ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Lobo head football coach Bob Davie held his weekly press conference on Tuesday in the U.S Bank Zia Level of the football press facility as a part of UNM’s weekly fall sports media luncheon. Here is what the head coach had to say about this week’s game with UNLV on Saturday afternoon at 3:38 p.m. Mountain Time in Las Vegas. The game will be played on ROOT Sports.
Bob Davie: How we doing men? Seems like a long time since we played. I think one thing … you know again, I appreciate the coaches. I appreciate coaches and how hard they work and I know no one wants to hear it because that’s what you get paid to do. But like our assistant coaches, the guys amaze me. We are very fortunate, very fortunate to have a group of guys like this. The work ethic … for instance we are done with practice at 10:45 or 11 o’clock Thursday morning, everybody is on an airplane about 1 o’clock Thursday. Get back in here Sunday morning for a 1 o’clock meeting, go Sunday from one to 9 o’clock at night, and then everyday in here at 6 a.m. and I know that’s not just us. That’s something that truly I missed when I wasn’t coaching-was just the work ethic and the perseverance and the character that coaches bring. You know and again I know that’s what it’s supposed to be and that’s what you get paid to do but I’ve been around a lot of coaches and there’s none better than the ones we have here and they coach everyday like it’s the Super Bowl. They don’t flinch. Certainly get frustrated but what keeps me positive is just being around these guys. There’s actually more frustration when you’re not around them. Like on an open weekend and you’re kind of out there and you’re recruiting and you’re watching college football on television. But again, we got a great group of guys. We’ve got a lot of experience on this staff. We have some young guys sprinkled in but across the board man, a bunch of guys that don’t flinch and I feel very fortunate to be around these guys.
You know going to UNLV … you know it’s two teams with two wins trying to win a game. They’ve won a conference game. They beat Fresno at home in overtime. Their other win was against Northern Colorado. Like you would picture a UNLV team to be … big, talented, a lot of the same pieces that last year … I think what did they go 2-10, 2-10, 2-10 then last year went to a bowl game. A lot of the same pieces the quarterback graduated from a year ago the one that played against us that really came on. You know they were 0-2 last year and had a great comeback, I think it was against Central Michigan. Came back and won that and turned their season around when they changed quarterbacks to Caleb Herring. He’s graduated. The running back graduated. Number 81 who’s maybe the best, one of the best offensive players in this league, if not in the country, he hurt his wrist against the University of Houston. I saw the play where I think where he hurt it. He hasn’t played since the fourth game. He did dress against Utah State. I read somewhere where Bobby Hauck said he just dressed to kind of play with Utah State because Utah State was afraid of him I think it was the quote I read. I would think there is a reason you would take him as one of your travel squad guys. I think it would be more than that which leads me to believe he will play this week. Last year I think he had 10 catches against us.
So UNLV is the team that won five out of the last six against us. The last two years we’ve struggled. Two years ago we went up there and got beat 35-7. We had the ball for something like 40 minutes in that game but they had so many big plays on us and so many explosives, particularly in the run game. Beat us 35-7. Tough day up there and then last year was in a lot a ways a great football game, very entertaining. You know it was 42-42 in the fourth quarter. They came back to go 49-42 and we gave up the big touchdown run to (Tim) Cornett there at the end about 70 yards, it ended up 56-42. I think we had 585 yards and they had 560 yards just an unbelievable offensive display. So I think it will be a competitive game. You know it’s a big game for us. Any game that you have a chance to win is a big game for us. And you know I’m anxious to see. You know the open date we needed, desperately, for a lot of reasons and we will see if we are able to put it to good use. So Rick you want to start this off.
[00:05:14]
Rick Wright, Albuquerque Journal: How different are they without Herring who is a strong runner and Cornett? Are they a little more pass oriented?
Bob Davie: You know they are. They signed a junior college quarterback out of Scottsdale Community College that led the nation in passing at Scottsdale. Blake Decker, he’s 24 years old … he’s an older guy. He was on a Mormon mission to Mexico City. Actually started in junior college I believe, went to BYU, walked on, then left. (He) went on a Mormon mission to Mexico City (and) finished up at Scottsdale Community College. He is an older more experienced player. He beat out the big quarterback that played a couple years ago for them when he was a true freshman up there. He is a thrower but the thing that concerns really as much is he scrambles. He’s very active, takes off running.
