Lobos, Rams set to roll

Tim Graham

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1997 | 11:21 a.m.

Confidence is not in short supply.

Both sidelines will be brimming with it Saturday at 10 a.m. when Colorado State faces New Mexico for the Western Athletic Conference football title at Sam Boyd Stadium.

CSU won its last seven games to claim the Pacific Division crown at 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the WAC. New Mexico won its first five and then closed with three to win the Mountain Division at 9-2, 6-2.

Further boosting CSU's confidence is the fact the Rams are favored by 9 1/2 points over a New Mexico program that has not been to a bowl game since 1961, the year before the Lobos became a charter member of the WAC.

Saturday's game determines which team goes to the Holiday Bowl Dec. 29 in San Diego. The loser plays in the Insight.com Bowl Dec. 27 in Tucson, Ariz.

"We know we have the talent. We know we have the personnel and the coaches to come up with the schemes," said the Rams' All-WAC linebacker, Nate Kvamme.

"We've really grown this year. We care for each other. There's a strong belief. We're very confident in what we're doing. Both offensively and defensively, it's 11 guys working together. All 11 guys know the guy next to him can do his job."

The Lobos are not intimidated. Head coach Dennis Franchione's program, now in its sixth season, is based on an unwavering psyche.

"The challenge when I came here wasn't just to recruit more athletes," Franchione said. "It was also to change the attitude that was so negative and such a losing attitude. Somewhere along the line we had to believe in ourselves, believe we could win and develop the confidence that we could do it."

The Lobos' schedule was the foundation. Behind nonconference games against weaker foes Northern Arizona, New Mexico State and Utah State, it was a matter of success breeding success.

It went on to beat Brigham Young for the first time in 16 years and San Diego State for the first time in 13 years. The Lobos' losses were to Rice and Utah.

"The way our schedule went allowed us to build confidence," Franchione said. "We obviously didn't win all those games, but the fact we played in those games allowed us to build as the season went on. Our confidence level right now is as high as it's ever been.

"The BYU win, I think what made it big was the fact we defeated them only one time in the last 25 years. It was just one of the obstacles that sooner or later you had to overcome."

As big as beating the Cougars was to most outsiders, Franchione pointed to the triumph over the Aggies as internally monumental.

"Our turning point was the Utah State game," he said. "We came from behind and won the game on the road (25-22). It was a tough game. It was in inclement weather. That was the kind of game that maybe previous Lobo teams might not have won.

"We went to 4-0 and went into the open week feeling very good about ourselves, and our confidence soared. That's when everybody put their stamp on this program and said 'Hey, we're going to do this. We can do it.'"

For CSU, the axis came after a crushing loss. A 24-0 defeat at home against Air Force in Week 4 could have ruined CSU's campaign. But the Falcons fell twice along the way, while the Rams stampeded its competition 300-74 in their remaining seven games.

"This football team ... I don't know what happened to them," CSU head coach Sonny Lubick said. "I wish I could take the credit for it, but I can't.

"The players mentally got within themselves as a group and individually after the Air Force game and decided 'There's only one way you can win football games and that's if each of us takes care of our business.' The players took it upon themselves."

In regard to his team's confidence, Lubick recently was asked how it would react in a game with a team like No. 1 Michigan. He did not back down from the question.

"This run, I don't know if I can compare it to anything," said Lubick, who was the defensive coordinator at Miami (Fla.) from 1988-92 when the Hurricanes won two national championships. "They have really been a focused football team and a class football team. They have been handling their successes well. They know, for us to continue on, we have to play with everything we have.

"The team is excited about this. We're not a team that has been to 15 consecutive bowl games. We're still very hungry, want to do well and want to win a championship. The intensity and the spirit is very good."

Extra points

* SPREAD 'EM: The best two teams against the spread this year in Division I-A college football -- 112 schools in all -- are New Mexico (8-2) and Colorado State (7-2). The underground line for Saturday's matchup is CSU --9 1/2 with a total of 54. It is illegal to bet on college games that take place in Nevada or involve either of the state's two universities. Action on such games, however, is permitted in Mexico, off-shore and overseas. ... CSU played two games that produced no domestic wagering: 45-13 over Nevada-Reno and 45-19 over UNLV. But if the underground line had been available, the Rams easily would have covered both, making them 9-2 against the spread.

* TICKET SURPLUS: Plenty of seats are available for Saturday's game. According to the Western Athletic Conference's director of Las Vegas championships, Tina Kunzer-Murphy, just over half of Sam Boyd Stadium's 40,000-seat capacity is accounted for. Under 25,000 tickets are out, and not all have been purchased. New Mexico requested 10,000 tickets and CSU asked for 8,000. Both schools still are trying to sell those allotments, and a Denver Post story reported CSU has sold only 1,000. Any unsold portions will be returned this week. Fewer than 6,000 tickets have been purchased locally. This year's gathering figures to be a shadow of last year's standing-room-only crowd of 41,238 that saw Brigham Young post a 28-25 overtime victory over Wyoming in a game with Alliance Bowl implications. "Last year was such a different scenario," Kunzer-Murphy said. "We realized what a unique and magical situation we had last year." Kunzer-Murphy claimed a crowd near 35,000 would be acceptable Saturday.

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