Lobos will bring the heat in frosty Provo
Welcome to Rocky Long's New Mexico football and the famed 3-3-5 defensive front, which he's tweaked and polished to fit his personnel. It's a quarterback eater.
"You can take a picture of 10 different plays, and you'll see 10 completely different blitzes and formations coming at you," is how BYU assistant coach Lance Reynolds describes the Lobos' defense.
At times, it will be a zero blitz look, where every defensive player on the Lobo team appears staged and ready to blitz.
Unlike Utah or TCU, which do blitz but are solidly entrenched in a four-man rush philosophy, the Lobo gamble puts a premium on getting to the QB and disrupting a play, while presenting a huge, tempting target for an offense to try and pass, betting that it can't do it.
BYU quarterback Max Hall told reporters this week that he's very anxious to take on that challenge.
Such is the stage today for BYU's homecoming game with the Lobos in LaVell Edwards Stadium, where Long's teams are 2-3 in his career. The Cougars, on the other hand, have outscored opponents in Provo this season by a lopsided 144-17 margin.
Last year in Albuquerque, BYU won 31-24 and Hall was sacked three times in a less-than-spectacular, 18-of-40 passing day good for 251 yards. A nice win, but the Lobos were in it until the end. Bryan Kehl's 36-yard interception return for a touchdown vaulted the Cougars to a lead two minutes after opening kickoff.
This Lobo helter-skelter defensive look has its roots back in 1980, when a guy named Joe Lee Dunn came to Albuquerque. In BYU's opener that season, Jim McMahon, behind an inexperienced offensive line and new line coach Roger French, were blitzed into oblivion. BYU didn't gain a single yard in the fourth quarter. It was the only BYU loss in a 12-1 season.
Dunn ended up as UNM's head coach before he took his defense and made career stops at South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Memphis. He was coaching high school football just over a year ago when New Mexico State plucked him up and made him a D-coordinator once again in that state.
In the rematch between BYU and UNM in 1981, Dunn brought that defense to Provo and, although the Cougars won 31-7, both McMahon and receiver Danny Plater suffered concussions and BYU had six turnovers.
Bronco Mendenhall, who served under Long as his defensive coordinator for four years (1998-2002), knows and respects the toughness Long imprints in his players — in the tradition of Joe Lee Dunn — and has prepared Hall and company appropriately this week.
"It puts a lot of pressure on our quarterback and center," said Reynolds. "They have a lot of responsibility."
This week's predictions:
UTAH 38, WYOMING 0: I'll put it this way. If Utah pulled the plug on its offense every time it got to the Wyoming 45 and had Louis Sakoda boot a field goal, the Utes would win at least 12-0. The onside kick and bird flip of a year ago will have no relevance in this game — it's buried history, except with us media folk.
TCU 17, COLORADO STATE 9: If there is a surprise this week, I'd pick this as the one since the Rams have started showing some offensive muscle. But the Frogs are too polished on defense and should be able to win this game with stout run defense and gaining big turnovers.
AIR FORCE 24, SAN DIEGO STATE 10: The Falcons should return to its winning ways by scoring enough on the Aztecs while blitzing whomever Chuck Long puts in at quarterback enough times to disrupt the 1-4 home team.
BYU 34, NEW MEXICO 10: The Lobos are breaking in a new quarterback after Donovan Porterie had surgery, and LaVell Edwards Stadium isn't a friendly place for a rookie struggling to pass effectively outside of practice time. The Cougars do respect RB Rodney Ferguson and his backup, freshman James Wright, but BYU's defense will get turnovers today.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com