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 Utah State on Saturday 2:02 p.m. on ESPNews.
Bob Davie: How are we doing guys? First let’s start with Utah State, because that’s the really most important thing. They’re a 7-3 team, they lost to Tennessee, they lost at Arkansas State and they lost at Colorado State. Last year they came in here and we were the No. 2 rushing team in the country at that time. We had 160 yards rushing our lowest total of the year. They beat us pretty significantly. They’ve won eight of nine or nine of 10 of their last Mountain West Conference games. I’ve got a lot of respect for them. Number one, as a program you can see that they are a program that has taken time to build, and they have had continuity in that program. First of all to be able to replace injured players like they have been able to do, because they have had a lot of significant injuries last year and this year. It is really impressive to me. The strength of their program, the numbers of big bodies and mature players they have in the program I have a lot of appreciation for them. The second thing is they are very well coached. I think they have the best personnel in this conference. But I also think they are very well coached and they are to be congratulated on that. They are really good. On offense they’ve done really a good job with their young quarterback. The quarterback last year hadn’t played much before … he was a true freshman. This year they are playing a true freshman quarterback in our game, Kent Austin a player we recruited very heavily. I like to think it came down to New Mexico or Utah State. They really have a good program.
You can see that it’s taken years to develop that program but they are so very well coached so I have a lot of respect for them. We are going up there and everybody knows the challenge. I’m not going to talk about the injuries (because) everybody has them. You are a little bit hypocritical to talk about our injuries when certainly Utah State has had their fair share of injuries. We do have some pretty significant ones, but I like our team and I kind of like where we are. As frustrating as it is it’s still pretty rewarding and we got some guys that will play this week that haven’t played a lot. I look back at Ridge Jones, how he is taking advantage of his opportunity. To a degree Lamar Jordan has taken advantage of his. There are some other guys out there so we are pretty depleted but we are not out of guys. That means we are one stop further along in this program. I’ll let you guys open it up.
[00:03:07] Rick Wright, Albuquerque Journal: Given that Boise State didn’t really make any defensive adjustments and they said the same thing, and that’s kind of been how it’s been with teams like ASU and down the line. Given that, what can you do in the second half to adjust to that.
Bob Davie: I think that’s a fair question because if you look at it just statistically as good as we were on offense, which was unbelievable against a proud Boise State football team and defense. I mean 505 yards rushing against Boise State, we only scored seven points in the second half. That’s been kind of the M.O. We talked about it at half time. I told you two weeks ago we put up all the statistics and talked about different things. Maybe a piece of it is the speed of the game getting ready for us. Any time you play an option team you usually play better defense in the second half. There’s a bunch of theories that you can be philosophical about but at the end of the game we didn’t make the big explosive plays in the second half of this game that we did in the first half. Their safeties were a little more aggressive in the second half. Our quarterback, as the game went on, maybe didn’t play as well as he played early. Also we’ve played some really good teams and if you use those scenarios for Arizona State, Fresno State, Boise, who put the pedal down. All of a sudden they say holy cow these guys are going to beat us and they got a little more in that tank maybe than we have. Maybe they are a little farther along in their program. They had a little more gas in the tank. It’s a lot of things but at the end of the day on tape is we just have not quite had the plays against those teams in the second half that we had in the first half. It’s kind of remarkable, it really is.
[00:05:08] JP Murietta, KOB: Coach what did you think of Lamar Jordan’s first start?
Bob Davie: Pretty good. I remember standing here last week and talking about how does he handle all week when he knows he’s going to be the guy out there in the first series. He was pretty good that first series … handing it to number six and he goes 75 yards on the first play makes it easy so we took the pressure off of him. I thought he played pretty good. Third downs he gives us a chance because he can throw the football. He rallies guys. He’s got a pretty good attitude to him, and he doesn’t get rattled. So I think all-in-all pretty good.
[00:05:45] Van Tate, KRQE: Coach how does it look with Kimmie moving over for Dakota.
