assistantsports@dailylobo.com
@JROppenheim
EL PASO, Texas — A theme New Mexico head coach Bob Davie discussed regularly a year ago was a dilemma: striking a balance between winning immediately versus building toward the future.
If you carry that same issue into the 2013 edition of Lobo football then that translates, much like last year, to focusing on the ground game or trying to offset your attack with more pass plays.
At least against the UTEP Miners on Saturday, Davie chose the ground game.
UNM returns to the formula demonstrated during the head coach’s first year: a healthy dose of running back Kasey Carrier. Now a senior captain, Carrier finished the game with 293 yards and four touchdowns and he averaged 7.1 yards per carry. His longest came on a 30-yard touchdown sprint.
Oh, and Carrier had the game-winning 21-yard sprint to pay dirt that won the game in overtime.
As a team, UNM ran for 395 yards, opting to run 57 of its 64 offensive plays against UTEP. Last year UNM’s offense was heavily predicated on the ground game, accounting for 81.4 percent of its total production and resulting in four wins. In 2013 the Lobos have run 99 rushing plays in two games.
Here’s another way to put it: In two games this year, UNM has run the ball on 80.5 percent of the time. Basically more of the same.
That can’t be the case forever because teams can and will scheme to halt a one-dimensional offense. Against a run-heavy team, that means stacking the box with eight or even nine defenders. However strong a running attack can be, opponents will find ways to exploit it.
For one reason or another, UTEP did not adapt. Though the Miners managed to stuff UNM on a couple of plays, the Lobos had at least 90 yards in each of the first three quarters and then another 63 in the final period.
The Lobos attempted one first-half pass under backup quarterback Clayton Mitchem, which he completed to wideout Jhurell Pressley.
Mitchem, a junior transfer, started his first Division I game by filling in for Cole Gautsche, who left last week’s season opener early with concussion-like symptoms.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Mitchem himself was UNM’s second-leading rusher with 64 yards against the Miners. Though he didn’t throw the ball much in the first half, he showed some promise in the passing game by finishing 4 for 7 for 88 yards. That’s not a particularly high amount in attempts, but it is a 57 percent completion mark.
He completed three of his four attempts in the fourth quarter, including a 40-yard strike to Pressley. It was the longest pass play for the Lobos. Mitchem also completed a 29-yard strike to receiver Jeric Magnant that set up another Carrier score.
Regular starter Gautsche, meanwhile, has already proven he can run in this triple-option attack Davie implements, rushing for 118 yards last week against UTSA. That isn’t the issue. He has shown improvement in his passing game but with what he showed in the opener (4-for-12, 65 yards), Gautsche is still a work in progress.
Even though Mitchem flashed some potential Saturday, it’s way too soon to declare him the starter over Gautsche. There’s also the fact that the young UTEP squad played its season opener in Week 2 with a first-year head coach in Sean Kugler, previously an NFL offensive line coach. So the Miners don’t provide an accurate barometer for the Lobos and for what’s to come.
If opponents are willing to give UNM open lanes to run through and don’t stack the defensive front, then clearly Carrier, Crusoe Gongbay and the rest of the Lobo backs will take full advantage.
You take what the defense gives you.
However, what happens when defenses start playing the run? Will the development in the quarterback ranks be enough to find that even split coaches constantly seek? That’s not an issue that can be resolved overnight.
