Lobos look to make strides under first-year coach Long

New Mexico

Head coach: Rocky Long (3-9, 2nd year)

1998 record: 3-8 (7th, WAC Pacific)

Returning starters: 14

Guy they'll miss: Quarterback Graham Leigh

Player to watch: Defensive back Brian Urlacher

Key game: Oct. 30, UNLV

Projection: 7th (MWC coaches' poll)

The University of New Mexico football program begins its second century of football this year.

The folks in Albuquerque hope the results in season 101 are a whole lot better than they were in No. 100.

The 1998 campaign mirrored the name of first year Lobos' head coach: Rocky and Long.

New Mexico, which had gone 9-4 a year earlier under Dennis Franchione and won the WAC's Mountain Division (the school's first football title in 33 years) and earned an invite to the Insight.com Bowl in Tucson, dropped to 3-9 and lost to its two biggest rivals, UTEP and New Mexico State, both in the final seconds.

Thank goodness for Hawaii. If not for a 30-20 win in Honolulu over the hapless Rainbow Warriors, the Lobos would be bringing in a 10-game losing streak into the season. Instead, it's just four.

The bad news is New Mexico also must replace two-time all-WAC quarterback Graham Leigh, who passed for 4,979 yards and 42 touchdowns during his stellar collegiate career.

Long, who hinted at Mountain West media day that some of his seniors may have given up during last season, is hoping an influx of 12 transfers will help start a turnaround this season.

"Everybody is picking us there," Long said when told his team was picked above only UNLV in the MWC coaches' poll. "But we'll be improved. We're going to show up and play."

Who will replace Leigh is a question that might not be solved right up until New Mexico's Border War opener at UTEP on Sept. 4.

Junior Eric Jaworsky completed 13 of 20 passes in limited duty last season and is the only one of three candidates with any kind of Division I playing experience.

Sean Stein, a transfer from Long Beach (Calif.) City College via Orange County quarterback factory Los Alamitos High School, and redshirt freshman Justin Mobley, considered more of a defensive back prospect at Antelope Valley High School in Palmdale, Calif., are the other candidates.

"Compared to last year, we're way ahead," offensive coordinator Jim Fenwick said of his team's adaption to the West Coast offense.

"At the same time, we're nowhere close to where we need to be. ... The top three (quarterbacks), I don't see any separation. If the season started today, we'd probably rotate quarterbacks."

The defense, despite returning eight starters, also is unsettled as defensive coordinator Bronco Mendenhall tries to find the right players for Long's complicated, high-risk, blitz-from-all-angles style of defense.

"Only one position is set -- No. 44," Mendenhall said referring to Lobo back and Jim Thorpe Award candidate Brian Urlacher, who led the nation with a school record 178 tackles last season. "We know he'll make plays; it's his supporting cast. We need to find out which of them will be playmakers to give Brian some help."

"I think we are a lot further ahead this year than we were a year ago," Long said. "The players are more comfortable with the coaches and vice versa. The players seem to understand the system -- on both offense and defense -- a whole lot better than they did at this time last year."

UNLV travels to Albuquerque on Oct. 30 in what could be the game that decides who finishes in the cellar in the initial year of the Mountain West Conference.

This is the fourth in a seven-part series previewing the Mountain West Conference. Wednesday: San Diego State

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