Every Tuesday head coach Bob Davie meets the media for his weekly press luncheon. Below is a transcript of that press conference, which is also available below.
Head Coach Bob Davie Opening Statement:
You guys have been around every day and you have watched us practice. You guys have as good an idea as what I have as to what is going to happen but I do know this: I’m encouraged. I do know this team and I’m really looking forward to playing so let’s let it rip. If you talk about concerns, you can’t minimize the fact that two offensive lineman; Johnny Vizcíano, who we had our fingers crossed … he didn’t play last year but did play extremely well the year before, we had him penciled in as a starter and he’s gone. You can’t minimize losing our center Toye Adewon. We’ve gone from Dillon Farrell to LaMar Bratton to spending a year with Toye Adewon getting him seasoned and ready to be the center. He’s a 315 pound guy that legitimately has a chance to play in the NFL and suddenly he’s gone, so if you ask me concerns, it’s simply that. You have to be able to get that ball snapped. We will have a new center that hasn’t practiced there a whole lot, but with that said we have some ability there.
On the other side, are we going to be able to line up and run the ball. We’ve gotten people excited about watching us throw it. We talk a lot about the passing game and everybody is anxious to see it, but we all know for us to be who we all want us to be, we are going to have to be able to run the football and that always will be a concern for me. Will we be able to run it? I don’t take that for granted even though we have some good backs.
And obviously the focus on the other side of the ball is can we get off the field? Can we make teams punt? Can we get the ball back for our offense? With all that said I’m anxious and I’m excited. I think we’re going to be fun to watch. I think we have a chance to be a good team so let’s let it rip.
Rick Wright, Albuquerque Journal – In playing both Lamar and Austin is it more a systematic thing more by feel?
BD: I don’t know. We are still working through that. I think they are both going to play, but a lot depends on the flow of the game. Both have earned the right to play but Lamar is the starter. Probably as the week goes by we will make a decision on that but probably during the flow of the game we will decide. I think both of them will play for sure.
J.P Murrieta, KOB – How do you keep both guys happy? Apodoca has limited time here but came here specifically to play, and you have another guy you have been grooming to play?
BD: Austin came here knowing what the situation was. His eyes were wide open. If anyone researched it as completely as you could it would be Austin and his family. They knew exactly what kind of offense we were and they knew exactly what Lamar Jordan did last year. In fact they were here for the last game of the year, the Wyoming game, so he came in with his eyes wide open. It’s not my responsibility to keep them happy. That’s not my number one concern. I think some things just work themselves out. I think those guys have been really good for each other and I hope it continues. But, all of us know, once the dynamics of the season start, that’s when we will really find out. There are normally not problems in preseason. The problems tend to start when there’s a scoreboard and people show up to watch and somebody plays and somebody doesn’t and somebody wins and loses. But, so far, so good. Those are really two good kids and they have been great for each other.
Van Tate, KRQE: How good is it just to see Dakota Cox back?
BD: We’re anxious to see. Again, he’s been out there and he’s shown no signs of any problems but he hasn’t gone out there and played 60 or 70 plays in a game. I think he’s going to be fine, we have our fingers crossed that he’s fine. We are anxious to see. He’s a unique kid and we’re all pulling for him.
Rick Wright, ABQ Journal: Will he be on a pitch count so to speak?
BD: Probably, yes. So much of that goes with how many plays do you play right off the bat? If they are going uptempo, no-huddle and you have to play 10 or 12 plays right off the bat you can get gassed. If you go out there and go three-and-out and you can get into the flow of the game, it can go a little bit better. I think it’s fair to say we will pitch count him and be smart with it.
Orlando Sanchez, KOAT: With the changes on the line and the loss of Toye, how much is chemistry involved with that position, talking about with the quarterback?
BD: I don’t think there is as much involved with that as there used to be with the quarterback under center. I’m not as concerned about the chemistry or the line calls. Right now Tevita Fonua would start at center. It’s been a little amazing, he’s a junior college kid we brought here in January and he got off to a little bit of a slow start. Physically he’s really good, 305 pounds, explosive and very highly recruited. He played guard and we were a little disappointed and then amazingly we moved him to center really because we had to and he became comfortable there, he got comfortable with the snaps and seems to have become a better player there. It will be Tevita Fonua and we are starting Eden Mahina at guard, and he will make all the line calls from the guard position, so that doesn’t mean a whole lot of change for us there.
