Despite Lobos’ miserable season, Davie isn’t going old school on his players
ALBUQUERQUE — Saying his team came out of last weekend’s homecoming loss with a “heartbeat” and a “pulse” may seem like a bit of a stretch for University of New Mexico football coach Bob Davie.
The Lobos, after all, found that so-called pulse only after they spotted Hawaii a 45-10 lead that had most of the 12,617 fans already in their vehicles and on their way home. UNM scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and had another potential scoring drive halted with an interception at the Rainbow Warriors’ goal line.
It’s not as though the Lobos are trying to be one of the worst teams in the country in the first half; they just are. Toss out their wins against Sam Houston State and New Mexico State, and they’ve scored just nine points in the first quarter of the remaining six games and have been outscored 141-34 in the first half of their losses.
“There’s no magic formula or we wouldn’t have started so poorly,” Davie said.
UNM heads out onto the Mountain West road this weekend with a Saturday night visit to Nevada. Kickoff for the nationally televised game on ESPNU is scheduled for 8:34 p.m.
At 2-6 overall and 0-4 in league play, New Mexico is merely playing for pride in what amounts to a third straight disastrous season. The Lobos are 8-24 the last two-plus seasons and 2-18 in the MWC. All that’s left are four straight games in which they’ll be considerable underdogs against some of the Mountain West’s top teams.
While beating the Wolf Pack isn’t exactly an easy chore, all Davie is looking for is a start that doesn’t leave his team falling flat on its face before halftime rolls around.
“There’s no question that early in the game it’s hurting us, particularly with a fragile team that needs confidence,” Davie said. “If you go back to each situation that we’ve broken down, we’ve turned the ball over several times.”
The Lobos have had at least one turnover in 25 straight games against teams from the
FBS level. The only exception in the last 26 games was this season’s opener against Sam Houston State, and FCS team.
During his weekly media address Tuesday at Dreamstyle Stadium, Davie used a few additional words to describe his approach with the team this week. Time and again he said he was “coaching up” the players and doing everything with a “positive” tone.
Basically it means correcting mistakes in an upbeat manner and making sure the players realize their worth by not taking the old-school approach of going scorched earth with regard to the mountain of mistakes. It’s a lack of consistency that is dooming the team, whether it’s players going off script when things break down or the defense shirking assignments when looking for the big hit.
Rather than chewing players out and reading the riot act to the team, Davie and his staff have tried a gentler approach and remained uplifting. After studying the tea leaves from the Hawaii game, he said he was encouraged by the way his players responded to the positive vibes after the second-half rally against Rainbow Warriors.
“Those are things, I think, that people don’t see about athletics,” Davie said. “You know, there’s so much cynical nature out there about athletics. There’s so much cynicism about right now but, man, inside those walls to see how people appreciate, man up even when you’re 2-6, it’s pretty impressive to me how guys approach things.”
NOTES
The Lobos still rank dead last in the FBS against the pass, allowing 344.9 yards per game. They are tied for 125th in touchdown passes allowed with 21 and rank 129th in yards per completion with 14.75. They rank 129th in total defense, giving up 505.3 yards per game; the only team worse is UMass at 552.5. … One of the few bright spots for UNM has been punter Tyson Dyer. He has landed 20 of his last 23 kicks inside the opponents’ 20. He currently ranks 10th in the country with a 46-yard average. … Saturday’s dismal homecoming crowd drops New Mexico’s season average to 17,257 through four home dates. Twelve of the last 13 home games have been below 20,000. The average attendance during that span is 16,923.
Rather than chewing players out and reading the riot act to the team, Davie and his staff have tried a gentler approach and remained uplifting.