Cougfan.com - Posted Sep 17, 2003

New Mexico 101
An in-depth look at the Lobos

By MATT MOORE
Cougfan.com Analyst

THERE ARE A few teams in the mid major conferences that should never be taken lightly. Scrappy underdogs hungry for respect and they’re getting better fast. The BCS conferences have been slow to figure this out, but as these teams pull off more and more “upsets,” the world is gradually discovering that they play pretty good ball in places like Huntington, West Virginia, Dekalb, Illinois, and Ruston, Louisiana. The New Mexico Lobos are one such team.

They’re fearless and looking for a brawl, with a cocky ‘bring it on’ attitude to them and a coach willing to take on any team anywhere.  While New Mexico comes into Saturday’s match-up with Washington State on a two-game losing streak, they have been competitive in all of their contests this season, out-gaining their opponents each game.  So, if you heading to Pullman this week and are expecting a cakewalk, you’d better park near a bakery.

Lewiston Tribune Online - 08/19/03

Changes in store at Cougar games

PULLMAN -- Washington State on Thursday announced several changes that fans can expect when they attend the Cougars' football game at 2 p.m. Saturday against New Mexico at Martin Stadium.

The general public will be prohibited from the walkway between Hollingbery Fieldhouse and Bohler Gym, and from the mouth of the stadium tunnel. The Pac-10 Conference requested this change in order to provide a more secure area for visiting teams leaving the field.

The only entrance to the Food Fair in the fieldhouse will be on the north side. Also, no alchohol will be sold at the Food Fair after the game.

The plastic beverage containers sold at the stadium won't include caps.

The Beasley Coliseum parking lot is reserved for recreational vehicles with a WSU Athletic Foundation RV parking pass. This costs $200 for the season.

Alternative RV parking is available for $20 per game in the area behind the indoor practice facility and in the lot across from the South Fairway Playfield.

Free RV parking is allowed at the Wilson Road lot across from the Cooper Publications Building, plus at the Feed Plant lot on Grimes Way.

The school will again work with Pullman Transit to provide free shuttle service to the game along the usual transit-service routes. It will begin three hours before kickoff and continue for 90 minutes after the game's end.

Lewiston Tribune Online - 08/19/03

Thoroughly expressive; Whether by words or mannerisms, D.D. Acholonu isn't reluctant to let you know what he's thinking

PULLMAN -- He speaks with his hands, with his ranging eyes, with halting torrents of words that seem to mimic the rhythms of his Nigerian name. He sometimes pauses to corral the precise adjective. When he catches himself sounding too serious, he slaps his knee and laughs a deep guttural laugh.

In interview sessions, in fact, D.D. Acholonu is the most disarming, sometimes the most fascinating, member of the Washington State football team, even as he becomes one of the more dangerous players on the field.

After two seasons as a fleet-footed, gangly designated pass-rusher (his career sack total: 17 1/2), the 6-foot-3 defensive end has coaxed his weight to 245 pounds and finally cracked the starting lineup this season, playing a visible role in the Cougars' new emphasis on inducing turnovers. Through three games, he owns 1 1/2 sacks and three hurries, forcing one fumble and recovering another.

Sitting in the upper bleachers of Bohler Gym, Acholonu (pronounced OTCH-ah-lah-nu) talks about his upbringing in Seattle, his family's African heritage, and his efforts to overcome a childhood speech impediment. These efforts have left him with a wide range of expressive gestures, an intense and unique personality and some sharply critical opinions about public education.

He is the third son of a Nigerian couple who moved to this country to attend the University of Washington in the 1970s, before their six children were born. Acholonu says he may have developed his stutter from trying to learn two languages at once -- English and his family's tribal language, Ebo.

A bilingual education, he realizes, is hardly unusual, especially in his parents' native country. But he believes his being an athlete -- a single-minded American athlete, trained from a young age to react instantly on the playing field -- lent a complicating factor to the mix. Later he was told he had a "learning disability,'' which he believes is directly related to the speech issue.

"One thing I've learned in the four years I've been here," he says, "is the fact that, for some reason, learning disability is common in athletes, male and female. You know: Jump high, run fast -- because their bodies are like that, their mouths work the same way. That's what I learned from a psychologist. It's kind of crazy. Kind of neat, though."

