Lobos may make run at MWC title

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2003 | 9:03 a.m.

Editor's note: Fourth in a series previewing MWC football.

NEW MEXICO AT A GLANCE

Rocky Long and his New Mexico Lobos find themselves in unchartered territory entering the 2003 season.

The Lobos, who lost to UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl, 27-13, after finishing a surprising second in the Mountain West Conference a year ago, are picked to battle Colorado State for first place in most preseason MWC polls.

For a school that has a history of being picked to finish in the lower echelon of the conference, the question is how will the Lobos react to being the hunted instead of the hunter?

With 19 starters back, including six members of the preseason all-Mountain West team, even Long is interested to see how his veteran squad responds to the unusually favorable preseason publicity.

"I'm not sure I'm worried (about they'll handle the hype)," Long said. "It will be interesting to see how our players respond to it because if they say they don't read about it they're lying.

"Yeah, it will be interesting for us because it's new. It's not going to change our approach as coaches and it hasn't to this point. Now Colorado State (which was picked to repeat as MWC champs), they're always picked up there. They're the flagship team and they know how to handle it. It has no effect on them. And hopefully it won't have any effect on us."

Long has never been a big fan of preseason polls.

"When we were ... being picked seventh or eighth and had no players selected to the all-conference team, I didn't believe it then," Long said. "Picking us to finish second and having guys on the preseason team doesn't mean I'm going to believe it now. I could care less where we are picked in the preseason."

Still, there are many who believe that the Lobos could be the team to beat this year in the MWC.

Besides returning 10 offensive starters, including steady quarterback Casey Kelly, first-team all-conference running back DonTrell Moore and all-conference linemen Claude Terrell and Jason Lenzmeier, the Lobos have a very attractive schedule. New Mexico plays four of its seven conference games in Albuquerque against arguably its four toughest MWC foes: Colorado State, BYU, Air Force and UNLV.

Defensively, the Lobos placed a conference-high three players on the preseason all-MWC squad: linemen D.J. Renteria and David Kegler and strong safety Brandon Ratliff. Seven starters return on a unit that finished second in the Mountain West in team defense and 30th nationally allowing just 332.8 yards per game, including just 114.9 yards on the ground.

Long developed his reputation for molding strong defenses with his blitz-from-all-angles approach that has many in the MWC trying to copy these days. The scary thing for MWC foes is that the Lobos believe their offense will be much better this season.

"We're going to win because of the offense this year," senior tackle Justin Colburn told the Albuquerque Journal recently.

Moore, who rushed for 1,134 yards en route to MWC freshman of the year honors, says he's primed for an even bigger season after spending the summer in the weight room.

"I'm stronger, I'm faster, I'm slimmer," said Moore, who is 215 pounds.

If the Lobos come up with an offense that is anywhere close to being as effective as their defense, look out.

"We have what we think is a good team coming back," Long said. "But I think this league was a very young league last year and everybody has a lot of good players coming back."