Sep. 24—There are intrastate rivalries, and then there are intrastate rivalries.
In parsing the difference, Bronco Mendenhall qualifies as an expert.
He’s seeking to do his part in making the New Mexico-New Mexico State football rivalry more like that of Utah and BYU —without the harmful side effects — in the only way he can: by making his Lobos a better team.
Mendenhall, New Mexico’s first-year head football coach and the head coach at Brigham Young University from 2005-15, was asked for his take on the BYU-Utah rivalry during his weekly news conference on Monday.
In doing so, he made it clear he wasn’t trying to diminish the New Mexico-New Mexico State rivalry by comparison.
So, based mostly on Mendenhall’s recollections and impressions, I will. When held up against the Utah-BYU “Holy War,” Lobos-Aggies is a tea party. A coffee klatch. An ice cream social.
(Am I not aware that a UNM student was shot to death in November 2022 by an NMSU basketball player stemming from a fight on the concourse at NMSU’s Aggie Memorial Stadium during the Lobos-Aggies football game earlier in the fall?
I am, yes. But, as terrible and tragic as that incident was, it was peripheral to the rivalry itself. We continue).
Of the Utah-BYU rivalry, responding to a question from the Journal, Mendenhall shook his head, rolled his eyes and said, “Oh, crud. That’s a tough one to explain.”
But he did his best.
“My family and I,” he said, “we’d have a meeting, like a sit-down meeting the Sunday before (the Cougars-Utes) game, and ‘OK, here this comes.’
“The kids at school, my wife, Holly, in the grocery store line, getting gas. I mean, you’d buckle up when you’d go outside during that week, with your helmet and your chin strap.”
Thus, as Mendenhall buckles up for his first Lobos-Aggies game as a head coach — he was UNM’s defensive coordinator from 1998-2002 — he’s battle-tested in terms of intrastate college football rivalries.
He’s also battle-scarred.
At BYU, though Mendenhall went 99-43 overall, his Cougars were 3-7 against Utah during his tenure there. He then left BYU for Virginia, where his Cavaliers went 1-5 against Virginia Tech during his six years in Charlottesville.
Keep this in mind, however. At BYU, as well as at Virginia, Mendenhall was swimming against the tide.
All-time, Utah leads the series against BYU 49-32 with four ties. Take away the Cougars’ 19-2 advantage from 1972-92, during the Lavelle Edwards coaching era, and the tally is 47-13 in the Utes’ favor.
Similarly, Virginia Tech enjoys a 61-38-5 advantage over Virginia, thanks largely to the success of legendary Hokies coach Frank Beamer.
And, yes, OK, New Mexico State enters Saturday riding a two-game winning streak in the Rio Grande Rivalry. But the Lobos have more than doubled the Aggies’ win total (73-35-5) in the series.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Lobos were a 10-point favorite heading into Saturday’s 114th renewal.
Fans and alumni of both schools, certainly, care about the outcome. But they don’t care nearly as much as do fans and alumni of BYU and Utah when those teams meet.
This isn’t basketball, after all.
Mendenhall, just as certainly, would like more Lobo fans to care, and care more, than they currently do — without, of course, any harmful side effects.
But he can do his part by simply making the Lobos a better team, starting Saturday.
His passion is just that.
Former UNM coach Rocky Long, who brought Mendenhall to UNM in 1998, was a former Lobos quarterback. He never lost to New Mexico State, going 2-0-1, as a player.
As the Lobos’ head coach, he lost to NMSU his first two years before rallying to go 8-3 against the Aggies. Based more on his post-game demeanor than his words, losing to the Aggies was his least favorite thing.
Danny Gonzales, another former UNM player, preceded Mendenhall as Lobos head coach. An Albuquerque native, Gonzales was more direct about his feelings toward the neighbor to the south.
“I don’t like those guys,” he said before Aggies-Lobos 2021.
The Lobos won that game but lost the next two in the series, at least in part paving the way for Gonzales’ dismissal after the 2023 season.
Mendenhall, neither a UNM alumnus nor an Albuquerque native, embraces tradition as part of college football. He wants to win Saturday’s game for those fans and those alumni.
Mostly, he wants the Lobos (0-4) to experience victory — against an opponent that happens to be New Mexico State.
The rivalry can take care of itself.