Bob Davie: Scary. It’s scary. All season we’ve had two first-year Will Linebackers in Kimmie Carson and Ryan Langford. We have not gotten execution there. We’ve gotten some good effort and they’ve gotten a little better but truthfully that’s been a problem for us all year, that linebacker opposite Dakota. They are first-year players in this program. Now, both of them are on the field at the same time and both of them are injured. Kimmie has the knee that is remarkable that he came back from that knee as fast as he did. He is not 100 percent. Ryan Langford has the labrum. So, you have first-year players that are injured and behind them it’s Michael Arredondo, it’s Geoff Smelser and it’s Trajuan Briggs who has the elbow injury. He’s had it really even going back to Cal and he’s going to have surgery on that once the season is over. He’s kind of hobbling through it right now, so we are really thin there. Obviously that’s a big concern.
[00:06:49] Rick Wright: Arredondo has been listed as the back-up to Dakota all season, has he just not played enough?
Bob Davie: Mike is probably the third linebacker right now if you say Langford, Kimmie and then Arredondo. Even though he’s listed as the backup it was Dakota, Kimmie, Langford and then Arredondo. You just try to get the next guy out there. Mike Arredono is going to play a lot of football. He really had a good double-team block on the opening kickoff we ran back. Randy Williams is out with some concussion symptoms as is Tabannah, but it’s fun to go back and look at the opening kickoff of the game. Utah State kicks it off and it was non returnable in the end zone. They have a couple of great coverage guys who have all seized and wreaked havoc on the kickoff return teams, and Randy Williams put an unbelievable shot on the kid and acutally hurt himself a little bit. On the second kick off, the one we returned for a touchdown, there was a significant difference in how they covered. That’s what is fun to see. It’s fun to see guys step up in those little situations that nobody notices and it’s an unreturned kickoff. Randy Williams was unbelievable and when he makes the block you see Nik D’Avanzo who is his backup on kickoffs just celebrating like a mad man on the sidelines. It was a non returnable kick but it set up the next kick.
I guess the other piece is to go ahead and address it just because I’ve gotten so many solicited and mostly non-solicited comments on the fourth down and I probably need to put that thing to rest right now. I’m going to take my time and explain this and you guys do what you need to do with this or give your opinion on it or research it yourself. The first thing on that is to put it into context.
There is no guarantee we would have scored, obviously. Even if it was first down at the 50 with four minutes left, there is no guarantee that Dakota Cox wouldn’t have gone back out there with a minute left in the game if they got the ball back and would have gotten hurt. So I’m certainly not going to use it as an excuse. Boise State beat us. Boise State deserved to beat us. That is the first thing I’m going to say about that.
The second thing is I think I have pretty good credibility when it comes to instant replay. In 2003 and 2004 replay was brought to light. The idea of replay was by David Perry, who was in charge of the Big Ten officials. At that time I was and ESPN and I did mostly Big Ten games. I know all the conversation about replay between Dave Perry, Jim Delaney and the Big Ten. I know why the Big Ten did decide to go with it. I did the first game ever in college football with replay at Wisconsin in 2004. I know the intent of replay was to only correct egregious errors that happened in the game … period. I know through the first year or so when we decided to fully implement replay in college football the statistics showed that it would be about one replay a game that the average time added to the game because of replay would be under three minutes. So, the nation decided to go with replay. You look back at our game and there were five replays in that game which added 14 minutes to the game. Dave Parry has since passed but I know that was not the intention of replay, to replay five plays and add 14 minutes to the game.
The next thing I’m going to say is this. Let’s just take Notre Dame having played Arizona State Saturday in Tempe. A huge game, but if Notre Dame would have lost the game like we lost the game to Boise out here, if that was Notre Dame/Arizona State, exact same scenario and Notre Dame had the ball fourth and one, if that game had come down to that, this would be the number one story in all of college football today across the country on SportsCenter. It would be the number one story, and that’s all anybody would be talking about.
I coach just like I’m at Notre Dame. And with our kids, I approach it just like they are Notre Dame/Arizona State and a huge game. That game was just as big to me as any game in the country. I have a responsibility to treat it the same way and with that said I have looked at every replay that the official in the booth had access to. Forty-eight hours later we have broken that thing down. Frame by frame by frame, we have blown that thing up frame by frame by frame. Forty-eight hours after that call was made in that booth … in four minutes. … if you ask me right now was the tip of that ball across the plane of that 50 yard line … all it needed was the tip of that ball across the plane of that 50 yard line … I would say honestly being as unbiased as I can be, 75 to 80 percent of my decision is it was across that plane. Maybe 15 or 20 percent saying it was right at the plane. That’s 48 hours after that game was played with all that technology we have.
