by Frank Mercogliano, Asst. A.D. for Communications
2014 Season in Review
America is certainly a fast-food society. You can shop online for clothes, rent a movie from your phone, book an entire vacation from a tablet without ever leaving the bed. Instant gratification they say. Author Jared Kintz probably says it best when he states “I like my gratification like I like my coffee—instant.”
However, instant gratification is in the eye of the beholder, and there has been nothing instant about the program of the University of New Mexico football team, but only if you look at it in traditional terms. While the 2014 team didn’t go to a bowl game, the progress of head coach Bob Davie’s carefully thought out strategies for rebuilding the program took solid form in 2014.
You can almost look at it like planting a tree. In 2012, Davie’s first season, the seeds were planted, in 2013, roots started to form, but there really wasn’t much tangible to the naked eye. However in 2014, those growing roots started to take form, and above ground, everyone could see what was growing. For the Lobos, that was a football team that could compete week in and week out, and it was a season that has set the stage for what Coach Davie calls a “critical year in the progression of the program”.
So Close…
It would be easy to dismiss the 2014 season as a season of “close but not quite”. UNM suffered a few harrowing and heartbreaking losses, none worse than the season opener to UTEP. In that game, the Lobos were down 17 at the half, but battled all the way back to square off the contest at 24-24 in the fourth quarter.
Then disaster struck twice. On a third-down play at the edge of field goal range, a fumbled a pitch was recovered by UTEP, thwarting UNM’s chance to take the lead. After holding defensively (something they did regularly in the second half of that game), a fumbled a punt at UNM’s own 4-yard line with two minutes left. UTEP pounced for a touchdown two plays later for a 31-24 Miner victory.
That’s about as heartbreaking as it gets in football, but the Lobos had a choice…they could allow that to define their season, or they could break the mold and take that next step forward.
It was next step forward for the Lobos. That’s something that head coach Bob Davie can put in the bank as he continues to build his program.
“As a coach I think of the close ones we didn’t win,” said Davie. “UTEP where we got it back even and then pitched the ball on the ground and then stopped them but fumbled the punt. I think about Fresno State being up at half, and San Diego State being just behind at half. Boise State, we all know the story of that game, so it’s a season of close games with some great wins but some heartbreaking losses.”
“I think people would agree that we have become competitive on a week-to-week basis. Obviously for us, it’s now critical to take the next step.”
While the season started out with a heartbreaker, perhaps the finale mended that broken heart just a bit and showcased how far New Mexico had come over the season. It certainly was a game of redemption in a lot of ways as UNM ended the season with a Senior Day win over Wyoming 36-30.
That final score held over the final 17 minutes, as UNM took the lead on perhaps the season’s most redemptive play. Carlos Wiggins, who missed four full games with injuries and parts of three others, took a kickoff at his own 3-yard line and raced up the sideline. He cut back behind a block from senior Tyler Duncan for a 97-yard touchdown that erased the injury demons Wiggins suffered through.
Then it was time for some defensive redemption. Along with a season-high six sacks, UNM’s offense and special teams couldn’t quite put the game away, and left in the hands of UNM’s defense, which while improved greatly from a year ago, still had its challenges. When Wyoming completed a long sideline bomb to the UNM 5-yard line in the final minute, things didn’t look good on Branch Field. But that defense that at times was gashed by big play offenses, turned in the stand of the season. Wyoming three times went after reserve senior corner back Donnie Duncan, and all three times Duncan forced incompletions, including the final fourth down play to seal the win.
However, looking back, in three of UNM’s wins, the defense needed to hold on the final drive. Against New Mexico State and UNLV, the defense kept the opponents out of makeable field goal range in the final minute (UNLV did try a desperation 55-yarder that was short). In the one win where a stand wasn’t needed, UNM’s defense held UTSA to just nine points, the fewest points allowed in a game since 2008.
Those first three wins were great, but none were bigger than the finale against Wyoming.
“That win over Wyoming was really big,” said Davie. “Wyoming was playing their butts off, and to win it the way we did, with a defensive stop at the end, I think that says a lot about the way our team fought all season.”