Acholonu is somewhat ahead of the five-year schedule that college athletes, with their time demands, normally follow in their academic pursuits. He plans to graduate in May, after 4 1/2 years, with a degree in biology.

He refuses to see graduation, though, as a triumph in itself.

"A lot of people, especially academic advisers, want people to graduate just to graduate. Getting a degree is nothing. Getting a job or going to grad school -- that's something. I've seen a lot of people who got degrees and they can't get a job. They don't know what to do with it. They're working at Wal-Mart, at Safeway."

Acholonu's speech problems, he says, reached a critical point when he was in elementary school.

"As a kid, you would talk so fast that you couldn't breathe," he says. "At one point, after this huge, huge sentence, you'd be so excited because you wanted to say more and you couldn't talk -- you have no air. You're in a pause state for five or 10 seconds."

He laughs hugely at the memory. One expects the whole gym to shake.

"In elementary school, I decided the speech therapists didn't really understand what was going on: OK, this kid has got a problem, so it's 45 minutes twice a week, to try to fix the problem. It just seemed like they didn't know exactly what they were doing. That's just my opinion."

Early in high school, he more or less became his own therapist. "I decided to start talking more slowly, pronouncing my esses and tee-aitches.

"That's one bad thing about public schools. They have a system where, no matter what, 'This person needs to pass this grade,' because they don't want an overpopulation of students. No matter how much or how little progress you've made in mathematics, reading, science, whatever, they'll just pass you on, unless you're far below the margin."

He talks vaguely about his long-range plans. First he will try to play pro football, of course, and then he will possibly go to graduate school. Maybe he will go into business of some sort.

But he talks most excitedly about education.

"For some reason, learning something in the real world is very appealing to me -- in terms of making something work for people," he says. "I like to think about that. It's kind of weird. I think about helping kids not go through the same situation I went through ...

"I'll probably try to work with athletes and learning styles -- make sure teachers don't make them choose just one thing and make them feel uncomfortable. I mean it's pretty bad when a kid, a student-athlete, goes into a classroom and doesn't really knows what's going on."

Then he stops himself and laughs.

"I'm really serious about this, aren't I?"

NOTES -- WSU tailback Jermaine Green is suffering from an intensinal virus that may keep him out of the Cougars' home game Saturday against New Mexico. His starter's role will probably go to Jonathan Smith.... Reserve quarterback Chris Hurd underwent surgery on his congenital knee problem last week, and coach Bill Doba said the procedure went well. Hurd is taking the semester off from classes.

Lewiston Tribune Online - 08/20/03

Cougs eager to enjoy comforts of home field; WSU makes Martin Stadium debut against New Mexico and its perplexing defensive scheme

PULLMAN -- Alas, there are no airports mentioned in the Washington State itinerary this week. For the first time in four games this season, the Cougars can stop worrying about G gates and B concourses and confine their thoughts to X's and O's.

It's a nice luxury, since the opposing X's and O's this week take such confusing turns.

The Cougars' visitors, the University of New Mexico Lobos, are 16-point underdogs, but they demand attention for their unorthodox tactics, especially on defense.

Kickoff is 2 p.m. at Martin Stadium. The Cougars (2-1) are playing their final nonconference game after opening with a "home" game in Seattle followed by two challenging road trips. New Mexico is 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the Mountain West Conference.

In the Lobos' stunt-laden 3-3-5 defense, the number of down linemen varies unpredictably, and it's difficult to project exactly which members of the front six will rush the passer and which will drop into protection.

The defense is basically the same one UNM coach Rocky Long used as defensive coordinator at Oregon State and UCLA in the 1990s. He is aided by the presence of talented senior end D.J. Renteria, and the Lobos established credibility last week by grounding Brigham Young's offense. The Utah team won 10-7 at Albuquerque, N.M.

Washington State coach Bill Doba said he now regrets missing an opportunity to study Long's schemes at New Mexico a couple of years ago when Doba was the Cougars' defensive coordinator.

"It's an intriguing defense," he said. "It seems like everybody has a gap, and they can line up wherever the heck they want before the snap. And then they run to their responsibility. It's a tough defense to prepare for in one week. ... It makes you tentative. Your line has difficulty firing off the ball. When Oregon State was struggling way back when, their defense was always tough, and Rocky Long was defensive coordinator."

Offensively, the Lobos alternate conventional passing and running schemes with an option attack that will seem foreign to the Cougars even if it's not especially complicated.

