It’s Now or Never
Lobo seniors shudder at prospect of never earning a win against Aggies
As freshmen sitting out the 2008 football season on redshirt status, Lucas Reed and A.J. Butler watched their University of New Mexico teammates defeat New Mexico State, 35-24, in Las Cruces.
If they figured that’s the way it always would be, they could have been excused; the Lobos hadn’t lost to the Aggies since 2002. And now? Four years and three losses to the Aggies later, Butler, Reed and 21 other UNM seniors desperately seek to avoid another status: finishing their football careers without participating in a single victory over their downstate rival.
No UNM senior class since the late 1960s has had that dubious distinction.
The Lobos and Aggies meet in Las Cruces on Saturday, for the 104th time, with bragging rights on the line.
“Every time we play those guys, it’s for the state title,” says Butler, a 6-foot-1, 220-pound linebacker from St. Petersburg, Fla. “(It’s for) state pride, for whoever owns New Mexico.”
Reed, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound tight end from Tucson, has started each of the past three Lobo-Aggie games. Of his hunger for a victory in the series, he says, “It just keeps getting more urgent each year.
“I really want to get this one, especially since it’s my last year, and I want to go out victorious.”
One needn’t be from New Mexico, Butler says, to grasp the importance of the Lobo-Aggie rivalry. Nor have the Lobos’ failures against NMSU the past three years, he says, stemmed from a lack of desire.
“The first year I came in, the older guys made it very clear to us that, really, this game is the biggest game of the year,” he said. “This has always been stressed to us, so we’ve just passed the message along.”
That message has been garbled, however, by mistakes on the field and turmoil in the program.
In 2009 at UNM’s University Stadium, coach Mike Locksley’s Lobos outgained the Aggies 356 yards to 218. But key penalties, a blocked punt, a crucial interception and a missed field goal attempt in the final seconds cost UNM a victory. New Mexico State prevailed, 20-17.
The following year, in Las Cruces, the Lobos fumbled the ball away four times and muffed a punt. The Aggies won, 16-14, on a late field goal.
“We had some big, selfinflicted mistakes and pretty much beat ourselves (in those two games),” Reed says.
Last year, the Lobos and Aggies met six days after Locksley was fired on the heels of an 0-4 start to the season.
During that week, UNM players and coaches said all the right things. But, Reed says now, “We were really down on ourselves. ... We’d had a really rough start.”
The final score — NMSU 42, UNM 28 — is misleading. The Aggies led 21-0 after the first quarter and were never threatened.
This year, the Lobos (1-2) enter the Aggie game coming off blowout losses at Texas and Texas Tech. The oddsmakers favor Aggies (1-2) by six to seven points.
Reed and Butler don’t see it that way.
Texas is ranked 12th in The Associated Press Top 25 poll this week, and the Lobos feel Texas Tech might actually be better than the Longhorns.
The Lobos emerged from those games, Butler says, better for the experience.
“Those games are behind us, so we’re going into this game very confident,” he says. “We’ve got a big opportunity to do something good, to represent our school and bring the ‘W’ back here.
“It’s been a long time since we had it.”
The past three years, UNM was winless entering the New Mexico State game. The Lobos’ 66-21 season-opening rout of Southern, Reed says, hasn’t been forgotten.
“We’ve got a victory under our belt now,” he says, “and we have a lot more confidence.”
LOBO COMMITMENT: ESPN.com has reported that William Udeh, a defensive end from Coppell (Texas) High School, has committed to UNM.
Udeh, 6-1 and 245 pounds, is the third commitment the Lobos have received toward their 2013 recruiting class. He joins Jadon Boatright, a cornerback from Liberty Hill, Texas, and Cleveland High School running back Romell Jordan.