By Josh Abner

It was about what you might expect for the season opener. It was a hot mid-August football game full of mistakes and miscues. U of L made more than its share of opening-game jitters, Thursday night, but still managed to pull out a victory against New Mexico St., 45-24, in college football’s first game this season.

“We’re thankful that, number one, we got a win,” U of L head coach John L. Smith said. “If it wasn’t for turnovers then we wouldn’t have won and that helped.”

The Cardinal offense started strong, scoring touchdowns on its first two drives and appeared to be in complete control. Runningback Henry Miller completed the first drive with a two-yard carry. Wide receiver Deion Branch put the Cards up 14-0 on a 44-yard reception from quarterback Dave Ragone. However, the offense soon stalled and the U of L defense had trouble with the Aggies’ option attack, with U of L entering the locker room at halftime down 24-23. At the break, NMSU totaled 208 yards on the ground. That was a lot, considering that the Cards ranked fourth last year in rushing defense, giving up only 79.9 yards per game.

Three fumble recoveries were key for U of L in the second half. At the 11:59 mark in the third quarter, linebacker Michael Brown picked up at the U of L 19-yard line and returned it 81-yards for a TD. After a completing the two-point conversion, U of L took the lead 31-24 and never looked back.

At the 8:39 mark, defensive end Michael Josiah stripped NMSU quarterback K.C. Enzminger and defensive end Devon Thomas picked up the fumble. “Coach (Chris) Smeland told us at halftime we were going to have to make some big plays,” Thomas said. “Last year we had a plus 12 turnover margin. We had to get the ball back. We had just one in the first half.”

After Michael Brown’s fumble recovery for a touchdown, the defense woke up once again. “The defense got excited finally,” Thomas said. “What we needed to do in the first half we finally went out and did it.”

U of L later converted the turnover on Deion Branch’s second TD of the game, a 16 yarder.

U of L’s third fumble recovery of the half sealed the victory as Thomas picked up his second fumble and returned it 87 yards for the final score, making it 45-24.

Even though the Cards won, the Aggies amassed 544 yards of offense in the losing effort, more than any other performance by last season’s defense.

“It was a learning game for us,” safety Curry Burns said.

The Cardinals now have eight days to prepare for the University of Kentucky on Sept. 1 in Lexington. If they win next week, they will have beaten Kentucky for the third-straight year.