Struggling Lobos stick with Tuioti
With yet another game out of reach, Davie kept freshmen QBs on bench
ALBUQUERQUE — Given the current state of the dilapidated Lobo football program, it only seemed fitting that the Dreamstyle Stadium public address system started playing Stevie Wonder’s 1972 hit “Superstition” during a break in the first half of Saturday afternoon’s homecoming game.
The University of New Mexico was trailing Hawaii 28-3, lulling the announced crowd of 12,617 into a silent stupor. The Warriors went on to a 45-31 victory, dropping the Lobos to their fifth straight loss and to 2-6 overall, 0-4 in the Mountain West Conference.
If you’re scoring at home, it means UNM must win its final four games to reach bowl eligibility.
Saturday’s loss ended a rough week for the Lobos, who lost starting quarterback Sheriron Jones to a suspension Wednesday when he was cited for indecent exposure in a parking garage on the main campus. It left just two able-bodied (and unsuspended) quarterbacks on the roster.
Sophomore Tevaka Tuioti got the start against the Rainbow Warriors and, statistically speaking, wasn’t bad. He passed for 293 yards and two touchdowns but wasn’t able to do anything during a decisive first half that saw Hawaii build an insurmountable 35-3 lead.
He missed several open intermediate throws, drawing boos from the handful of fans scattered around the western grandstand behind the UNM bench.
“The numbers are the numbers, the biggest number was 35-3 at halftime,” Lobos head coach Bob Davie said. “I’m not delusional.”
Moments after Tuioti failed to convert on a fourth down play in the second quarter, the stadium’s sound system turned to Stevie Wonder for some entertainment. Without much ambient sound to block out the lyrics, the line “When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer,” made a lot of sense.
Truth be told, there’s not much about this year’s Lobos that makes much sense. That’s especially true of an offense that didn’t start moving the ball with any regularity until Hawaii opened a 45-10 lead in the fourth quarter.
UNM scored 21 unanswered points and had the ball in Rainbow Warriors territory in the final two minutes before finally running out of gas when Tuioti threw an ill-advised pass straight into the arms of Hawaii’s Ikem Okeke at the goal line.
At one point in the second half, he completed 11 of 12 attempts.
Minus Jones and essentially down to just Tuioti, the Lobos never turned to redshirt freshman Trae Hall.
Hall remained on the sidelinesas emergency third-stringer Connor Genal, who stayed right where he’s been all season – idle on the bench during a redshirt freshman season.
Asked if there’s an advantage to knowing he doesn’t need to look over his shoulder worrying that there’s a proven backup waiting to take his spot, Tuioti shrugged it off.
“You know, I never looked at it that way,” Tuioti said. “For me personally, whenever the coaches call me, I’m just here to play ball.”
That’s a far cry from what he showed a few weeks ago when he deferred to Jones instead of coming into the game against Colorado State, saying it was Jones who gave the Lobos a better chance to win the game.
Davie said it’s all a matter of giving Tuioti time with the starters, that he needs to feel comfortable with what he’s doing on the field.
“We talked about Trae Hall. It’s just we need to give Tevaka more reps,” Davie said. “Tevaka is the guy we’re going to ride the rest of the season.”
Tuioti did miss a wide open Jordan Kress for what looked like a sure touchdown early in the game and was off the mark on several other throws, often missing receivers with balls that were too high and too far.
“He does make some throws but he misses throws,” Davie said. “I think that’s the point that you make, not that you expect him to be [Hawaii quarterback] Cole McDonald every throw, but we leave so many throws out there.”
With four games left, it appears the lost cause that is Lobos football is putting all its chips on Tuioti in hopes of finding any kind of pulse moving forward into another long offseason.
Unless, of course, for those superstitious rumors about job security.