It was a matter-of-fact declaration from an honest-to-the-bone coach: “If they stop believing in DeWayne Walker, then it’s time to do what you got to do.”
The condensed version: If they don’t believe in me, they might as well fire me.
Yet despite a comparative record to UNM head football coach Mike Locksley, NMSU head coach DeWayne Walker does not have the same amount of visible detractors. Hired roughly around the same time, Locksley and Walker — while similar in some respects — have forged divergent coaching paths less than two years into their tenures.
By the looks of it, this rivalry game merely symbolizes a battle between two of the most inept programs in the nation. The more sagacious, or perhaps just boldly daring, mind could make a case that the result of Saturday’s game could foretell of an impending shift of football power in the state of New Mexico.
Is this the changing of guards — or better yet, of flagships? Establishing a winning program is equal parts scheme as support. What UNM lacks, New Mexico State seems to have in abundance: backing of the coach.
‘He brought some hope to the program’
From what’s been told, Las Cruces remains a Walker stronghold, despite NMSU’s recent reputation as a coaching landfill. Since 2004, NMSU has gone through two head coaches, dating to today’s current regime.
Compounded with a long-running history of general mismanagement, NMSU Athletics Director McKinley Boston said, Walker’s duty is doubly as difficult.
“When you look at the history of neglect in multiple, multiple ways … you’ve got to deal with reality (of it),” he said in a phone interview Thursday.
That’s something, perhaps, not everyone understands.
One NMSU student told me he’d take Athletics Director Paul Krebs and Locksley over Boston and Walker any day of the week — even in spite of the UNM pair’s flaws. Yet, by and large, Jeffrey Ramirez, a sophomore at NMSU, said from his experiences, the Walker sentiment down south is overwhelmingly positive.
“I got to admit when he first got here, he brought some hope to the program,” he said.
Compared to Walker’s, Locksley’s approval rating is mixed at best and mercurial at worst. Locksley was not available for comment at Wednesday’s practice.
Yet some suggest Locksley’s credibility has spiked recently.
The Sports Animal radio sports personality Erik Gee said callers last year were resoundingly opposed to Locksley’s antics — roughly 80-20 — but since the Uptown Sports Bar incident involving Daily Lobo sports editor Ryan Tomari made its rounds through the media, he’s seen more people identify with Locksley’s plight.
“On the radio show, it’s probably split 50-50, and I would say for the last three weeks that the story came out about what did or what didn’t go down at Uptown Sports Bar, he’s become more of a sympathetic figure,” Gee said.
That largely depends on who you ask.
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For every supporter, it can also be argued that Locksley’s reservoir of goodwill is as shallow as the Rio Grande River. His 1-16 head coaching record and off-the-field baggage have some hesitant to embrace his program vision. In that respect, Walker doesn’t exactly mock up the word success, though he has be able to, for the most part, avoid the off-the-field death pits Locksley has fallen into.
With the exception of an arrest on the suspicion of drunk driving — a charge that was later thrown out by a Las Cruces judge — Walker has been a man of the community. That, Boston said, has padded some of the criticism lobbed at the program which is, more or less, in the same situation as UNM.
“My observation is that our fans are respectful of what he’s done so far,” he said. “I haven’t gotten any nasty phone calls or e-mails complaining about him so far.”
Which is more than Krebs can say.
‘They want to support the chicken’
How exactly did things change so rapidly?
For one, Locksley gutted the house that Rocky Long built, scrapping smash-mouth for offensive style, and hiring defensive coordinator Doug Mallory to retool the Lobos’ defense. Like Locksley, Walker brought in his own staff — yet he didn’t announce to the world that his team intended to put a third digit on Aggie Memorial Stadium’s scoreboard.
Saturday will determine the winless from the winners — and, on a larger scale, serve as a litmus test for what potentially lies ahead for two struggling New Mexico programs.
Just two years ago, if you were to do a straw poll of studious UNM and New Mexico State fans, most would concede that Locksley, the acclaimed recruiter and offensive engineer, had a better chance to succeed at UNM than his defensive-minded counterpart.
Count BleedCrimson.net editor Sam Wasson among those people. Yet suddenly, inexplicably, Wasson said he has adjusted his outlook — all of this, mind you, in the face of an 0-4 Aggie record.