On the other hand, WSU's personnel may be well-suited for these diverting tasks.

The Cougars have an experienced offensive line that should negotiate the vagaries of the Long defense better than most, and avoid having a "center blocking air," as Doba puts it.

New starting quarterback Matt Kegel clearly padded his confidence last week in a 47-26 dismantling of Colorado, and the Cougars don't seem especially worried that their starting tailback, Jermaine Green, caught an intestinal virus this week. Backups Jonathan Smith and Chris Bruhn have been more effective than Green this season anyway.

Nor should the Lobos' option attack present a huge problem for the Cougars, particularly if they get strong run support from seasoned safeties Erik Coleman and Virgil Williams and continued improvement from new middle linebacker Don Jackson.

Doba's defenses through the years have fared well against option tactics, partly because Doba has studied them extensively and partly because the Cougars tend to recruit speedy defenders.

If the Cougars know where they're going, they will probably get there fast.

NOTES -- The Lobos' travel squad won't include Katie Hnida, who on Aug. 30 became the first woman to score in an Division I-A game. The senior from Littleton, Colo., converted both her extra points in the Lobos' 72-8 rout of the school now calling itself Texas State-San Marcos, formerly Southwest Texas State. The top two kickers on the Lobos' depth chart are Tyler Gaus and Wes Zunker. ... WSU freshman receiver Jason Hill has returned to the team after attending his father's funeral and missing the Colorado game. That will boost receiver depth while slotback Trandon Harvey recovers from his ankle injury.

Cougfan.com - Posted Sep 20, 2003

Doba gets W in home opener
Cougs come alive in 2nd half against Lobos

By the staff of Cougfan.com

PULLMAN --- This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go. Nearly 300 yards of offense in the 1st half alone. Holding the Lobos to 16 yards on 10 carries. Controlling the ball for over 21 minutes. Somehow WSU found themselves trailing at the break, 13-12. But for the second time in as many weeks, the third quarter belonged to the Cougs.

The Cougs defense played a solid game and the offense did just enough in the second half to put away a resilient New Mexico squad.

WSU found their stride midway thru the 3^rd quarter, putting a 10 spot on the board and holding New Mexico to just 15 total yards in the period.  Matt Kegel snuck for 1 yard to give the Cougs some breathing room, and Drew Dunning hit the last of his school record 5 field goals to cap off the scoring.

Lewiston Tribune Online - 08/21/03

Tribune/Kyle Mills
WSU's Cody Boyd hits the turf after making a sliding catch deep in New Mexcio territory. The third-quarter reception got the Cougars to the Lobos' 11-yard line and set up their only touchdown Saturday

Road to redemption; Kicker Dunning atones for earlier sins in loss to Notre Dame by booting five FGs to beat Lobos

PULLMAN -- Drew Dunning moved five steps closer to putting his Notre Dame experience -- and the bitter reaction it triggered in some quarters -- safely into the past Saturday.

His five field goals set a school record and helped Washington State beat pesky New Mexico 23-13.

Dunning told reporters afterward that a few WSU students had reacted angrily to the senior place-kicker's missed 34-yard field goal in overtime two weeks ago at Notre Dame. The Irish's 29-26 victory remains the Cougars' only loss in four nonconference games.

"It was very, very difficult to come home to a kicked-in door, and scratches and profanity written all over the door of my apartment," Dunning said, "and seeing signs all over campus saying, 'Thanks, Dunning, Way to Miss.' "

He answered by converting all five of his field goals against the Lobos, finally defanging their upset bid with a 49-yarder that matched his career-longest and pushed the Cougars' lead to 23-13 late in the third quarter.

New Mexico (1-3) had led 13-9 in the second period.

The five field goals broke the WSU single-game record of four, held by Dunning and six others.

"After kicking the fifth one, I was reminded -- 'Oh, that was five,' " Dunning said. "I really wasn't thinking about that, because a lot of them were almost extra points. I wasn't really thinking those were field goals."

Whatever they were, the Cougars needed them earnestly against these ostensible 16-point underdogs from the Mountain West Conference, before a sun-splashed crowd of 32,344 in WSU's first game of the year at Martin Stadium.

Dunning had connected four times -- from 37, 36, 23 and 21 yards -- before a mistake-prone WSU offense finally produced a touchdown, on a quarterback sneak by Matt Kegel in the third quarter.

