Lobos predicted to be just as bad, if not worse
Ninth straight season in which team picked either last or second to last in preseason media poll
Less than a week after the University of New Mexico axed four team sports and tried to fend off attacks from the public about why the school continues to justify its struggling football program, the Lobos received the kind of football news no one wanted by everyone was probably expecting.
On Tuesday, the Mountain West Conference released its preseason football poll and all-conference teams. To no one’s surprise, UNM got little to no love from the panel of voters charged with compiling both entries.
New Mexico was voted dead last in the Mountain Division poll and had just one player, offensive lineman Aaron Jenkins, named to the all-conference team.
The Lobos are coming off a forgettable yearlong stretch in which they lost their final seven games of the 2017 season to finish 3-9 overall and 1-7 in MWC play, then suffered through a tumultuous offseason where head coach Bob Davie was suspended 30 days after a damning report issued by the university suggested he was part of several moral and ethical violations of department policy.
Couple that with a sudden drop in the team’s rushing attack — the Lobos averaged about 120 fewer yards on the ground in 2017 from the year before — and it led to numerous changes to personnel that leaves plenty of question marks entering 2018.
New Mexico received 23 points in voting from the 22-person panel of
media members attending the preseason league meetings in Las Vegas, Nev., this week. Teams were awarded one point if they are picked last (or sixth) in their respective six-team division and six points if they were picked to win it.
It means a maximum of 132 points could be awarded and a minimum of 22. UNM was voted last on all but one of the ballots and next-to-last on the other.
Defending league champion Boise State was the unanimous pick to win the Mountain. The Broncos got all 22 first-place votes while Wyoming was picked second. Colorado State was third, followed by Utah State and Air Force.
The West Division favorite was Fresno State. The Bulldogs garnered 16 first-place votes to edge out San Diego State. The Aztecs received the other six votes. UNLV was picked third, followed by Nevada, Hawaii and San Jose State.
Boise State had four players named to the preseason offense all-conference team, including the player of the year in senior quarterback Brett Rypien. The Broncos had three defensive players picked, as well as the special teams player of the year, return specialist Avery Williams.
The top defensive honors went to Wyoming senior defensive back Andrew Wingard, one of three Cowboys named to the allMWC defense.
UNM was picked to finish fifth in the Mountain Division last year but its seven-game skid to close things out left them in last. This marks the ninth straight season in which the Lobos have been picked either last or second-to-last in the preseason media poll.
Not since 2009 when they were voted seventh out of nine, then finished eighth in the final standings, have they avoided the bottom-two in the preseason voting.
New Mexico opens the season at Dreamstyle Stadium on Sept. 1 against Incarnate Word, then has road games at Wisconsin and New Mexico State before the second home game on Sept. 29 against Liberty.
Other home games are against Fresno State, San Diego State, Boise State and Wyoming, meaning each of the final four dates in Albuquerque come against the top-two teams in each division in the preseason poll.