Second leading ball carrier on their team, most of it on scrambles. Some are quarterback runs designed but more just back in the pocket takes off scrambling. He’s a fearless guy but they’re a little bit more of a pass-first team than they have been.
They’ve thrown it probably 50 times a game the last three or four games. I think they will probably try to run the ball a little more against us. Most teams have, but they’re a throw-first team. They are a little bit different than last year in that aspect. Last year with Cornett they seemed to be a little more, you know want to run the ball. This year they have two freshmen wide receivers, 83 and 84, that are big, tall guys that are pretty talented. I think they will throw it more than they will run it, but I do think particularly after last week at Utah State it almost looks like they went in not knowing they were going to be able to run the ball at Utah State. They threw it a lot. The quarterback got beat up pretty good. Utah State sacked him 7 times. I would think they come out and run the ball a little bit more against us.
[00:07:16] J.P. Murrieta, KOB: Coach looking at your roster I don’t think I noticed one player from Nevada, I mean you have Texas, Utah, others. Is the talent not there, or is it not what you’re looking for or…
Bob Davie: I’m trying to think. We had two committed to us my first year came down to 10 o’clock the night before the signing date and I got a call from both of them saying they changed their mind and going to UNLV. One of their dads played there. Played on the offense. Played on the offensive line. One of their dads had been a weight coach for a long time at UNLV so we went in there pretty hard my first year and had two 10 p.m. calls saying they had changed their mind and immediately turned around. One of them 12 o’clock at midnight I called Cranston Jones’ home in Dallas and said that you awake and he said no, and I said well wake up. I said is your mom awake. He said no. I said go in and wake her up. You got a scholarship here and they called me back at 1:30 in the morning. I remember I was staying at hotel Albuquerque. And the second one was Chris Edling. So we ended up with Cranston Jones and Chris Edling both after 1 a.m. ended up committing the night before the signing date because the two players from Las Vegas were recruited changed their mind at 10 p.m. So we go into Vegas a little bit and we go into Nevada a little bit. We have two coaches from Nevada, Barry Sacks and Scott Baumgartner were at Reno for several years.
[00:08:55] Henry Tafoya, 101.7 The Team: Coach I don’t want to sound like I’m ready for the home or anything. Is it inconceivable do you think in the big picture, here comes Ole Miss, resurrected program, never head of Mississippi State until recently, there they are in the top 10 fighting for position in the final four. If New Mexico someday in the future reels off six in a row seven in a row, would the Lobos be in the same picture? Knocking on that door?
Bob Davie: I like to think so that’s the reason we are doing all of this and that’s the goal. I think there is tremendous potential here. Again that’s all hopefully we are one step closer to finding out. But that’s the goal for everyone. There’s no question you know that …you know if you get some momentum going and you get on a roll. Again Ole Miss. Mississippi State is both in the SEC West. There’s tremendous credibility there, obviously. So they are going to be in that position. I do not know. That is a great question to ask moving forward. You know East Carolina is having a real good season. Where does east Carolina end up? You look at Boise State has done. How does that change what this landscape may be changing a little bit moving forward? I just like to be here and find out. I like to reel off about six in a row and then we’d probably have some different things to talk about. but right now that’s so far from reality to me right now as we sit here trying to win our third game and our first conference game that I hadn’t thought much about it.
[00:10:33] Tafoya: But isn’t that the new landscape of possibilities for Division I teams?
Bob Davie: I think it has been and I think one thing if you look at our conference we may not this year have the just marquee team but there’s pretty good parity in this lake and I think this lake is going to continue to get better. But yeah that is what it is. Everybody pulls for that underdog. Everybody roots for that. That is one of the reasons I came here for that reason. So exactly.
[00:11:03] Marty Watts, 101.7 The Team: Coach this last week you went out to a lot of JC schools, are you still trying to target five to eight JCs for next year?
Bob Davie: I think that would be accurate. You know we only have three scholarships at mid-semester this year. So that number is down. You know you’d like to take three junior college kids at mid-semester and probably five more. I think 8-10 is probably realistic.
