It took Bob Davie four long years to turn the New Mexico football program into a winning one.
And less than a month after leading the Lobos to their first bowl appearance in almost a decade, Davie was rewarded with a well-deserved two-year contract extension last week. Davie is now signed up to be the head coach for the Lobos until 2021 and will receive a $50,000 raise.
The move is a smart one for New Mexico Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs. Since his hire Davie has managed to pull UNM out of the doldrums of college football, reviving a program that many thought couldn’t be saved.
UNM had to endure seven consecutive losing seasons before finally turning the corner this year, finishing with a 7-6 mark. Even though the Lobos fell short in the New Mexico Bowl, falling to Arizona in a 45-38 loss, the outlook is certainly bright for the program.
Davie had to go through three losing campaigns of his own in order to build UNM’s unique identity. The Lobos are now known in the Mountain West as one of the more potent offenses around with their triple option attack. For four straight years, UNM has finished in the top-10 in rushing offense in the nation.
More importantly, this past year the defense finally played up to its capabilities and had its best season under Davie. At times, the Lobo defense held its own against some of the better offenses in the country, including Boise State and Arizona State.
UNM became a pressure-oriented team that was able to create numerous turnovers, sacks and tackles for loss.
Now the question for Davie is whether or not his staff can replicate the success they had last year. UNM was one conference victory away from winning the Mountain Division and its five league victories tied a school record.
Of course, history says the Lobos will just regress. The last time UNM had back-to-back winning seasons were the 2004 and 2005 campaigns.
The Lobos were fortunate several times in the 2015 season with bounces that went their way. In both the Hawaii and Utah State games, UNM only came out victorious because of missed field goal attempts.
Let’s also not forget how close the Lobos came to blowing the game against the Broncos in Boise, Idaho. If it weren’t for a game-saving tackle from safety Markel Byrd that game would have gone into overtime.
However, those were the types of breaks UNM hadn’t received the prior three years. After the Utah State game, Davie even said he thought his team deserved a few bounces in his team’s favor.
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The bottom line is that Davie has brought a stability and a culture that hasn’t been associated with the UNM program for quite some time.
Whether last season was a fluke or if this is the beginning of a new era for Lobo football, Davie is the right man to have in charge.
Thomas Romero-Salas is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ThomasRomeroS.
