big name guys do.
DL: How much did spring practice solidify the coaches’ idea of where players are on the depth chart?
RL: I think there are certain positions that are solidified in spring practice. We come out of the season before and have a realization of who we think our best players are, and then, if they perform well in spring practice, they solidify their position. But there’s always a chance someone could come in in the fall and be a lot better than they were last spring and give some of those guys a run for their money.
I think our offensive line is pretty well solidified. I think our defense line is, too. Now we alternate so many guys on defense, it really doesn’t matter who’s first-team or who’s second-team, because they play about equal amount.
The spots we don’t have solidified, in our mind, are back up quarterback, running back and one of our corners — the corner opposite David Crockett — the left cornerback.
DL: As far as backup quarterbacks, there’s been a lot of talk about (former Artesia High quarterback) Kole McKamey. Are you going to look at redshirting him?
RL: Oh sure, we’d love to redshirt him if we could. Right now Kyle Krisitc is probably listed on the depth chart as the backup. We move Justin Millea, who came here as a quarterback and was playing safety, we moved him back. He’s a little bit older, a little more mature. He’s been in a Division I game — not as a quarterback, but he’s been in a Division I game before. Then there’s Kole McKamey. There’s four quarterbacks, and obviously Casey’s our starter. The backup will be determined the week before the first game.
DL: How important is Division I experience in picking who will be the backup quarterback?
RL: It’ll be basically picked on who performs best in practice. Now, the experience factor would come into effect if two of them were playing at pretty much an equal level. Obviously we’d go with the experienced guy then. But if one or two are performing much better than the other one, obviously he’d be the back up.
DL: Would you say Casey has a solid hold on the starting quarterback position going in?
RL: Yes, sir. The quarterback position has been troubling. We’ve had to have switches in the middle of the season the last few years.
DL: What factors went into that happening?
RL: Over the last couple of years, last three years, we haven’t had a quarterback who performs as well in games as he has in practice. We’d get through spring ball and two-a-days, and one of our quarterbacks would look like he was the best quarterback where there was no question in our mind that who the best quarterback was and he’d be our starter. Then when we got into the season, in live action, he didn’t perform very well, so we’d give our back-up a chance and our back-up performed better, so our back-up would become the starter … It’s truly by performance.
DL: What does Casey have going for him in terms of performance?
RL: Mostly because when he had a chance to start last year he performed better than any quarterback we’ve had over the last couple of years. The true sign of a quarterback is whether you win or lose and he was 5-2 as a starter. There have been a lot of great quarterbacks throughout history who aren’t statistically phenomenal, but their teams always seem to win. The bottom line is which quarterback gives you the best chance to win and Casey was 5-2 as starting quarterback last year.
