Out with a whimper
UNM offense held to 83 yards in 31-3 loss to Wyoming
Coach Bob Davie uses the term, “non-traditonal,” to describe how college football is in New Mexico.
Davie knows plenty about college football with coaching stops at deep-rooted programs Texas A&M and Notre Dame, as well as a TV gig for ESPN, where he saw the atmosphere he so admires all across the nation.
After back-to-back 3-9 seasons, and ending the year with a seven-game losing skid for the second straight time, any type of tradition in Albuquerque has seemingly faded away. UNM ended its 2018 season with a resounding thud, another beatdown, as Wyoming crushed the Lobos, 31-3, in front of an announced crowd of 14,269 that looked closer to 3,000 at Dreamstyle Stadium on Saturday.
Davie, who ended his seventh season at UNM and now is 33-54 with the Lobos, did not want to talk about the future of the pro-
gram, where he has three years remaining on his contract. The past two seasons have taken their toll on the 64-year-old coach, who said he has not experienced such adversity and/or challenges in consecutive seasons throughout his career.
“I think it’s too soon to talk about (the future),” Davie said. “When you say, ‘future of the program,’ that’s a lot of conversation. Because no one wants to be in the situation we have been in on a pretty big public stage week after week. There’s a scoreboard on the team on Saturdays. There probably needs to be a scoreboard put on some other things prior to the team getting out there on Saturday. Now’s not the time to talk about that. I’m looking at it through a lens of getting our butts kicked, 31-3. I don’t want to say something that’s not really about this game.”
UNM athletic director Eddie Nuñez, who sat in at Davie’s postgame news conference, would not comment on Davie, only saying that the two will have a conversation this upcoming week.
Nuñez watched the Lobos’ loss, some of it on the UNM sideline, where he could see what Davie said was “a beaten down team,” a defensive unit decimated by injuries, and an offense that couldn’t find any hope against a staunch Wyoming defense.
The Lobos (3-9 overall, 1-7 in the Mountain West Conference) finished with a season-low 83 yards of total offense, which included 10 yards in the third quarter and 11 yards in the second quarter. After the third quarter, UNM had just three passing yards. UNM’s 83 yards of total offense marked the first time it did not hit triple digits since Oct. 22, 2011 when UNM had 85 yards against TCU in a 69-0 loss. It was the fewest yards of total offense since Sept. 17, 1988 when the Lobos gained 66 yards against Texas in a 47-0 loss.
Meanwhile, Wyoming (6-6, 4-4) earned bowl eligibility with two 100-yard rushers in Xazavian Valladay (192 yards, two touchdowns), who had his first 100-yard game, and Nico Evans (142 yards, 1 TD), who had his seventh 100yard game.
Andrew Wingard, the Cowboys’ senior strong safety, recorded five tackles to tie the Mountain West Conference record for most career tackles (454) with former UNM linebacker Carmen Messina.
“I think the thing that is so startling is just how big they are compared to us, just the development of their players,” Davie said. “Just the overall size and strength of that football team.”
The Lobos were fortunate to avoid the shutout, as they received a bit of a gift when they scored on a field goal in the second quarter.
Punter Dontae Crow dropped a snap, picked it up and tried to run for a first down. Patrick Peek tracked him down and put the Lobos on the Wyoming 31. UNM drove to the 8 but stalled to set up Andrew Shelley’s 25-yard field goal.
The Lobos’ loss proved so challenging that it left Davie questioning if UNM’s new spread offense installed this season was the right fit. The Lobos ran a triple-option offense during Davie’s first six seasons and garnered great success in 2015 with seven wins and 2016 with nine wins, a share of the MWC Mountain Division title and a victory in the New Mexico Bowl.
“I knew we had to be so unique,” Davie said of his offensive scheme when he first arrived at UNM. “I think we probably have to be so unique again. It’s startling just the matchup situation week after week against these good teams.”
Davie said he wanted to do his best to solely talk about the loss to Wyoming during his postgame press conference.
“It’s best to take a deep breath and get away from it,” Davie said. “Everyone in that locker room is looking through that same lens. There’s a lot of frustration. There’s a lot of hard work where there’s no reward. The scoreboard is clearly on me and clearly on our players as it should be. But I think that there’s also a scoreboard that probably needs to be lit from a Monday-through-Friday kind of thing.”