Obviously it was not indisputable evidence to be able to overturn a call on the football field. I challenge anybody in this country, because I have had a lot of unsolicited emails, texts, people that have done that, saying absolutely a mistake was made. The only problem I have in all of this, being dead honest, is the only people that say it was indisputable and there was concrete evidence that that call should be overturned was the Mountain West Conference. To me it was a bit of a slap in the face. To say that was the tip of that ball across the line or not? Forty eight hours later you are still looking at it saying dang. If I had to put $100,000 dollars on it truthfully I’d say 75% of me says yes maybe 25% is no. But to say that is indisputable evidence in four minutes in a press box with the limited technology they have and then they come back and say from the Mountain West Conference there is concrete evidence, indisputable evidence to overturn that call is dead wrong.
I challenge all of you to go take the tape, look at the tape, and break it down. I’m just being dead honest with what I see. When this season is over I will go sit down with all the people that wrote that email and I’ll take it frame by frame as I did on a conference call yesterday. So that’s where I stand. A major mistake was made in that game. All I ask is for accountability so just like I’m at Notre Dame and if we would have lost to Arizona State. To me a mistake was made and I’ll look at whatever frame by frame evidence anybody has. But a mistake was made. With that said we may not have taken that ball and scored anyhow. Nothing against Boise they deserve to win but that’s just how i see it. Any questions?
[00:14:53] Rick Wright: Were there more angles?
Bob Davie: Absolutely not. The same angles you see on CBS Sports. Totally that was it. He had an ability with the DVR to go frame by frame. We went frame by frame by frame and blew every frame up. If you’re asking me today did that tip of that ball cross the 50, I’m saying yes. Now there maybe 10% of me that says that camera wasn’t right on that line, but maybe 10% and if that can be determined as indisputable evidence? When Dave Perry started replay back in 2004 when he said only egregious calls would be over turned and you take that game out of the officials hands and ultimately the players’ hands to overturn that call, I have a major problem with that. I think I have a responsibility to our players and our fans. We might not have the masses that Notre Dame has but I promise you this would be the story of the country today. All over the country they’d be looking at that frame by frame, saying a mistake was made.
[00:16:01] Mark Smith, Albuquerque Journal: Coach you said you were on a conference call, what did you say to the Mountain West?
Bob Davie: I’m not going to go there. I said basically what I just said to you. I said it was a mistake and we agreed to disagree. I challenge you to find anybody else that says that was indisputable evidence to overturn an egregious call that was made on that field. To be able to do that in four minutes in that press box, I see no way that call should have been overturned.
[00:16:28] Mark Smith: Were you guys freezing it at the same time?
Bob Davie: Freezing at the same time. Same thing. Right down the line. So you go freeze it, you go look at it. I’ve had a lot of unsolicited and solicited people that I’ve sent it out to and I’m not going to say who they are. But, to look at it and be honest and I won’t use their names to say there is credibility. Just do it for me and it’s been 100%. Obviously I’m biased, I have an agenda in it. None of it matters now. The game is over. I’m not whining. I’m not talking about anything other than there was not indisputable evidence to overturn that call. Period. I’m not saying we would have won.
[00:17:15] Van Tate: Have you ever seen something like before?
Bob Davie: Never seen that before on the spot of a football that was that close. Immediately on the sidelines they waved the chains and immediately said it was a first down. There wasn’t even a measurement. There was nothing. I mean it wasn’t even close. On the real time piece it was not close. On the replays you saw on CBS Sports you’re going to have a hard time saying it was even close truthfully. You see one elbow down but it’s the kid from Boise who had the white thing on his elbow. Then you go frame by frame. Then you blow it up frame by frame and you are not going to come back and say there’s the conclusive evidence, let’s overturn that call. You’re not going to find it. [00:18:00]
[00:18:01] Van Tate: The yellow marker they use on the broadcast, he looked over that marker.
Bob Davie: That yellow line doesn’t matter. It was exactly the first tip of the 50-yard line. You just put a plane up and if the tip of that ball touches that plane, it’s a first down. Now I’m saying its as close as humanly possible and if they’d have missed that call on the field and they said it wasn’t a first down and they would have said Boise’s ball? I would of agreed don’t overturn that either. The intent of the rule is when the call is made unless its 100% indisputable conclusive evidence you don’t take the call out of the official’s hand. Only if it’s an egregious mistake you overturn that call. I have eight officials standing there looking at me on the sidelines like what are we doing here? It’s over. I’m done talking about it.
