Davie takes full responsibility

Lobos’ 3-9 year is the same as in his second season

Lobos coach not wasting time in quest to fix what caused his team to nose dive to 3-9

Job one, Bob Davie said when he was hired six years ago as the University of New Mexico’s football coach, was to change the culture of a program that had lost 37 of its previous 40 games.

A year ago today, it appeared that mission had been accomplished. That evening, the Lobos beat Wyoming to complete an 8-4 regular season and a share of a Mountain West Conference division title, with a second straight New Mexico Bowl appearance to follow.

And now?

Friday’s 35-10 loss at San Diego State was UNM’s seventh straight defeat, dropping the Lobos to 3-9 on the season and 1-7 in Mountain West play — the same record they had in 2013, Davie’s second year.

The team has fallen that far. What, though, of the program? How deeply ingrained is the culture of winning that Davie came here to establish? How solid is the foundation — talent, scheme, continuity?

Is the solution a fix here and a fix there, or does the situation call for a major overhaul?

After Friday’s game, Davie talked as if he’s not sure. But he said he intends to find out.

“I take responsibility for this,” he said. “I told everyone in that locker room, the coaches and the players, this (season) has never felt right from the beginning. Just never has felt right.

“It starts with me, and I take responsibility. But I also take responsibility moving forward.”

Two players interviewed after the game, junior defensive end Cody Baker and redshirt freshman wide receiver Jay Griffin IV, were far more upbeat than their head coach.

Friday’s loss to SDSU (10-2, 6-2) was not an abject rout, and most of the positive things done by the Lobos were done by players with eligibility remaining.

“I think we got some momentum in the game and just couldn’t get over the hump,” Baker said. “But I think that’s something that we’ll be able to work on and get back to next season.”

Griffin, who scored UNM’s only touchdown on a 62-yard pass from redshirt freshman quarterback Tevaka Tuioti, mentioned Tuioti, running back Kentrail Moran and wide receiver Anselem Umeh as potential key contributors to a far better season in 2018.

All, like Griffin, are members of Davie’s 2016 signing class. Like Griffin, all three redshirted last fall and have three more years of eligibility.

“Kentrail really didn’t get to play much this season, but he’s a really good back,” Griffin said. “I feel like he’s gonna contribute a lot to the team next year, and so are Umeh and Tevaka.”

Davie, though, refused delivery on any encouraging developments that could have been extracted from Friday’s game. Instead, his mind drifted all the way back to the 2017 season opener against Abilene Christian.

The Lobos won that game 38-14, but did so unimpressively — trailing 7-0 early after being stopped at the ACU goal line on their first possession of the game.

More struggles would follow: 29 turnovers, an inconsistent and often ineffective running attack, a passing game that produced only in hiccups and burps, a defense that played well at times but gave up average of 520 yards in UNM’s final three games.

Whatever it took to lose nine games, in whatever combination, the Lobos managed.

“I could just go through the whole season,” Davie said. “It’s been an upand-down roller coaster that never had any consistency and never felt right.”

Davie’s assistant coaches left San Diego on Friday for parts unknown to recruit — particularly for juniorcollege help.

But Davie also must evaluate a triple option-based offensive scheme that scored fewer points and gained fewer yards than any of his five previous teams. Was the problem personnel, or scheme, or both?

He must look at a defense that, for all of its aggressiveness, produced only 21 sacks — six fewer than last year and nine fewer than the year before. As with the offense, the same question occurs.

Whatever the cause, Davie said, “This feeling right now, compared to the feeling last year, is so dramatic that we’ve got to fix it.

“We’ve got to fix it.”