Mike Locksley is an optimist.
He doesn’t appear at all worried that the UNM football team is headed for College Station, Texas, this weekend to face Texas A&M, a team that beat the Lobos 28-22 in Albuquerque last year.
This doesn’t seem to faze him, nor does starting quarterback Donovan Porterie’s past performance. Last season, Porterie threw two first-quarter interceptions. One was returned for a touchdown, and by the end of the first quarter it was 14-0 in favor of Texas A&M.
That was last year, Locksley said.
“I envision Donovan having a great game for us,” Locksley said. “I think we need to get behind Donovan because he has earned the right to be our starting quarterback and we have been really pleased with the way he has progressed and his leadership.”
Locksley said he hopes his optimistic attitude rubs off on his players.
“That is what we have sold our guys on,” he said. “I like to have tempo and energy. I like to talk about energy a lot.”
And the Lobos will need plenty of it come Saturday against the Aggies.
“That’s what college football is all about,” Locksley said. “To play at Kyle Field with all its tradition and pageantry — it’s a challenge.”
However, the first-year head coach doesn’t want his players to make the challenge bigger than it is and get lost in the atmosphere of 80,000-plus roaring fans.
Instead, he said he wants his team to be “in the game, not at the game.”
“Going into an opening game like this, most of the focus has to be on us, because so many times players start talking and worry about winning the game,” Locksley said.
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“As I told the team yesterday, winning is a by-product of preparation.”
Aggies head coach Mike Sherman, however, has a different view on the game. He’s more focused on what the Lobos will do, as opposed to what his team will do to stop the Lobos.
“It’s good that we have seen them before, because they have a lot of the same players,” Sherman told AggieAthletics.com during a news conference Monday. “But they are going to be different from the team we saw last year. So, we are going to have to respect them and take care of business.”
Locksley strays away from any negativity, instead focusing on whether the Lobos are mentally and emotionally prepared.
“We have to play with great effort, which we can control and not beat ourselves,” Locksley said. “We have very little room for error on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. We have to take care of the football.”
