LAS CRUCES — By the grace of God, it mercifully ended without any need for overtime.
After Lobo quarterback Brad Gruner unfurled a gaggle of errant passes on the UNM football team’s final drive, and a last-gasp, intended-for-who-knows-who ball was intercepted, New Mexico State had its first win of the season. It was a 16-14 meat-grinding victory that made the seeing wish they were blind and the living wish they were dead under the lights at Aggie Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
“One that will sit in our craw for the next two weeks,” head coach Mike Locksley said, when addressing the media outside of the visitors’ locker room.
Except for the last three and a half minutes, the greater part of 56 minutes were emblematic of a game of Monopoly — long and languid.
The weeklong media gab was that Saturday’s annual meeting between UNM and NMSU’s football teams could end up being one of the most drab college football games in recent memory. Paying no attention to records or statistics, the Lobos and Aggies kept up their ends of the bargain.
The Vanilla Bowl was swirled full of passive-aggressive play-calling from both offensive coordinators Darrell Dickey and Mike Dunbar, each team playing not to lose (rather than win) in arguably its last winnable game on either’s schedule.
Between the two, the Lobos and Aggies punted 14 times and generated just 480 total yards of total offense.
They combined for 13 first-half pass attempts, instead utilizing their quarterbacks as extensions of the running game. Like it or not, that was the best-suited strategy, provided that Gruner, not B.R. Holbrook or Tarean Austin, started for the Lobos.
Yet it quickly lost its allure.
It got so bad that about midway through the third quarter three Aggie faithful scampered across the south end of the field, quickly looking to disguise themselves among a panorama of pink-clad fans behind NMSU’s bench.
One was promptly cuffed by a police officer and escorted out of the stadium. Yet the abhorrent display of ho-hum football Saturday was severely more criminal than the trio’s harmless act.
Not knowing what they were thinking, I can only assume that the three were motivated by philanthropy: People paid good money to be entertained, and neither team, to that point, was delivering.
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After hooking up with wide receiver Bryant Williams on a 42-yard pass early in the first quarter, Gruner completed only eight more passes. Repeated stalled drives forced Locksley’s hand. Looking for “a shot of adrenaline,” he chose to scrap quarterback Stump Godfrey’s redshirt and inserted him into the game with less than 12 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
While shifty on the ground, Godfrey was largely ineffective through the air, getting sacked as many times as he completed passes (twice). He also coughed up the ball late in the fourth quarter, giving a team Locksley said was on the “verge of giving up” an opportunity to snatch the lead late in the game.
The Aggies converted. Kicker Tyler Stampler booted a 22-yarder through the uprights with 1:56 remaining. Opposite him on the other sideline, James Aho did not get an opportunity.
“This bye week couldn’t come at a better time for us,” Locksley said.
What Locksley meant to say is it couldn’t have come sooner.
Trading series with Godfrey, Gruner endured his own set of struggles. He lost two fumbles. Yet, for the better part, he managed the game effectively — and it was Godfrey’s unmistakable error, not Gruner’s, which cost the Lobos the game.
A humble loser nonetheless, Gruner criticized himself for the mistakes, and ultimately, the loss.
“Being a quarterback and being in the position I’m at, I should be the least likely to turn the ball over. It’s my job to protect the ball; it’s my job to lead the team,” he said.
With that, a winless Lobo season might be in the clouds — not to mention a cloudy future for Locksley, despite Athletics Director Paul Krebs’ proclamation that Locksley will be evaluated at the end of the season. The Albuquerque Journal reported earlier that the University would have to buy out Locksley’s contract at an estimated $1.46 million to part ways with him this season.
Presented with the question, the head coach couldn’t say whether this was a low point for Lobo football — or likewise a swapping of regional power in the state of New Mexico.
“I only know Lobo football for the two years that I’ve been here,” Locksley said, disenchanted. “Obviously, it’s a definite low point for me and the program under my regime.”
Former head coach Rocky Long witnessed the same type deal in his first two years, both times losing to the Aggies in 1998 and 1999. Yet he went on to have a distinguished career as Lobo coach, helping UNM to eight straight bowl-eligible seasons.
Here in Las Cruces, Saturday’s game played out much like Locksley’s so-far short career: unexciting.
If only by the grace of God, Locksley might survive to see Aggie Memorial Stadium another day.
