Sorry about the lack of blog activity the last couple days everybody. I love the blog and value everyone who reads and contributes, I just had to get away for a few hours. Burnout central over here.
OK, lets discuss the Nevada game. First off, absolute heartbreaker. Did anyone not see it coming? When NMSU scored with about 3:30 left, I knew something bad would happen. It was terribly obvious. That's what happens when you lean so heavily on your offense to win games. The only time things are safe are when there is 0:00 across the board. Otherwise, anything is possible with this team.
In the pregrame prediction I said NMSU would be hurt by Lippincott and that he would run for 150 yards and two TD's in a Nevada 34-30 win. Money on the yardage (148) but he came up short on the scores (0) in a 40-38 victory. No worries though, as Kaepernick more than made up for it, accounting for all five scores, two on the ground. Was he that great or was NMSU that bad on D? Combination of both probably. On some carries, nobody was around the ball carrier and on most carries, no one touched the runner until they were at least five yards downfield. Nevada got chunks of yardage in the ground game. That combo is really tough to defend. Lippincott is the key. They playfake to him and then have a run-pass option with the QB. And the freshman is electric.
I said NMSU would have a big night throwing it and was right. Chase Holbrook had a great game and it was completely overshadowed in the loss. He didn't turn the ball over and was a leader. I was impressed by Chase. A.J. also stepped up. Say what you want, but Chase, A.J. and a healthy Chris next year? Watch out offensively. Those three need to stay healthy for their senior seasons and it will be fun to watch.
Of course people will point to Young's miss, but what about the kickoffs? How can you give Nevada that type of field position? The Wolf Pack consistently got the ball at midfield. That has absolutely killed the Aggies this year.
Kaepernick was a buzz saw through the defense, but really that unit gets no help. Routinely put in poor positions. The kickoffs put them in a handful of binds, the team missed on a fourth down conversion in the second quarter around the Nevada 40. Buries fumbled on the first possession around the Nevada 35. I thought the best playcall of the night was a punt, I'm not joking. Facing fourth down from the fringe of Nevada's territory and down 20-17 with momentum, I was sure that the team would go for it. Instead, they punted. I liked the call. That's football, pin the team deep and at least give your D a chance to make a play. After getting a first down, the Wolf Pack punted it back and NMSU took back over at the 50. Great field position! And they cashed in, Holbrook shovel pass to Harris from eight yards out. Gave them the lead.
I wrote a follow article for the paper. Addresses certain issues surrounding the team, many topics discussed above. Here's the link, hopefully it works. If not, check out the LC Sun websight.
http://www.lcsun-news.com/sports/ci_7371013
Whatever, it's all 20/20. Hard game to lose. Still, saw it coming from a mile away. That made it even harder.
TF
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14 comments:
Looks like we will end the season, 5-8 and in 7th place in the WAC.
I just don't see us beating San Jose or Fresno State.
Utah St. is as bad as it gets and we should beat them. Then again, the Aggies find a way to play Patty Cake w/ bad teams.
I hope those Seniors get a few more wins but, I'm not really optimistic about the FB team anymore.
Hey, BB just started!
Teddy, giving the ball to Buries on the 27 yard line with 10 seconds to go was not prudent. He had fumbled on the first drive and left the game with an apparent serious leg cramp, and he is a pounder who off-sets many positive gaines rushing with negative yards lost. With T. Glynn out for the rest of the season, what does our RB depth look like going into the San Jose game? Is winning three straight games possible for bowl eligibility consideration?
AS I predicted earlier in the season, NMSU's kicking game under Roy Gerela will seriously hurt them. The short kickoffs, two games lost by missed field goals? Yep, it looks like Gerelas doing the same thing he always does. Nothing! He gets these kids that have some talent and when he gets done with them, well you can see what the results are. Mumme is just as bad. He is lost at the kicking game. Why would you let a kid that is struggling at kickoffs keep putting you in the hole every kickoff? It makes no sence at all! They had two kids on the roster last year, (juniors) that could consitently kickoff at least 60 yards. Where are they, and why didn't they come back? In fact why is it no kickers return to Hal and Roy for a second season? Maybe they know something we don't!
Teddy,I read your interveiw with Mumme in the LCT. Good job. How can he possibly defend his kicking game? He said that he doesn't make the rules but he sure does make lame excuses!! The kickoffs got moved back 5 yards, so what? That's still is no excuse for kicking the ball out of bounds twice in one game. I can't believe that he can't get someone who can kick the ball deep with decent hang time. This all comes back to his kicking coach Gerela. What the heck is he doing with these kickers? I would love to see a comparison yard for yard of other teams who also must deal with the new rule change. I bet they deal with it just fine. I don't hear any other coaches crying about the 5 yard deeper new rule. As usual Mumme is just full of excuses to cover his cover his rear.
I though the run play that was called was perfect, and if we could of got about 5 or 10 yards, and called a time out we would of had a better field goal. The reason why we have no kicker is because the kicker we had recruited to NMSU was declared ineligible, so you can't blame the ST coach for us not having a kicker, because we did, and the kid didn't make the grades, so he had to red-shirt. I thought if we had about 5 or 10 seconds more we would of won, but we still have a chance at a bowl game, and I'm not giving up on this team yet.
