MOORE HAS BOWL GAME IN REAR-VIEW MIRROR.

Byline: Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

The Pac-10 Conference has not been good to New Mexico.

Of the 96 football games the Lobos have played against current members of the league, they have won just 24, and lost the last eight in a row.

The Pac-10 also has had New Mexico junior tailback DonTrell Moore's number.

In losses to UCLA, Washington State and Oregon State the last two seasons, the Mountain West Conference's all-time leading rusher with 2,826 yards managed a total of 50 yards and no touchdowns.

But the 5-foot-10, 208-pound Moore is beginning to even the score.

While the Lobos came up short in a 21-17 loss against Washington State in their season opener two weeks ago, Moore rocked the Cougar defense for 167 yards rushing, including a 61-yard run, and a touchdown.

Is it Oregon State's turn on Saturday?

The Beavers did a defensive number on Moore in the Las Vegas Bowl last December.

In 14 carries, Moore totaled 12 yards and no touchdowns, and his longest run was for 4 yards - his lowest output as a starter and all a far cry from his career-high 242 yards amid the Lobos' 37-34 win over Colorado State three games before the OSU nightmare.

But the worst part of that Oregon State game, he said, "was the score."

Played on Christmas Eve, the Beavers stuffed New Mexico's holiday turkey, 55-14.

"You try to forget about it," Moore said, "but both kinds of games - Colorado State and Oregon State - have an effect on you. You hold onto the good one but you don't forget the bad one."

Now what?

The Lobos, leveling their record at 1-1 with a 27-24 win over Texas Tech last weekend, land in Corvallis on Saturday at Reser Stadium for a 1 p.m. rematch with the Beavers, an 0-2 outfit after a near-miss at No. 1-ranked LSU and a 53-34 cave-in at Boise State.

"I watched both of Oregon State's games on TV," Moore said. "They should've beaten LSU."

The OSU defense that stopped Moore cold in Las Vegas is not the same. This one is yielding an average of 37.5 points, 397 total yards and 168.5 rushing yards a game - numbers ballooned by the 53 points and nearly 500 yards Boise State hung on OSU.

"It's still a good defense," said Moore, who was born three years after the Lobos last beat a Pac-10 team - Oregon State, 35-16 in 1979. "Boise has a good offense, and sometimes it happens to even the best defense."

Moore said revenge is not a factor when it comes to Oregon State. "This is another day," he said.

Perhaps another big day. Moore has rushed for 100 yards or more in 14 games, and more than 200 yards once. He has had one four-touchdown game and twice scored three touchdowns in a game.

During his two-plus seasons, he is averaging 5 yards a carry and has scored 33 touchdowns in 28 games, 21 as a starter.

"The guy is driven," said Ryan Cook, a 6-7, 316-pound junior center for the Lobos. "DonTrell is determined to get the job done. He's a playmaker and a big part of our offense."

Moore landed in the Lobos' lap because of a desire to stay close to his mother and their home in Roswell, N.M. By so doing, he said thanks but no thanks to such college football strongholds as Nebraska, Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State and Miami, as well as UCLA.

"I'm glad I'm here," said Moore, bound first for a college degree, then, he hopes, a run at the NFL. "I'm very happy."

So are the Lobos. Since the one-time Parade magazine all-American who four times rushed for more than 300 yards during his prep career began his tailback duties at New Mexico as a redshirt freshman in 2002, the program has fashioned a 16-13 record and back-to-back bowl appearances, the latter a Lobo first.

Twice, the criminology major, who often quotes poet Robert Frost and orator Patrick Henry, has been named a first-team MWC all-star, and last season ESPN.com and CollegeFootballNews.com selected Moore as the conference's player of the year.

Cook, a candidate for the Lombardi and Rimington awards, national honors for offensive linemen, said Moore's flair is his ability to see the hole and be through it quickly.

"He's through there before anyone touches him," Cook said. "He makes guys miss, and creates his own yards."

Dan Dodd, the team's offensive coordinator, said "few running backs in the country have the vision DonTrell has.

"His lateral movement is incredible and he has a great burst through the hole. More than anything, he has an innate ability to feel the pursuit, cut and make the first defender miss. Rarely does that first guy drag him down."

And, it seems, few others.

LOBO ON THE LOOSE

New Mexico junior tailback DonTrell Moore is the Mountain West Conference's all-time leading rusher

Year G Att Yds Ave TD Long

2002 13 245 1,134 4.6 13 35

2003 13 276 1,450 5.3 19 45

2004 2 43 242 5.6 1 61

Totals 28 564 2,826 5.0 33 61

CAPTION(S):

New Mexico's DonTrell Moore is a two-time member of the all-conference first team.