[00:11:31] Scott Stiegler, Lobo Tailgate/Post Game Call-in Show: Coach what is the emphasis? Is there a certain position?
Bob Davie: For us? I think we need a couple offensive linemen. We do. I looked out there today and number 55 and 56, Aaron Jenkins and Johnny Vizcaino, we have two guys that will be starting for us right now in the offensive line that both are redshirting. Johnny will have two years left and Jenkins will have four left. I honestly both those guys would be starting for us right now in the offensive line but we lose Lamar Bratton, we lose Jamal Price. And we are a little thin on the offensive line. We need to go get another Eden Mahina. A guy that can come in and play for us the next year. So offense line I do think we need a running back. I think we are looking for a running back. We need a guy to come in here and just … it’s a pretty attractive place for a running back. We are still in some ways, we may take a quarterback just depending on who that guy is and does he bring a little different skill set to us. He’d have to be pretty darn good to come in here because I think we have some young guys that have some potential. You know on defense I don’t know that we will take a junior college guy mid-semester. If I said at mid-semester right now it would be quarterback, running back, offensive line. If I just said ideally what we would take.
[00:12:58] Van Tate, KRQE: Coach are you noticing the New Mexico name getting out there more because of the ESPN thing and while you guys are out on the recruiting trail?
Bob Davie: I think it’s a constant effort to get out name out there. That’s one thing that has surprised me. I was talking to someone the other day about that maybe it was one the radio on here in the morning. Just on … even in Texas with a certain percentage of people when you say New Mexico. I’ve had several people ask me, do we need a passport when we go to the airport. I really have in all seriousness. I have had a lot of people ask me that which surprises me. I think it is from a football tradition standpoint something we have to continue, continue, continue to beat that drum and grind and I think that’s where credibility comes in. I think that’s where staying the course comes in so it’s the same coaches going in year after year. Bringing kids out of those areas. Continuity in the program I think in the program is really important here. I think we made some strides in that honestly. But it’s not easy. It’s probably a little more difficult than I thought it would be. This is kind of a hidden gem. More than maybe I thought even. Once we get them here and they see the facilities I think they see what we’ve put into the football program the way we do things here. We open some eyes but getting them here has been a bit of a surprise to me. That’s probably why people like Albuquerque. Like living here. Because it’s kind of a place that not a lot of people seem to know about. I don’t know if it’s off the beaten path a little bit or just what the perception of it is but you know through continuity, through continuing to build credibility and the next piece is to win some games. We can show them the weight room all we want we got to win some games and that’s the truth.
[00:15:06] Tate: Well that must feel like fighting up against something else right, if you have people thinking it’s not even in the country?
Bob Davie: That’s legitimately happened five to 10 times since we’ve been here. Legitimately where you’re in that home and they say do we need a passport and I’m like well no I don’t think so. I’m not going into this little airport here in Albuquerque … I think you’re okay. It does kind of open your eyes a little bit and I think that’s the tradition piece of me particularly in football. I’m not sure maybe Craig Neal maybe has that obstacle maybe. But in football we do. That’s just the reality of that and it’s in neighboring states. It’s not like we are going to Maine. We are going over to Texas that rubs up to New Mexico right. So it’s been a little bit of an eye-opener but with that said again we’ve been able to recruit here. I mean it’s a full-on challenge, it really is, but we’ve been able to do that.
[00:16:10] Murrieta: Coach I think when you got here you kind of adjusted the offense to the option to suit what you had and what you did well. Now that you’ve been here a little bit longer and talking recruiting, offensively is that the direction you still hope to go three years from now? Will you still be running the option?
Bob Davie: I think that’s a great point. That’s a great question and I said last week, we’ve gone …. we are pretty competitive. There’s a big step to go from pretty competitive to winning. To truly winning. I think we have to look at everything. I am never going to change the core of what we are on offense. The reason we have been able to be competitive and the reason teams really don’t look forward to playing us is because of our core of what we do. But moving forward, how do we win? You look at the statistics in the NFL from Sunday. What three teams scored 50 points, how many passers through for over 400 yards? Four or five. You look at college football last weekend. I think getting the ball snapped more as we move forward. I think the tempo piece of college football is real, and the NFL is doing it, just getting the ball snapped more. You know Air Force snapped the ball 20 more times than us up in Colorado Springs. Twenty snaps, that’s a lot of snaps. With our core of offense how do we snap the ball more and how do we throw the ball better and more efficiently. Because we do have to score more points moving forwards to go from the competitive stage to winning and continue, continue … even though right now you don’t see the results necessarily continue to build up our defense. Continue to build up defense, because at the end of the day if we decant play defense than it doesn’t matter what we do on offense to get to the next step but we do have to in my mind address the tempo piece. Address snapping the ball more and we have to be able to throw the ball better and probably throw the football more, moving forward.
