For UNM football fans, a loss to rival New Mexico State was humiliation enough. We're talking the Aggies, who the Lobos owned the last six seasons on the gridiron.

But on Monday, more startling news. Two days after the loss to the Aggies, word came trickling in that head coach Mike Locksley and wide receivers coach J.B. Gerald got into an altercation September 20th, the day after the Lobos loss to Air Force. Gerald filed a police report about the incident and has left the program. Gerald has not been heard from since. UNM Vice President of Athletics Paul Krebs gave Locksley a verbal and written reprimand for his actions.

It's another black eye for a football program that has seen more than its fair share of dark clouds the last year and a half. In the summer of 2008, UNM was placed on three years probation by the NCAA, which also reduced the number of scholarships the football program can offer student athletes. At the end of last season in which the Lobos finished 4-8, long-time head coach Rocky Long resigned. A few months after taking the UNM job, new coach Mike Locksley became the target of a sexual harassment and age discrimination complaint by one of his office staff.

And now, the altercation that the entire free world seems to know about. National media outlets have devoured the story like sharks around chum. Late Monday and well into Tuesday there was a lot of chit-chat on local radio, internet message boards and across the country on radio and TV. Not the kind of big-time press UNM is looking for.

At his weekly news conference Tuesday, Locksley was hit hard with questions about this latest incident, one that has shaken Lobo fandom to its core. In Locksley, I saw a man who seemed to be contrite for his actions and looking to move on. But the UNM human resources department is looking into this incident, and a simple verbal and written reprimand may not be good enough.

This story is far from over, though some Lobo fans wish it were. In many lines of work, if you and I work together, we get into a fight and I hit you, I will probably lose my job and depending on what you did, you might lose yours too. But athletics is a different world and a more-detached-from-athletics human resource investigation into the facts of the incident may not be so kind as to say "stuff happens." I don't want to even speculate as to what will happen from here; it's not fair to all involved. But we and all Lobo fans will be watching.

Three weeks into the UNM football season and there's been enough grumbling by some Lobo fans to last three years. Only three games into his tenure at UNM and some people are ready to run off new coach Mike Locksley and his new offensive and defensive schemes. You can read the cries in the newspaper and on internet message boards and hear them on the radio. Here's a little dose of perspective...it's only three games! Three games!! If it were three years and the Lobos were still struggling with no upside, then okay the cries are justified.

You don't rebuild (though Locksley would like to call it renovate) a football program overnight. When Locksley arrived at Illinois in 2005 as offensive coordinator to join new head coach Ron Zook, the Illini were horrible and prior to their arrival had a history of medicrity. Their first season together, the Illini went 2-9. The next year, 2-10. But year three, voila! 9-4. So the moral to this story, give things a chance to work. This isn't fantasy football to where you can change out players and coaches on a whim. We're talking peoples lives here. Progress is going to be slow, kinda like baby steps. Lobo fans in general need to show a little more patience as the potential rewards far outweigh any feelings of doom and despair over a slow start.

O-2 is not exactly the start Mike Locksley had in mind when he became UNM's 29th head football coach. But that is the reality he and the Lobos face as they begin conference play this Saturday against Air Force at University Stadium.

After being outscored 85-16 in the first two games, some are calling for a change at starting quarterback. Donovan Porterie has struggled in the first two games, and freshman B.R. Holbrook relieved him late in the loss to Tulsa. But now is not the time to make such a change.

Porterie is a byproduct of the struggles of the entire offense; the running backs haven't been able to get untracked as holes to run through just haven't been there. Receivers haven't been able to create separation to make enough big plays. Would the less experienced Holbrook do any better than the more season Porterie with all these other problems? Not at this point. We'll see what Locksley and company decide about the quarterback position this week. But it isn't time to hit the panic button just yet.

Last week Manzano fans spoke up and we listened...Now it's your turn!

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Sometimes in sports, numbers can be misleading, especially in how you put them together. But there was hardly anything deceiving about the final numbers from UNM's season and Mike Locksley's head coach opener at Texas A & M Saturday night.

They were numbers that probably make the glass-half-full-thinking Locksley wonder. The final score numbers, 41 for A & M, 6 for the Lobos, that was bad enough. Some other stats, rushing yards: 21 for the Lobos, 245 for the Aggies. Passing yards: 210 for the Lobos, 361 for the Aggies. The whopper of stats, total yards: 231 for the Lobos, 606 for the Aggies. That last number is not a typo...it is 606. 606 yards? That's enough to make any coach on a losing team say "yikes!" The game was not available to watch on television, thanks to the Big 12 and its TV broadcast policies. They probably did New Meixco fans a favor in not letting it be shown.

Oddly enough, the Lobos gave up 606 yards in week 4 last season against Tulsa, who happens to be UNM's opponent next Saturday in their home opener. Trick is now, will we see another 41 to 6 score or even worse for UNM? Tulsa's no pushover and the pride of Conference USA, so no question, this will not be an easy game for the Lobos. I know one game a season does not make, but the next week will be interesting to see how the new Lobo coaching staff responds to this loss when there were so many high hopes and ga-ga expectations going into that game.

As always, stay tuned!