Las Cruces Sun: Aggies take on 13th-ranked Cal on ESPN

By Geoff Grammer/Sun-News Sports Editor

Quarterback Joey Vincent scrambles against the UNM Lobos last week in Albuquerque. Vincent will get his first start as the Aggies quarterback tonight against California.(Sun-News photo by Jennifer West)  1 year ago, the California Bears were in the early stages of a Cinderella run toward a BCS bowl bid when they pounded the New Mexico State Aggies 41-14 in Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 11, 2004.  The Bears’ BCS run ended when, in the final polls of the season, the Texas Longhorns leapfrogged Cal and got a spot in the lucrative Rose Bowl instead of the 10-1 Bears.

Cal settled for a berth in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl and 45-31 loss to a Texas Tech Red Raider offense that exposed the Cal secondary to the tune of 520 passing yards. Long before Mike Leach was perfecting that high-powered passing attack in Lubbock, he was learning it from current New Mexico State head coach Hal Mumme. “It’s similar to Texas Tech’s,” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said of the Aggies’ Air Raid offense. “They spread you out — four wide receivers, two-by-two or three-by-one — that type of thing. They can do some damage, as we saw what Texas Tech did. So we have a good challenge, we have to limit the big play. We can’t give away big plays against them. We have to make them earn everything that they get.” Cal (3-0) will take on NMSU (0-3) tonight in a nationally-televised ESPN game at 8 p.m. Looking to lead the yet-to-take flight Air Raid with his first start of the season is junior quarterback Joey Vincent who led a pair of second half scoring drives last week in Albuquerque in a loss to the rival New Mexico Lobos.

Vincent got the nod after being benched in preseason in favor of junior college transfer Royal Gill. Although Gill showed signs of brilliance — 300-plus passing yards in the opener against Texas-El Paso and a beautiful 80-yard scoring strike last week to Paul Dombrowski — the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Gill never looked comfortable with reings of Mumme’s offense.  Chalk much of that discomfort up to a swiss cheese offensive line that allowed Gill to be sacked 13 times in 10 quarters of play. Enter Vincent, a smaller (6-foot, 219), quicker player who was recruited from Chandler, Ariz., as an option quarterback after rushing for more than 1,000 yards as a senior at Hamilton High School. Vincent has shown a propensity to avoid the sack better than Gill and has a stronger, albeit less accurate arm than Gill, according to teammates.

In his fourth year with the Aggies, Vincent seems to have revved up some excitement from those teammates in his first start. “We’re very excited to see what Joey can do when he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder,” said senior receiver Paul Dombrowski. Dombrowski, who used to split time at quarterback with former Aggie buck Pierce, can appreciate the importance of getting a full week of practice with the first team offense before heading into a game as a starter. “If you look at the past few years, Buck or I would have our best games when the other was hurt and we were the guy for that week,” Dombrowski said.

Another player who can appreciate the position Vincent is in as a first time starter is a guy who will line up against the Aggies tonight. Cal quarterback Jeff Ayoob was in a similar position, losing a tight preseason quarterback battle to redshirt freshman Nate Longshore. When Longshore broke a leg in the team’s opener, the JuCo All American Ayoob stepped in to the game and fizzled with an 0-10 performance.

“I came in and ran the 2-minute offense and went 0-3 on each of the first two drives and it got in my head,” Ayoob said. “I guess I just never really settled down.”

Ayoob (6-3, 220) said he felt much more comfortable in the next two weeks when he knew he was the man in practice. His numbers showed it, too. Ayoob went 17-27 for 271 yards and four touchdowns in a 56-17 win over Washington and was a modest, yet efficient 8-17 and 121 yards in last week’s come-from-behind win over Illinois.

Tedford told the Associated Press he is confident Ayoob will start to find a groove more quickly than he has in past games. ‘‘That’s part of the learning curve,’’ Tedford said. ‘‘When you’re a young quarterback in the early pace of the game, there’s going to be a time when you have to settle in.’’ Mumme has said since making the quarterback decision in the preseason that he had never had the luxury of having such a close battle at quarterback in his coaching career and often referred to Vincent as his 1B quarterback or his “bullpen guy.” Mumme emphasized he wasn’t necessarily upset with Gill’s past performance when deciding to start Vincent, but isn’t used to having his usually high powered offense shutdown. He also needs to settle on a starter before next week’s Western Athletic Conference schedule begins.

“We’re not used to going scoreless in quarters,” Mumme said. “Nothing against Royal but I just think that we kind of needed to shake up the batting order... Not to take anything away from this week’s game, but you play in a conference to try and win it. I thought this would be a good time to name Joey the starter to see how he looks before conference.”

As for Vincent, who one teammate compared his gunslinging, playmaking ability to that of Brett Favre, he’s doesn’t seem to mind his starting debut coming against such a high-powered foe. “I’m not nervous,” Vincent said. “The way I think about is why wouldn’t you want to play the best teams you can... Growing up in Arizona I watched a lot of Pac-10 football so this a very exciting opportunity for me.”

For Vincent’s opportunity to result in an improbable win (oddsmakers have Cal favored by 30), he’ll need help from an Aggie defense that has struggled stopping the run, which also happens to be Cal’s biggest weapon. In three games this season, Cal has had three different players eclipse the 100-yard mark and never missed a beat when 2004 Freshman All-American Marshawn Lynch (147 yards in opener against Sacramento State) went down with a hand injury.  In his spot, backups Justin Forsett (187 yards vs. Illinois) and Marcus O’Keith (103 yards vs. Washington) have had little problem carrying the load behind one of the nation’s better offensive lines. Cal is averaging 264 yards rushing per game.

Last week, the Aggies had trouble getting off the field against a Lobo team that had a pair of 100-yard runners (quarterback Kole McKamey and tail back DonTrell Moore). The Aggies are allowing 216 yards rushing per game.

The Aggie running game finally saw life in the Lobo loss, however. Sophomore Justine Buries ran for 115 yards for a team that had averaged minus six yards per game in the first two losses of the season. Mumme credited that to the offensive line as much as to Buries.

“I’m happy with the way the offensive line has been coming along each of the last three weeks and I think everyone’s pretty upbeat around here,” Mumme said. “Nobody wants to be 0-3 right now but it’s a difficult thing to take over a team that hasn’t had a lot of success in the past and play the schedule we’ve played already this year.” Including Cal, the Aggies’ opponents this season are a combined 10-0.  “Lets say this,” said Aggie defensive coordinator Woody Widenhofer, “Each of the teams we played this year are going to be competing for their conference championships. Got it?”