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Next week, head UNM football coach Bob Davie will reinstate sophomore player Devonta Tabannah, who was arrested on suspicion of DWI on Aug. 27.
Davie said in a press release Wednesday that Tabannah will return to the team on Monday when it prepares for a Sept. 15 game against Texas Tech.
“My decision to reinstate (Tabannah) is based on research of similar circumstances and suspensions involving other student-athletes around the country, as well as the manner in which (Tabannah) has handled his mistake,” Davie said. “Hopefully, he will take advantage of his second chance and others can learn from his mistake.”
The announcement marks a change of heart for Davie. Davie was quoted in the Aug. 28 issue of the Daily Lobo as saying that, due to his DWI charge, Tabannah wouldn’t “be a member of this football team in the near future.”
“I appreciated that he came to me, but that doesn’t resolve or doesn’t change the actions. There’s no margin for error with something like that,” Davie said.
As for the rest of the UNM football team, it will see two extreme sides of the competitive spectrum.
The Lobos captured a 66-21 victory over Football Championship Subdivision foe Southern in Saturday’s season opener. In their upcoming game this Saturday, the Lobos will take on a tradition Bowl Championship Series powerhouse in Texas.
Texas is ranked 15th in the USA Today Top-25 coaches poll and 17th in the Associated Press media poll. The Longhorns are coming off a 37-17 victory over another Mountain West Conference opponent, Wyoming.
While the caliber of opponents from Game 1 to Game 2 is radically different, UNM’s approach to the games is the same — it’s about how the Lobos perform, not the opponent.
“Going into this game, we already know we’re the underdog,” said UNM junior running back Demarcus Rogers. “We know they’re looking when we come in saying, ‘Oh, this is New Mexico.’ We’re going to use that to our advantage. We’re just going to go in there and play our game and play like we know how.”
In fact, Davie isn’t entertaining the possibility of an upset.
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“I don’t even talk about that. It’s no different to me than it was against Southern,” he said. “For Texas, it’s about doing what we are coached to do. We’re asking them to do things they’re capable of.”
Texas has plenty of tradition on the big stage with its four national championships, most recently in 2005. The Longhorns have three Big 12 championships as well.
Last week against Wyoming, Texas had two 100-yard rushers in running backs Joe Bergeron (110 yards) and Malcolm Brown (105). Longhorn quarterback David Ash was 20-for-27 passing for 156 yards. Wideout Jaxon Shipley caught seven of those passes for 45 yards and a touchdown.
“We’re expecting a lot of run, a lot of power,” said freshman cornerback Cranston Jones, a native of Mesquite, Texas. “They’re a downhill running team. They will throw the ball a lot, but we’re expecting a lot of running the ball.”
Saturday’s matchup between UNM and Texas is the third meeting between the schools. The other games took place in 1948 and 1988. Both games had the same result: Texas 47, New Mexico 0.
The Lobos haven’t fared well in the past against ranked opponents.
UNM is 7-49 all-time against teams ranked in the top 25 and 2-25 on the road against ranked foes. The Lobos’ last win over a top-25 team came in 2003, a 47-35 win over No. 23 Utah.
Against Southern, UNM won its first season opener in seven years. The Lobos have not started 2-0 since 1997.
“We just want to come out, stay focused and have the same attitude we came out with playing the FCS school,” Jones said. “I know it’s going into a bigger atmosphere going to play Texas, but we’re trying to go in with the same mindset and play the exact same way we did (against Southern).”
Jones admitted he never grew up as a “big Texas fan,” but he’s been to the stadium and has an idea of what to expect from the Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium atmosphere.
“It’s a beautiful stadium,” he said. “The fans all go to the game … It’s not like a big hostile crowd. They’re kind of a laid-back crowd, but they will get loud.”
Davie said he has no plans to try to simulate the Texas crowd noise. He’s more concerned with his team’s fundamentals on the field, such as lining up correctly and using proper footwork.
He will also continue his plan to put underclassmen into the game against Texas, as he did in the opener.
“Our whole thing is ‘try to improve.’ It’s as simple as that sounds,” he said. “Obviously the results … the things aren’t going to look like they looked Saturday (against Southern), but we can still improve.”