[00:18:57] Mark Smith: There’s one more piece and we have to ask, although I think I know what the answer is going to be. We are getting a lot of feedback at the paper …Mountain West conspiracy theories.
Bob Davie: No, absolutely not. Just like I can’t stand here say he would have done anything with it. We might have fumbled the very next play and Dakota Cox would have gone out there on defense anyhow. I’m not going anywhere other than based on my experience going back to 2003 and 2004, when I was in the middle of this thing because I was at ESPN and David Perry and ESPN and Jim Delaney and the Big Ten were having all kinds of discussion and I was a coach that just got out of the game. I was heavily involved in this. In fact the games I did on replay Jim Delaney was in the Big Ten office in Chicago hooked up to everything that happened. That’s how much was riding on getting this replay thing and how much the Big Ten went out on a limb. I’m not saying I’m an expert but I do have some credibility in this. All I want out of this is accountability. I’m at New Mexico and I have the same responsibility and the same passion and accountability is accountability.
Henry Tafoya, KDEF: Does the fact you had that big football team on the ropes, is there a new self respect that your players have moving forward, and is there a new self-respect from your opponent looking at the Lobos?
Bob Davie: You have to win. You probably have to call the other Mountain West Conference coaches and ask them. It’s hard for me to be the third-party and judge what other people think of us. I think that’s fair. There’s that balance of frustration knowing your capable but then all of a sudden you get hit in the mouth again. The recurring thing is you can’t stop somebody. We have seen more bits and pieces of good things. We are probably overall closer than we’ve been, but we are not there yet and that’s the dead-on truth. There’s a reason like Rick’s question, teams can come back in the second half and put the hammer down on us a little bit. That’s probably what is happening. In the big picture of all of this that’s probably what happens. Continuity, years in the program, overall depth, overall talent, and it ends up costing us.
[00:22:43] Marty Watts, 101.7 The Team: Coach with that said that you aren’t stopping anyone and needing more players to get Utah State to the next level, do you have to go deep into the junior college ranks?
Bob Davie: Again, I think our talent level is better overall. I think it’s a shared responsibility between all of us, starting with the head coach, assistant coaches and the players. I’m not standing here saying we have to go get other players. We are playing good teams, we are playing good offenses, and we have some vulnarabilities. It’s not like you have to go get 10 JC guys to come here to help your defense. We have some things in place. We got some redshirted guys. We have a lot of things in place, we just haven’t done it yet. We’ve done it more on offense. We’ve done some things on special teams.
We just haven’t done the Ridge Jones thing yet. Where Ridge Jones keeps investing, it looks bleak, he keeps going, keeps going and all of a sudden bam. There’s Ridge Jones. We haven’t done that on defense. We made the same investments. We’ve worked out butt off. The players have worked their butts off. There’s a lot of pride.
Boise, they’re a good defense, a really a good defense. When you give up a 75-yard touchdown on the first play your like all of a sudden you are like whoa. We turn around. We give up a 75 yard play. Our whole thing here has been we do some good things then something bad happens and all of a sudden we are back on our heels just a little bit. There is no confidence. Things start to break down. A week before at UNLV we would do some great things on defense. The end of the half they got the ball and took it down the field on us and oh god here we go again. That’s what you have to get through. But when you give up those kind of big plays on defense and you get just the little bit tentative and you start thinking about what can go wrong. That’s what turning the program around is, and that’s what turning the defense around is.
[00:24:47] Fred Hultberg, 101.7 The Team: Coach with Pressley looking like he’s not going to play, do we see more Anaya and who do you have behind those guys?
Bob Davie: Tyrone Owens. It will be Teriyon Gibson, Rommel Jordan and David Anaya and we have traveled Tyrone Owens. Let me say one thing about our running backs. Apollo Wright, our running backs coach has done an outstanding job. Stop and think about Crusoe Gongbay is not even here. We’ve seen Pressley mature. We have seen Teriyon Gipson do some things out there that shows maturity and shows development. I expect Rommel Jordan to do the same thing. He’s got something going. He got something contagious. The kids are playing at a high level. He has done a heck of a job. He deserves credit for that. He’s come in here and Kasey was beat up last year, nicked up last year and maximized what Kasey could bring. He’s really a good coach. Thank you guys.