It's Okay for Osia...and, yes, that rhymes.
Osia (OH-say) Lewis looks like he will be named as UTEP's new defensive coordinator, probably during or after today's National Letter of Intent signing day.
Talking with folks from the Albuquerque Journal, the rumors there were the same here: hot and heavy that Osia was gone from the New Mexico Lobos and his mentor, head coach Rocky Long.
Why make what might be perceived as a lateral move to a school that many still consider a rival? Is it a slap in the face?
Certainly not to Long.
The understanding is that Lewis had shopped himself around to a number of programs but could never break free from Long's shadow. Many say Long's signature 3-3-5 formation is still run by Rocky himself and that Lewis was a press box adviser.
It appears to be a professional move for Lewis to come to El Paso -- to be his own man -- and though a few fans in Albuquerque may disagree, this may well have been done with Rocky Long's blessings.
Why? Aside from just letting an assistant spread his wings, here's a bit of conjecture: Steve Alford.
In his first season as New Mexico's head basketball coach, Alford makes close to double what Long makes after 10 years at his alma mater, while Alford's top assistant is right alongside Long, salary-wise. This is despite the fact that, more than any other coach who presided over the morass that was Lobos football, Rocky is the man most responsible for a flip-flop of Lobos fans from the cagers to the corner blitzes.
Anyone who has ever felt the needle in the ear that is The Pit at full afterburner's scream but has not been in a few years would gape in amazement at the place these days -- to quote every World War II movie made way back when, "It's quiet. Too quiet."
But in the movies, all h-e-double-hockey-sticks breaks loose right after someone speaks that line. In The Pit, the silence from the empty seats is louder than any Howitzer could be.
Instead, it is Lobos football that draws a crowd these days, which would amaze Bill Mondt, Joe Morrison, Joe Lee Dunn, Mike Sheppard and Dennis Franchione -- coaches who tried, but could never quite capture the imagination of a city that dreamed round orange bouncy dreams.
Not a whole lot of sell-outs, not even an average attendance that matches UTEP's. But 10 years on, Long has done what no other UNM coach did -- consistently lured fans across University Blvd. to the football stadium.
If the average attendance for basketball had ever dipped below 17,000 back in New Mexico's halcyon days, then-Lobos coach and groove guru Stormin' Norm Ellenberger's turquoise necklace would have turned into a chile ristra.
So far, even this season with Alford, the average is around 13,800.
Someone call Norm and ask if he has a rash.
Bringing Alford and his crew to Albuquerque is a calculated move by UNM Vice-President for Athletics Paul Krebs to try and recapture the magic of the Lobos' 42-year-old hole in the ground. But it is clearly a shift in priority away from football.
It has to be a deep cut to the men who coached the nation's 13th best defense to a 9-4 record last season.
Mike Price may well be reaping the windfall.