[00:18:19] Orlando Sanchez, KOAT: Does it bother you as a defensive guy to see TCU throw up 82 points?
Bob Davie: Well Gary Patterson is a defensive guy. Texas Tech over the years has played some good defense that’s the reality of what it is now. You watch these games starting off with Oregon, Cal, UL Lafayette-Arkansas State Wednesday night or something. I mean it’s definitely become a fast break, you need to score points, kind of game. But again it’s knowing who you are. If we went out there right now just trying to match and throw it let me tell you something we wouldn’t have won nine games or whatever it is since I’ve been here and we wouldn’t have come close to what we’ve done in some of these games. I think moving forward how do we win. How do we win, and that’s number one. Tightening everything up with our players. Being more disciplined. Better work ethic across the board with a core of players and also tweaking something’s schematically to be quite honest.
Robert “The Voice” Portnoy: Voice of the Lobos: Can you marry the option with tempo? We saw Air Force do it a little bit
Bob Davie: Yeah Air Force, they do it. Air Force is a big tempo team. Certainly we can. Again, I don’t know that it’s been in our best interest to just get up there a snap it as many times as we can. Particularity with the roster as thin as it’s been. You know we’ve had a lot of starters on special teams. I’ve wanted to slow it down. But what you see is by just by keeping the ball away from offense is if you give up big plays on defense it doesn’t matter. You can keep it away from offenses and stop them a little bit yeah. Two years ago was an example at UNLV. We had the ball 40 minutes against UNLV and they had the ball basically 20. They had 500 yards offense because they had big explosive plays. So it’s a lot of things. Definitely looking at tempo is a … because the tempo piece of it, just the mental and physical duress, it puts on everybody is unbelievable. The NFL is seeing it. Everyone is seeing it. So yeah, we can do it with the option. You talk about putting mental stress with someone I mean with all of the option things forcing them to play a style they don’t necessarily want to play but even go faster with it? I think you got something here.
[00:21:00] Stiegler: Why isn’t UNLV scoring as much this year? They are only averaging 18 points a game.
Bob Davie: Why? You know I think turnovers are a big part of it. First of all they are struggling on defense. They are struggling on defense so the other team has the ball. The other team gets ahead in some of the games. I think turnovers would be something. The quarterback’s really is a good player. He has made steady improvement during the season but particularly early in the season they were turning the football over.
[00:21:33] Fred Hultberg, 101.7 The Team: Coach when you talk about needing a running back are you talking about what Air Force had? A big running back or are you talking like a Crusoe Gongbay type of back?
Bob Davie: I’m talking about … start of the first game with UTEP. Take the second game with Arizona State, Take San Diego State. New Mexico State had some good running backs. We have some good running backs. We just need backs, as many times as we hand it off we need some dynamic guys that can take it. You know Kasey Carrier what he did was unbelievable. Jhurell Pressley is averaging 8.5 a carry right now. Which is number one in the Mountain West Conference For different reasons has only carried the ball 60 some times. Jhurell Presley is that guy he just needs to be consistent like we said from day one. We just need backs not as a slight. We just, losing Crusoe losing Kasey. We just need to go … we have two good freshman backs. But I just look at 19 (Donell Pumphrey of San Diego State) what he has done. I just watched this morning 19 against UNLV took one 75 yards. Boom. Gone. Scored. We just need backs.
[00:22:45] Tafoya: Coach is Pressley a pro player?
Bob Davie: Pressley? Consistency, consistency, consistency and maturity. He is certainly has the explosiveness but he needs consistency and maturity. Particularly with what the NFL is going to ask you to do in different phases whether its pass protection, pass routes, consistency and maturity. But he has the explosiveness. He does. All right guys? All right men, thank you.