New Mexico Lobos head coach Bob Davie. Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
Progress has been measured in small steps for New Mexico football. After several seasons with few wins, and not even many moral victories, things started to turn around last season under first-year head coach Bob Davie.
The Lobos won four games, including a Mountain West victory over Hawaii, and a 13-point win over in-state rival New Mexico State. In five other games, New Mexico lost by seven points or less. The team showed the biggest improvement in point differential of any Football Bowl Subdivision team in the country from 2011 to 2012. The Lobos also has the biggest improvement in rushing offense nationally. Only eight teams in the country allowed fewer sacks per game.
“We have to turn things around so that we will win those games at the end,” said senior linebacker Dallas Bollema. “It was always small things, always little mistakes … a fumble, a penalty. There’s a change in our attitude about that; you can sense it. We’ve had a year for the foundation to be laid.”
The team has a motto for the 2012 season – Outwork, Outhit, Outdiscipline.
“We’re all buying into that theme,” said senior running back Kasey Carrier, who had a school record 1,469 yards rushing last season. “This is a mental game. We have to build confidence that we can win, that we can hold on at the end.”
Senior linebacker Dallas Bollema supports the new spearing rule, and feels that things can be done to still allow hard-hitting defensive play.
“I respect the rules, but tackling is part of the game. It’s good to make things safer for players, but you know that defenders are trying to get the ball carrier down any way we can. It’s not intentional almost all of the time. Work on technique. Coached have worked with us personally and showed us recordings to emphasize this.”
Second-year head coach Bob Davie has already had a positive influence on the New Mexico program. The former Notre Dame head coach served as assistant coach at Texas A&M, Tulane, Pittsburgh and Arizona. After a decade away from coaching, he came back to the sideline in 2011 to lead the Lobo program.
“Just look at his resume,” said senior linebacker Dallas Bollema. “It’s easy to take coaching from him. He has had big-time players and been with big-time programs. We take to heart what he says.
“Coach Davie is a defensive-minded coach. He’s on our side of the field probably 80 percent of the time in practice. He knows our schemes so well. Coach Locksley (former Lobo head coach, Mike) was offensive-minded. You seldom saw him on our side of the ball.
“This was the most physical spring that we’ve had. There was a lot more emphasis on hitting. Things are moving in the right direction now.”