Yet all of UNM’s wins were exciting and showcased the future of the program. Lamar Jordan, redshirt freshman quarterback, was at the helm for all four of them. UNM trailed in the second half in all four of those wins. Huge contributions were made in those wins by first-year players. UNM got big plays in those wins by the offense, the defense, and the special teams. All were true team wins, and all continued UNM’s progression, and have helped to change UNM’s perception.
“There is no question we are perceived different now,” said Davie. “Every week when I talk to media from the other schools they comment on how far we’ve come, and when I talk to coaches and people that have followed this program, I hear about how far we’ve come, but now the expectations are going to be higher, but I honestly feel like we are one step closer.”
Injury Bug Bites, Roster Able to Bite Back
“Even though it’s our third year I think about the youth that we had, the uncertainly we went through at quarterback with Cole getting hurt …” — Bob Davie
Injuries are a constant in football, but 16 season-ending injuries are not of the norm. Most seasons, that kills a football team. In the 2012 or 2013, with Bob Davie revamping the roster, it would have almost forced the team to cancel a charter flight. But for the first time in the Davie era, despite injuries that would decimate a team, the Lobos had enough depth to continue to run players out onto the field that could contribute, and compete, and in the end, win.
Again, not instant gratification, but no less satisfying.
This is a team that due to injuries ended up lettering an amazing 72 players and playing 78 over the course of the season, yet still redshirting all of the key players that UNM wanted to redshirt.
“That’s an underlying thing to all of this, but there were so many guys playing for the first time. We took our lumps and played a lot of young guys. Markel Byrd is a perfect example. He was a high school quarterback that started eight games at safety, but we will be better because he did that. I feel very positive about that,” said Davie.
No other stat bears out the youth of the Lobos than this one … 42.3 percent of UNM’s players were in their first season of FBS football. Remember this is a team with the fewest amount of fourth and fifth-year players in the nation, and a team with the fewest amount of fifth-year seniors (disregarding the service academies). Yet except for the second half of the Arizona State game and the Colorado State game, UNM was in every game, including six close ones against bowl teams. Perhaps UNM had help on the sidelines in players not playing, but the fact that UNM was able to stick to the plan for redshirting players was perhaps the biggest win of all … not for the season, but for the future.
“For the first time I can honestly say that we made a conscious decision to redshirt and not play guys who could have played for us this year, and helped us this year,” said Davie. “Guys like Johnny Vizcaino, Aaron Jenkins, Daniel Henry, Taylor Timmons, Lee Crosby, Juwan Jones. We had an eye on the future and we didn’t have to panic and use those guys, and our program will be better because of that.”
“We had a lot of injuries but we were able to remain competitive, where in 2013 we had injuries and almost had no chance to remain competitive. This season there was no team that physically overmatched us, and that’s in conjunction with all the injuries we had. Big picture, we are one step closer from a roster standpoint to being able to win in this league on a weekly basis.”
Tremendous Successes and Iconic Moments
The Lobos got plenty of accolades during the season. Dakota Cox, despite missing the final three games of the season with a torn ACL, was voted First Team All-Mountain West, as was center LaMar Bratton. Safety David Guthrie, running back Jhurell Pressley and offensive lineman Jamal Price were all named honorable mention.
Cox and fellow linebacker Kimmie Carson were named Mountain West Defensive Players of the Week after wins over New Mexico State and Wyoming respectively. Cox led the nation in tackles per game, and Pressley led the nation and set a school record with his 9.5 yards per carry. He turned in the 18th 1000-yard season in school history.
Lamar Jordan became the first freshman quarterback to led the team on a game-winning fourth quarter drive with a touchdown since 2007, and he actually not only accomplished the feat twice (New Mexico State and UNLV), but he did it twice in each game.
Zack Rogers went 45 months between his last high school game and his first college game and ended up finishing third in the Mountain West in punting, despite actually not being a punter until this season, and finishing third on the single-season extra points list.
Pressley, along with his other accolades, also rushed for 100 yards in five of his last six games, the last two basically on one leg. The one game he didn’t rush for 100 yards was because he tried to go on a sprained ankle and came out after one play. Watching him run in his final two games, twice breaking 60-yard + runs, hopping and hobbling part of the way, certainly is one of the lasting images of the season.
