Lobos-Aggies rivalry game to be streamed on Facebook

ALBUQUERQUE — Lights, camera, action? Not quite. While last week’s season opener for The University of New Mexico football team failed to land a television deal, this week’s visit from New Mexico State at least has some broadcast rights attached to it. Just don’t look for it on TV. Saturday’s game against NMSU is being streamed live onto Facebook.

“I apologize to Facebook Live,” said Lobos head coach Bob Davie during his weekly press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “I don’t know a whole lot about it. You know, I guess it’s a good thing.”

He quickly added: “I don’t want to show my age, but it’s kind of a new thing to me.”

The schools were offered a spot on regional TV had the game been played in the afternoon. With the temperature in the Albuquerque area expected to be around 90 degrees by Saturday afternoon, the smart option was to hold off as long as possible and give Facebook a shot at the broadcast rights.

Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m., about an hour and a half before the sun finally sets.

Given his team’s somewhat sluggish start in last week’s win over Abilene Christian, Davie said the goal in preparation for the Aggies isn’t face time on the internet. It’s settling into the routine of studying film and learning more about his team’s own identity.

“At least we know what the target is now,” he said, saying the difference between preseason camp and the season opener is the chance for the players to face another team and the coaches to study game film against an opponent. “At least we now have video evidence of what we need to work on and what we need to improve on.”

To that end, the Lobos need to look no further than the offensive line. Slowed by an illness that forced starting left tackle Avery Jordan to the locker room early against ACU, the Lobos were forced to get younger and more inexperienced in a hurry.

Charlie Grammel slid into Avery’s spot while Ray Baylor, a backup to Grammel at guard, took his spot.

The shift created an imbalance in the line that siphoned some of the energy out of the normally efficient ground game. While Davie lauded ACU’s speed for some of that lack of production, he said the focus heading into the Aggie game has been about getting the line to kick into overdrive.

It all leads back to his mantra within the Tow Diehm Facility. He and the coaches routinely repeat the phrase, “Narrow the focus.”

The worst thing the team can do now is expand that focus, Davie said.

It’s one reason why the Lobos aren’t ruminating about last year’s loss to NMSU in Las Cruces, a setback that threatened to derail what was supposed to be a breakout year.

The Lobos bounced back from that, winning a share of their division title in the Mountain West and capturing their first bowl game in a decade. Davie said the talk around the south campus now isn’t so much NMSU as much as it is moving on.

“That [loss] seems like it was a long time ago,” Davie said. “This isn’t coach-speak, it isn’t coach talk. It’s about can we improve on Saturday night? That’s it.”

GAME NOTES

Somber note: Davie extended his condolences to the Locksley family over the death of former Lobo football player, Meiko Locksley.

The 25-year-old was shot and killed outside his home in Columbia, Md., on Sunday. He is the son of former Lobos head coach Mike Locksley.

“That’s the absolute parents’ worst nightmare,” Davie said.

Meiko attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque and enrolled at Youngstown (Ohio) State before returning to Albuquerque to play for the Lobos in 2011 as a walk-on. His father was fired four games into that season.

Rivalry: This will be the 108th meeting between the Aggies and Lobos. UNM leads the series, 70-32-5.

NMSU’s last win in Albuquerque came in 2011 with a 42-28 decision at University Stadium, the last of three straight wins in the annual get together. That’s the longest streak for the Aggies in the last 49 years when they won four straight from 1965-68.

“Nothing’s changed with the rivalry,” Davie said. “It is the old cliché of you really can throw out the records with this one.”