I don't care who coach's the aggies either and I think we all want the same thing, and that for the aggies to win and the stands to be full. I will say this. I don't think it is time to changes "horses" If you look around college football you can see the result of this.
1. Kansas- Magino (sp) there coach has been there 6+years and they were low, low, low but he has got his system in place and turned the corner this year.
2. Houston-Art Briles has been there a while and they took there lumps and went 0-12 I believe, and now they are going competing for there second straight C-USA title.
3. UConn- Randy Edsil has been there with little sucess for a I believe 8+ years, and look at where he has them.
4. Jim Levitt at S. Florida nuff said
5. Rocky Long-has had his ups and downs at UNM, but he has built a solid program and they are going in the right direction.
6. Gary Pinkle-Mizzu has been there a while and built a decent dispite people calling for his head in years past.
I think we need to truthful with ourselves when we do a self-examintion of our program. It isn't the most covited job in D-1 football, little fan support, tough conference, and past APR issues make it tough. I think this team has gotten better, we need depth, and injuries have plagued us. Mumme has put a decent team on the field, and if you replace 10 minutes of sub-par football with good football this team has 2-3 more victiories. Mumme needs time to finsish what he started, and I think that is two more years. If no improvement has been made then we can start calling for his head.
Some positives
1. Second least penalized team in the WAC
2. Great Offense (Chase, CW, JB, and DD and Cleaver, Harris, and improved Oline)
3. Young D with room to grow and improve. (House, Cotton, Fantui)
4. Depth should be better with the Red and Grey shirts we have coming in.
5. APR issues should be behind us. First full recruiting class in 3 years.
6. Recruiting class is starting off solid.
One of the most unfortunate things about this year is that injuries will likely serve as an excuse for the team's awful play. Mumme can play right in to the injuries and say the outcome of this season has been changed by all the injuries.
I can't buy that argument. We saw glimpses of how bad this Aggie team was during the Ark PB game, where a relatively healthy team struggled to beat a bad I-AA. This embarassment was preceded by the struggle against SLA.
I was actually in El Paso on work at the end of the week, and made it up to the Nevada game. Our offense did a heck of a job, especially in the second half. Chase battled, didn't take a lot of sacks, and stayed patient while converting in critical situations.
I actually like the punt call when down by three and I like the draw play. A college team has to rely on having a kicker that can make the big kick on the line. Once again, our defense and special teams let us down. I don't know who these guys are on defense, but they make every QB look like an All-American. It's like they know their toast before the game begins. If that freshman QB did not have so many miscues, it could have been even worse.
Tough loss for the Aggies. We know their offense is back now, even with all the injuries, but it looks like the team has cashed in their chips once again. I hope we can take some pride and win one or two of our final few games.
For all the people calling for Mumme to be fired, there is a good article on ESPN about 10 coaches who more or less struggled for their first 3-4 seasons and then got things turned around. We need to give Mumme at least until the end of his contract, which I believe has two more seasons left.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?id=3095232
This is not about whether Mumme should continue, Dr. Boston will decide. But you have to evaluate what you see on the field. First defense - not enough top players to fill out all the postions. The defense is weak. Special teams - the worst thing about the Aggies. The punter is average, but compared to the other kickers he looks great. Unfortunately, speical teams mean more than the kickers, and they have very poor coverage downfield which results in poor field position for us. Our own runbacks our pretty bad as well. Offense - very exciting and worth watching, but why not really go to a 2 minute type offense the entire game? This is when the offense is at its best, not when it is trying to do some running. Finally, you had to be at the last game to appreciate the band's effect. They helped continue the momentum that the Aggies had at the end of the first half by basically blowing the Nevada team off the field at the beginning of the 2nd half. Not sure if it was legal or not, but it did not hurt. End result, great passing offense, a defense that has some promise if more players can be obtained, the worst special teams I have ever seen, and a band who tries to help.
NMSU is terrible in must win games!
If they can't win One. How can they win three in a row?
Pack it up.
The season ends on 11/30 and the one year count down to Mumme's firing, begins!
The Truth
The Truth -- You are sooo far from it. Didn't you read a comment here about how it takes a good coach some time to get things moving in the right way. The ball is rolling, slowly, and you want to stop it's momentum. Get a clue.
Yes the kicking game probably cost us the game--it's the little things that hurt this team the most. But no one mentioned the attendance or lack of attendance. Rocky Long said that if UNM fans want their football team to continue to improve, they must attend win or lose. For us to see a winner, the fans and students must show support. It's sorta which came first the chicken or egg?? If I was NMSU, with the lack of support especially by the students, I would just drop football. I would hate to see that happen, but why spend money when it appears few care.
Against Pine Bluff, NMSU were missing 3 of our top 4 WR, and that is why we didn't play good that game. We were not healthy for that game.
David,
To be honest, I hope Mumme turns it around next next year.
If we get rid of him, it means our program has not improved in his four year stint.
Let's say, this is his last year of his contract. Would you justify an extension w/ an 8-26 record?
I really hope this team does something special next year and Mumme gets a two year extension.
However, history is not in our side and we seem to be Gaggies not, Aggies in crunch time!
The Truth
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