The Cougars (3-1) were plagued by penalties for the third straight game (12 for 118 yards) and they failed to produce touchdowns from three first-and-goal situations, two of them from the 1-yard line.

"That was a tough one," WSU coach Bill Doba said. "I haven't seen the stats, but we've got to score in the red zone instead of kicking field goals. The thing that hurt us as much as anything was losing that center."

He meant senior Mike Shelford, who aggravated a pinched nerve on WSU's first possession, missing the rest of the game. His replacement was a sophomore, Nick Mihlhauser.

Kegel was sacked five times while completing 29 of 42 passes for a career-best 346 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He hit Devard Darling nine times for 113 yards.

The Cougars rushed for a gross 147 yards (87 net), though starting tailback Jonathan Smith missed much of the game with an apparently minor head injury.

Dazzling offense was rendered unnecessary by terrific defense, as WSU held New Mexico to 257 yards, 22 on the ground.

"Washington State is a great football team," New Mexico coach Rocky Long said. "They're great on offense and defense, and scary on special teams with the weapons they have."

He was probably thinking primarily of Sammy Moore, who returned two kickoffs for 61 yards and caught five passes for 98 yards.

In practical terms, though, the big scorer for the Cougars was Dunning, the knife-thin kicker from Issaquah, Wash., who has now converted 13 of 14 field goals this season.

His only muff was that heart-wrencher at Notre Dame.

When he blows a kick, Dunning invokes a mental process that helps him swallow the disappointment. He reminds himself of "the things that are really important in life" -- his health, his family.

This process might have worked after the Notre Dame game, until Dunning got home and learned that his friends on campus were being asked, "What's wrong with your boy? Why'd he miss?"

"If I miss," Dunning said, "everyone knows I miss. You don't always see missed tackles, missed blocks, missed reads. But you sure as heck see if I miss a field goal. So I definitely know what's coming if I do miss.

"But I was glad I was able to answer anybody's questions after this game."

New Mexico                        0        13        0        0    --13
Washington State                 6           6      11        0   -- 23

First Quarter
Washington St.--FG Dunning 37, 9:34.
Washington St,--FG Dunning 36, 2:26.

Second Quarter
Washington St.--FG Dunning 23, 12:09..
New Mexico--Kelly 21 pass from Thomas (kick blocked), 10:05.
New Mexico--Counter 50 pass from Kelly (Zucker kick), 6:20.
Washington St.--FG Dunning 21, 1:37.

Third Quarter
Washington St.--Kegel 1 run (Jordan pass from Kegel), 5:50.
Washington St.--FG Dunning 49, :42.

A--32,344.

                                    UNM                WSU

First downs                    12                      23
Rushes-yards               23-22                44-87
Passing                          235                    346
Comp-Att-Int            17-33-0              29-42-0
Return Yards                  69                      101
Punts-Avg.                    9-39                   6-43
Fumbles-Lost                2-1                      3-0
Penalties-Yards            9-101                12-118
Time of Possession        21:10                 38:50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--New Mexico, Moore 11-21, Cox 3-13, Sanders 1-4, Counter 1-2, Boyd 1-1, Kelly 6-(minus 19). Washington St., Smith 13-30, Green 11-48, Bruhn 9-43, Lunde 1-3, Kegel 10-(minus 37).

PASSING--New Mexico, Kelly 16-32-0-214, Thomas 1-1-0-21. Washington St., Kegel 29-42-0-346.

RECEIVING--New Mexico, Boyd 8-100, Counter 2-52, Moore 2-26, Byrd 2-16, Kelly 1-21, Sanders 1-15, Baskett 1-5. Washington St., Darling 9-113, Moore 5-98, Lunde 5-55, Jordan 4-32, Bruhn 2-8, Smith 2-6, Boyd 1-32, Bienemann 1-2.

Lewiston Tribune Online - 09/22/03

Tribune/Kyle Mills
Washington State defensive end D.D. Acholonu signals his rejection of this New Mexico play as Lobos quarterback Casey Kelly winces in pain. That was one of four sacks by the Cougar defensive line Saturday in a 23-13 victory at Martin Stadium.

MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK: DALE GRUMMERT ... The semantics of 'home'

PULLMAN -- The University of New Mexico stood above its one-point lead like a man marooned on a slab of melting ice. Both offenses had gone south. It was halfway through the third quarter at Washington State, and the score had been 14-13 since of the dawn of time.