UNM had several other iconic moments, one turned in by a freshman in Isaiah Brown, who missed the season’s final eight games, except for six plays against UNLV. It was the sixth play that embedded him as a Lobo for Life. Despite a bad hamstring, with UNM down 28-17 in the third quarter, Brown told his position coach Charles McMillian that he needed to go out into the game because, in his words, “we need a play”. On his sixth play, he intercepted UNLV and returned the ball 43-yards to the 4-yard line, reinjuring his hamstring to the point that his season was over. His limping, hobbled return gave UNM life and set the stage for a comeback win.
There was LaMar Bratton, who had a case of turf toe that should never have been played on playing all 39 plays of the season finale against Wyoming on Senior Day. In that same game, Garrett Adcock was injured on the first play of the game, necessitating Dillon Romine entering the game at right tackle. Prior to the Wyoming game, Romine’s experience on the offensive line consisted of one play … a run to the opposite side in the New Mexico State win when Adcock had to leave the game for a play due to his helmet coming off. Romine was superb with eight knockdowns and an overall 76% grade.
But perhaps the most iconic moment came at the tail end of the one game UNM was never in, a 58-20 loss at Colorado State.
“I just think back to that play where Lamar Jordan throws that interception, and that kid is going for a touchdown to make it 65, and Lamar and Tyler Duncan raced 60 yards to chase him down and tackle him short of the goal line, and then our defense stood tall and kept them out of the end zone. That showed me the heart these players have, that never quit attitude. That helped us against Wyoming. We fed off of that.”
Hope for the Future due to the Successes of the Past
Sometimes people forget what Bob Davie inherited. A 3-37 record over the previous 40 games. A team that was outscored 285-45 over the final seven games of 2011. A team that lost 49-7, 69-0 and 42-0 over one three-game span of 2011.
He took that mess and actually got the Lobos to a 4-9 record in 2012 on a team with 28 seniors that he inherited. In 2013, losing all of those seniors, the team went 3-9 allowing more than 35 points eight times, including in six of the final seven games.
But in 2014, the Lobos tossed onto the field a football team that was competitive, that could take the ball away on defense (UNM’s 19 takeaways were almost double 2013’s 11), could score from anywhere (12 touchdowns from its own side of the field, including 10 of those on plays from scrimmage), and best of all, had the ability to win games.
“I feel very positive about where we are, even though we have let a few games slip by,” said Davie, who quickly also noted, “We have had some close losses, but we have had some close wins. That’s who we are right now. I don’t take for granted those close wins, but we have enough competiveness, enough discipline and enough talent and numbers that now we have some expectations. What’s happened is now there is hunger from the frustrations of the close losses, and to me that’s the positive. We should have those expectations within the program.”
UNM’s defense was hurt by poor performances against three nationally ranked teams in Arizona State, Boise State and Colorado State, games where UNM allowed 58.7 points per game, but against unranked foes, UNM allowed just 28.7 points per game, down 14.5 points from a year ago.
UNM had the ball with four minutes left and a chance to win against Boise State, and a controversial replay overturn took the ball out of the offenses hands. That team UNM was looking to upset ended its season on a seven-game winning streak capped by a win in the Fiesta Bowl. UNM had losses to bowl teams by 7, 7, and 4 points.
Said Davie, “We have it now where we believe we can win each week, and that’s the biggest thing to me.”
“I think about a lot of those close games that we just weren’t able to finish, and how to solve that. What’s that next step to going from competitive to winning those games.”
In the end, UNM came up probably two wins short of the ultimate goal of any college football team … a bowl game. UNM’s last bowl was in 2007. However, it stands to reason that the plan put in place by Bob Davie when he was hired at the tail end of 2011 has taken a firm grip … roots firmly taken hold. The plan isn’t going anywhere or getting knocked down, and neither are the Lobos.
Now, much like that tree, there is tangible evidence of growth. There is tangible evidence of success. There is tangible evidence of growing into something so solid it won’t get knocked over, or chopped down, ever again.
All that is just fine for Coach Davie. Planting a tree and watching it grow takes a little bit. There is no such thing as instant gratification when it comes to that, but certainly, the former is more rewarding.
“We have to continue to raise the standard even more, for everything. Things like going to class and being a better teammate will make us better. I don’t want the frustrations that we had on that sideline. We have to raise the bar higher with everything we do. If we can accomplish that, we can get this thing where we all want it to be.