“When you don’t have to fill the shoes of someone that’s universally liked and respected in the community, (it’s easier),” Wasson said, referencing Long. “Walker didn’t have to come in and replace somebody like that.”
Teddy Feinberg, the NMSU football beat reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News, said Walker replaced a coach in Hal Mumme who was hightailed out of town, making it easier for fans to embrace Walker.
“It’d be naïve to think they’d be happy with the 0-4 record,” Feinberg said. “But I think the realistic fan understands (Walker) didn’t exactly take over for Bill Belichick down here with the New England Patriots.”
Few disagree — except Walker himself — that Walker inherited a more favorable situation at New Mexico State than Locksley, who was primed with the task of taking over for the revered Long. Even fewer are opposed to the idea that Locksley would not be under such intense scrutiny had he not been riddled by off-the-field controversy.
Think Locksley has it bad?
Walker pointed to the fact that NMSU is in dire financial straits — coupled with the fact that NMSU hasn’t fielded a competitive team in a while. He said “it’s not even close” when asked to contrast UNM’s resources with NMSU’s.
“When you look at some of the conditions comparatively speaking, they have a little bit more versus what we have,” he said.
According to ESPN, New Mexico State had to ask fans last year to donate snacks for its players because the Athletics Department trimmed more than $1 million from its budget. Among other things, Boston has fostered understanding as to why $4.1 million annually was taken away from education and given to the Athletics program.
In noting that about 70 percent of Las Cruces citizens qualify for reduced lunch, Boston said it’s difficult to fill the stadium, even though season tickets sold for as little as $44 compared to $72 at New Mexico.
“The question is can we generate enough resources over time to remain consistently competitive in football? That’s a realistic question, and I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “People have to make choices of discretionary income, and do they typically support non-winning programs? No.”
It doesn’t help, Boston said, that Las Cruces has a “town and gown” mentality.
“I think there’s been disconnect in lots of ways between the university over time and the community and the fact that there’s a culture of losing,” he said. “It’s the question of the chicken or the egg, and fans, in general, don’t want to nurture the egg; they want to support the chicken.”
‘That’s all they’ve ever been. That’s all they’ll ever be.’
One could venture to say that there is neither an egg nor a chicken in the New Mexico nest.
UNM, unanimously (and elitistly) regarded as New Mexico’s flagship University, is on track to becoming nothing more than Albuquerque’s NMSU — that’s to say a program stripped of its tradition, whose malcontent and genuine indifference is highlighted by fans’ desensitization to losing.
Gee said the fan tide will turn once again if the Lobos lose to the Aggies on Saturday, despite a recent outpouring of support for Locksley on the radio.
“Boy, it will turn or people will just become apathetic, and that is the big thing, and Paul Krebs knows this better than anybody that is the biggest danger they are facing right now with this program,” he said.
Not since the 1998 and 1999 seasons have the Aggies beaten the Lobos in successive seasons. They have an opportunity to do so Saturday.
Even if that happens, Gee said, he doesn’t view it as a transfer of regional power. Year in, year out, the Lobos will continue to be a more progressive program.
“New Mexico State is cannon fodder for the big boys. That’s all they’ve ever been. That’s all they’ll ever be,” Gee said. “New Mexico States hopes, hopes, once in every four, five years they might be able to go 6-6 and be bowl eligible. The expectation at New Mexico is to be at least 6-6 and at least be bowl eligible.”
Expectations are something Walker said he is trying to instill in his program and its followers. That those expectations are noticeably absent has made for a smoother transition for Walker than Locksley.
“Every coach thinks they have the magic wand,” Walker said. “We’ve shown some improvement in this program; it just hasn’t shown up on the scoreboard. I think the naked eye may pay less attention to that because that’s not sexy enough.”
Sexy was the verbiage Krebs used at Locksley’s introductory news conference. So far, Locksley’s been about as sexy as Greta Van Susteren.
Still, despite clamoring for his job, Locksley said at his post-UNLV news conference that he didn’t feel the need for a vote of confidence from Krebs.
Walker gave him one anyway Thursday.
“If they believe, despite whatever else, in Mike Locksley’s vision, (they’ve) got to support him,” he said. “My whole deal is that the people that matter, and the people that make the decisions — not the media, not the community per se — the people that make the decisions (have to ask themselves), ‘Do you believe in this coach’s vision?’”
For Walker, the answer is a resounding “yes.”