Finally, Kyle Basler's 52-yard punt, sprouting legs and eyes, crawled to the Lobos' 2-yard line, and the tension shifted.

Somebody signaled a media timeout. While New Mexico players shuffled off the field and discussed their plight, Washington State defenders stood near the goal line like a pack of antsy dogs.

Gradually, it seemed to dawn on them: This was a home game. Those people in the stands were not wearing green T-shirts declaring unanimously, "There's a magic in the sound of their name ... Here come the Irish."

There was neither sign nor smell of Ralphie, the live buffalo who is escorted around the field before games at Colorado.

The Cougars were not sharing a borrowed venue in Seattle with any other college football team from the Palouse.

For the first time this season, they were really, truly at home.

And if they were slow in realizing this fact, while backpedaling and false-starting their way to a 23-13 victory Saturday, can you really blame them?

In the bitter aftermath of their most recent home game, in November 2002, the presumably friendly denizens of Martin Stadium pelted opponents, journalists and musicians with plastic water bottles.

When place-kicker Drew Dunning returned from the Cougars' loss at Notre Dame two weeks ago, after missing a field goal in overtime, he found the door of his apartment bashed and vandalized.

In all of sport, the line between friendly fans and hostile ones is increasingly indistinct.

Still, this was a new day.

The Cougars had refreshed their fans' good nature by whacking Colorado the previous week. The crowd of 32,344 at Martin Stadium wore a benign if sometimes worried expression on this beautiful afternoon on the third-to-last day of summer.

And while that media timeout dragged on and on, WSU defenders seemed to remind themselves: We're trailing by a point. The opponent is pinned on the 2-yard line. A safety would give us the lead. Maybe, just maybe, we could ask these fine people in the stands to cheer in a timely rather than a random fashion, and maybe try to disrupt the Lobos' snap count.

A couple of defensive linemen politely delivered this request with understated arm motions. The fans responded with equal restraint.

A couple of defensive backs echoed the motion. The fans answered more loudly.

One of the players involved in this exchange was cornerback Jason David, a senior with a high flamboyance quotient who had not played in Martin Stadium since Oct. 5, 2002. He's the fellow who missed three late-season games with a broken cheekbone after getting sucker-punched by a teammate in the Cougar locker room. For David especially, the idea of "home" must be terribly confused.

Seeing the fans' response during this timeout, though, he grew increasingly bold. Eventually he jogged, not to say skipped like a buoyant schoolboy, to about the 25-yard line and hailed the students in the opposite corner of the stadium. He motioned to them with that thoroughly hoary jaw-chomping, go-defense routine, elaborately, and thousands of students responded in kind, loudly, their spirit sticks wagging like tails.

The scene was over the top and around the bend. And yet maybe it was needed. The Cougars seemed to savor this confirmation, this unexpected knowledge that the world was a partially sympathetic place.

This week, after all, they will return to the crusades. They play Saturday at Eugene, Ore., a place most of them know only through hearsay, since a quirk in the Pac-10 schedule has kept Washington State out of Oregon's Autzen Stadium since 1999.

In Eugene, players don't have to tell fans when to cheer. In Eugene, "Disrupting the Snap Count" is taught in the elementary schools. And Ducks fans will be freshly wired after their beloved's victory at Michigan the other day.

In case you were wondering, those Cougar defenders didn't get their coveted safety against New Mexico. But they held the Lobos to 2 yards on that possession, forced a punt, and watched the Washington State offense then score the go-ahead touchdown.

And David soaked it all up. You imagined him, like Andy Kaufman, inviting the whole crowd out for postgame milk and cookies.

NOTES -- WSU backup defensive tackle Steve Cook will miss four to six weeks with a broken foot.... Starting center Mike Shelford is doubtful for the Oregon game with his bruised nerve in the shoulder area.... Tailback Jonathan Smith's head injury is presumed to be minor but he will be reevaluated Tuesday, and linebacker Will Derting should recover from his thigh bruise.... Dunning leads the nation with 3.25 field goals per game, and his 13-of-14 success ratio is one of the best. The Cougars rank eighth in the nation in turnover margin, and punter Basler is 13th with a 44.83-yard average.... The Cougars climbed to No. 21 in both major polls, jumping five spots in the coaches' rankings.

Next up ... Oregon