Audible is called as New Mexico Bowl teams arrive

Dec. 15—One by one, mariachi players spilled out of a white van parked on the tarmac as a bitterly cold wind sliced across the southernmost runway of the Albuquerque Sunport on Wednesday afternoon.

The 200-plus person travel party of the Southern Methodist University football team sat nearby in its charter airplane — one far too large to land near the main hub for Atlantic Aviation, where team charters often go.

The change of landing location — one that didn't get articulated to all the parties usually involved in the annual New Mexico Bowl team welcoming ceremonies — was only realized moments before the SMU plane was supposed to touch ground.

That, in turn, led to a mad scramble of how to relocate the waiting team buses, a mariachi band, dozens of New Mexico Bowl personnel and game sponsors to the alternate spot nearly a mile away where arriving players were supposed to get the welcome to the Land of Enchantment with the same pomp and circumstance teams have grown accustomed to from bowl organizers.

"You can plan an event all year long and then 'Omaha! Omaha!'" joked New Mexico Bowl Executive Director Jeff Siembieda said, channeling the popular audible call at the line of scrimmage of NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning.

"This won't be the last audible we'll call this week. And we know that. But it all worked out and you could see their smiles."

Two vans and one car with what was the several dozen-persons welcome party were allowed to escort the empty team buses to meet SMU on part of the runway not usually used by passenger aircraft but rather cargo planes belonging to the likes of FedEx and UPS.

Not knowing anything of the chaos that awaited them on the ground in the moments before landing, SMU players, coaches and travel party indeed flashed big smiles. Many recorded videos as they exited the aircraft gazing at the spacious New Mexico landscape and listening to the music of Mariachi Tenampa. Siembieda, in a red blazer, welcomed each one with a handshake, a smile and a "Welcome to New Mexico."

Atlantic Aviation and the New Mexico Bowl crew — and the mariachis — made it work.

"Everyone that we know that's been (to this bowl) before says it's great hospitality, a great city and a lot of fun. We're excited to have a good time, you know?" first-year SMU coach Rhett Lashlee, told the Journal as his wife and children walked by him toward the team buses. Lashlee is in New Mexico for the first time.

"Bowl games or rewards. The players are excited to travel. Obviously playing in the altitude and in cold weather, that's a challenge. That's something (BYU is) used to. We're not. So we're excited for that challenge."

An hour earlier, the first of two planes carrying the travel party of the BYU football team — SMU's opponent Saturday at University Stadium — had landed at nearby Cutter Aviation, utilizing the usual runway and receiving the usual New Mexico Bowl welcome.

And as welcoming as everyone was, Cougars head coach Kalani Sitake noted it seemed a tad different than his playing days with BYU back in the 1990s when the school competed in the Western Athletic Conference with the New Mexico Lobos.

"So I've been here before, but it probably wasn't as friendly back then when we arrived," Sitake said as the band played behind him and his players boarded buses. "... We're excited about it. Any opportunity playing in a bowl game, especially being out here in New Mexico, we're looking forward to the opportunity to hang out with the people in the community and enjoy the food. You know, that's really what I'm excited about."

Added Siembieda, who jokes regularly on his morning sports call in show The Opening Drive on 610 KNML-AM about how people always ask what it is he actually does as a bowl director, said Wednesday's events were a first for him, but still not entirely surprising.

"You've got to be flexible," Siembieda said. "We were flexible with game time (the New Mexico Bowl had its original scheduled game time of 12:15 p.m. pushed back to 5:30 p.m. due to scheduling conflicts with another bowl), and we were flexible with this."

Saturday

New Mexico Bowl, University Stadium: BYU vs. SMU, 5:30 p.m., ABC, 101.7 FM