Expectations are still low for New Mexico. At the Mountain West Media Days in Las Vegas, Nevada, the conference announced the preseason polls for the Mountain and West Divisions.
It took senior tight end Reece White longer than most to find the right position. White came to UNM as a walk-on wide receiver in 2012, but didn’t have the speed to play wide out at the Division I level. The coaches moved White to safety, but he never actually took any reps at the position because the team still needed him at wide receiver for the scout team. “I came in a wide receiver and didn’t really fit well,” White said. “I did some scout wide receiver kind of stuff, so they moved me to safety for a short period of time. I wasn’t quite as fast as everybody else.”
By Thomas Romero-Salas The importance of running track and field became clear to Carlos Wiggins after last year. The New Mexico wide receiver combined to run only two races last indoor and outdoor track season and paid for it during football.
New Mexico lost more than its strong safety last season — it lost a leader. The Lobos are looking to replace David Guthrie after he exhausted his eligibility last year. UNM does have plenty of depth at the safety positions with several players who have in-game experience. However, safeties coach Charles McMillian said it will be difficult to replace Guthrie because of the type of leader he was.
Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Clay Davie decided to be a football coach. After all, his father, New Mexico head coach Bob Davie, has been in the coaching game for almost 30 years. But Bob Davie never tried to pressure or persuade his son into becoming a coach.
The timing wasn’t right for Austin Apodaca. After being committed to Washington State for nine months, it didn’t feel like the correct decision for the high school quarterback to take a visit to New Mexico and see what the Lobos had to offer.
Spring football has shown how thin New Mexico is at the linebacker position. The Lobos do have several linebackers with game experience on the roster, but that is mostly limited to backup minutes. The only regular starters in spring football are redshirt freshman inside linebacker Kimmie Carson and sophomore outside linebacker Donnie White. Both started eight games last season.
Not many quarterbacks switch positions after starting for their first three years in college. However, Cole Gautsche is making that transition. It was announced earlier this year that he will be moving to tight end after being New Mexico’s starting quarterback for the last three seasons. The junior will also redshirt this upcoming season in order to fully heal the broken left foot he suffered in a 31-28 win at UNLV this past November.
It might be time for the New Mexico wide receivers to finally play a more active role in the passing game. For the past three years in Bob Davie’s triple option offense, UNM wideouts have done more blocking than catching. In this spring practice, there has been an emphasis on improving the air game, but that has been the case for the past couple of seasons. No wide receiver under Davie at UNM has caught 20 or more passes. The most catches a wide receiver has had in one season are 19, which happened twice in 2013 when receivers Jeric Magnant and Marquis Bundy both hit that mark.
The New Mexico football team is hopeful that a new scheme and additional personnel will help solve some defensive woes. After allowing the most yards in the Mountain West last season, the Lobos needed a change and they are hoping that a nickel base defense and new defensive backs coach Al Simmons will clear up some of UNM’s issues. “To get someone who’s been in this conference for three years, been a defensive coordinator and all of that. So the resume is really impressive,” head coach Bob Davie said of Simmons. “What more impressive is his demeanor. He’s not going to flinch.
Unlike the quarterback position, there isn’t much question about who will be one of New Mexico’s top running backs come the fall. Jhurell Pressley is likely to get his fair share of the carries in 2015, but the senior tailback isn’t taking repetitions during spring practice because he’s not enrolled at UNM this semester. Head coach Bob Davie said Pressley will be back this summer and has not commented on why Pressley isn’t in school this spring. With Pressley not being at spring practice that only means other running backs will take his reps and get more accustomed to the offense.
The quarterback competition for New Mexico isn’t bothering Lamar Jordan at all. Instead, Jordan, the redshirt freshman incumbent starter, is embracing the fact that several signal-callers are gunning for his job. Quarterbacks Caleb Kimbro, Jajuan Lawson, Patrick Reed and junior college transfer Austin Apodaca are all in the running for Jordan’s spot this upcoming fall. “I feel like you never get better unless you have competition,” Jordan said. “The shy people shy away from competition. I’m a wolf: I’m going to get what I want. I’m going to compete with whoever it is, no matter if he’s bigger than me or smaller than me.”
For the first time since 2006, the New Mexico football team will host seven home games in one season. The Mountain West on Monday announced the Lobos schedule, which includes at least two home games in every month of the 2015 season. The Lobos will start their campaign with two games at University Stadium against Mississippi Valley State on Sept. 5 and Tulsa on Sept. 12.
For the past few years, the New Mexico football program has not been a main attraction for New Mexico Athletics. In fact, the 2014 season generated the second-lowest ticket revenue in seven years. The lowest ticket revenue was the 2011 season in which head coach Mike Locksley was fired from the University following his troublesome tenure with UNM.
Third downs have been problematic for New Mexico's defense all season long, and it almost cost the team its first home win on Saturday. Wyoming (4-8, 2-6 MW) converted on 12 of 23 third downs, playing right into UNM's defensive tendencies. UNM opponents have converted on 51 percent of third-down plays a stat head coach Bob Davie said will be a point of focus next year. New Mexico (4-8, 2-6 MW) has converted on just under 37 percent of its conversions all season, and didn't have a single conversion against Wyoming.
As it had all season long, New Mexico's defense looked like it was about to break at the wrong time. After UNM failed to convert on fourth-and-2 at Wyoming's 29-yard line, the 
Cowboys had just 59 seconds and 64 yards to steal victory away from the Lobos, who were up 36-30. On the third play of the drive third-and-10, no less quarterback Colby Kirkegaard hit receiver Tanner Gentry down the right sideline for a gain of 44 yards, setting up first-and-goal at UNM's 5-yard line. A false-start penalty followed by two incompletions and a six-yard pass put the Cowboys in a fourth-and-goal situation.
Record-wise, the difference between three and four wins for a football team is minimal at best. But for New Mexico, a win Saturday against Wyoming will be the step in the right direction for a program that has been at or near the bottom of college football for the past several years. That fact isn’t lost on any of the players or head coach Bob Davie heading into Saturday’s regular season finale at University Stadium.
For the first time this season New Mexico was outclassed from start to finish. After being competitive in almost every game this season, No. 22 Colorado State dismantled UNM 58-22 in Fort Collins, Colorado, on Saturday. Rams running back Dee Hart ran for a career-high 230 rushing yards and scored six touchdowns (five rushing, one receiving). It’s the second straight year that a Colorado State tailback scored six touchdowns against UNM. Former CSU halfback Kapri Bibbs did it last year.
The stakes for New Mexico and Colorado State in Saturday’s game could not be more different. For the Lobos, it’s their final chance to beat a quality opponent and show more signs of an improving football team.
Wins and losses don’t always tell the entire story. New Mexico has been competitive for almost every game this season, but has failed to beat quality teams and is now 3-7 on the year, 1-5 Mountain West.
Solutions by The State News
