Boom. Boom. Boom. Let me hear you say Aho!
A name scorned last week is now celebrated.
A 27-yard field goal in the waning seconds of the Colorado State game may overshadow any sour memory fans had about kicker James Aho. It all but solidified the UNM football team’s first win, a 29-27 thriller, and the first for the Lobos in more than a year.
“After it went in, I was just trying to find a way to avoid the big old linemen ambushing me,” Aho said.
For the last two weeks, Aho has been a subject of conversation after games — but for vastly different reasons.
In a game of horrible luck against BYU last week, Aho knocked three kicks off the goal post — two field goals and one extra point. The extra point actually bounced off the left and right post before the refs signaled it was no good.
Earlier that game, Aho’s kick was blocked, setting the tone for the subsequent mishaps. The Lobos ended up losing by five.
It looked like that might have been repeated again on Saturday. The Lobos scored their third touchdown of the night late in the third quarter, going up 23-21. Then Aho’s extra point was batted down.
With flashbacks from last week, Aho could have spiraled downward.
But the block was a product of breakdowns in blocking protection, and Aho said he got some encouragement from head coach Mike Locksley.
“When a coach supports you in what you do and tells you are not wrong in what you do, it helps a lot, especially in the mind of the kicker,” Aho said.
Aho has needed that encouragement throughout the season, since it’s been a streaky ride. He was 9-of-17 from field goal range going into Saturday, granted two of them were blocked.
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And four weeks into the season against NMSU, Aho failed in a similar game-ending situation.
With seconds remaining and the Lobos down three, Aho missed a 47-yard field goal that would have sent the Rio Grande Rivalry into overtime. Instead of being hoisted in the air by his linemen, Aho crouched motionless on the turf, clutching his head in disbelief.
Flash forward to Saturday: With a minute left, Aho was staring down a 49-yard field goal — two yards farther than his NMSU miss and one yard past his season long.
Luckily, Kasey Carrier’s 22-yard run set Aho up with a 27-yard chip shot. Carrier’s dash was probably seen by everyone in the stadium except Aho.
“To be honest I was not paying attention at all to the drive before the kick,” Aho said. “All I knew is we had gotten the ball back at pretty close range. I went back and grabbed my helmet. I stood back there for a while. I was kind of off in my own world. … To me whenever you pay attention you start over-thinking things, which messes up a lot of things in kickers’ heads.”
Aho was 3-of-3 in field goals against Colorado State, and the last was the most crucial.
Locksley said he never doubted Aho for a second.
“James is a great kicker,” he said. “I don’t agree with the categorization that he struggled all year. He had a rough game last week. But he has made some big kicks for us early on. I have the utmost confidence in him.”