It comes down to, again, during the game if something bad happens at that center position, can you rebound from it. If everything goes good, we’ll be fine. If something bad happens then we will find out.
Henry Tafoya, 101.7 The Team: Coach the athletic fire to go out there and hit somebody, gets the nerves away, it means that to a player, but what does Opening Day mean to a coach?
BD: Kind of the same thing. You worry about the simplest things. I’ve had that same question so many times, such as what was it like to be the head coach at Notre Dame and what was it like to be in that stadium and bring that team out of the locker room. It’s no different to bring this team out of the locker room to play Mississippi Valley State. You are worried about the very next thing. You are worried about if we go kickoff return and they sky that kick, can we communicate enough that that ball doesn’t hit the ground and we turn it over? If we are on kickoff coverage can we cover that kickoff? If you start on offense can you get the ball snapped? So it’s the simplest of things, it’s the very next play. But, there’s always that feeling of “oh man have we covered everything? Are we prepared to do this thing?” As we’ve talked about a lot, in high school football you scrimmage. In the pros they play all these exhibition games. In college football we are putting one of our 12 on the line out there the first time we see a different colored helmet and there’s so much at stake. So, it’s the exact same feeling no matter where you are coaching and no matter who you are coaching against. It’s starting from scratch every year.
Van Tate, KRQE: Along those same lines do you get anxiety like the night before? Hard to sleep?
BD: Not as much anymore. I feel pretty good right now because we’ve gone through a long training camp that I feel totally responsible for. In other words how much do we hit and how much work do we do. We’ve come through that honestly as good as I could have hoped. We’ve had a couple of little setbacks with those injuries which weren’t directly related to what we did on the field. So the anxiety really comes from, do you give them a plan that gives them a chance to win, and then does that plan go off as you had hoped it would.
Staying here in Albuquerque for camp has been an absolute home run for us. From everything from drug testing to how they have conducted their business to showing up on time. No BS on the field, no jawing back and forth, no silly stuff, it’s been 100%. I feel pretty good because the plan has gone about as well as it could have gone, so now it’s fun to just go play.
Marty Watts, 101.7 The Team: Talking about the offensive line you had to convert two defensive tackles in the last five days, so how much of a drop-off is there if you have to put those kids in?
BD: We moved two guys Chris Lewis and Jack Ziltz that are both really talented guys. By the time we get to conference play, I hope that they are better than what we had, because they are that talented. Both of them have bought in which wasn’t easy. Jack Ziltz was a guy that was actually at Akron and left there because they tried to move him to offense. But, he has matured and he has become a part of our team where he knows it’s team first and he made the move to defense.
Chris Lewis it’s been well documented. He’s never played offense in his life. His brother is maybe the No. 1 defensive lineman in the Southeastern Conference in Kentucky, and he moved over because he has bought into team first. So, we have two really talented guys there. Sure there is an immediate drop-off right now because they haven’t done it but I think long-term it gives us a chance to be really better than we have been. It’s just how fast can we do it, and there will be some growing pains, but I’m anxious to see them play. It always comes back to talent, and both of those guys are talented, and both are unselfish.
It’s like with Tevita Fonua, it’s not going to be perfect. He might snap one sideways, but eventually he’s going to be pretty good so I feel the same way about those two guys. I want to get them in there and play. We are pretty offensive line friendly because we don’t do a whole lot of different things. There aren’t a lot of drop-back protections. Once they get the basic techniques it’s pretty impressive how fast they can go and get in the flow.
J.R. Oppenheim, Daily Lobo: Coach working on a story for the women’s soccer team having a new coach, and a new culture. That’s something that you have experienced. In year four how would you evaluate the challenges and where you are at in that process of the development of culture.
BD: I couldn’t be more proud of how (far we’ve come). It’s night and day. Now I could talk about that as I’m getting thrown out the door if we don’t win and the only way I can confirm to you how much it’s changed is by what happens on that scoreboard. You can come to practice and you can watch how we practice and do things but at the end of the day it’s that. I know how far we’ve come but the bottom line is we have to win. The same is true with Heather. We have a pretty close relationship with the soccer players. They have been 100% about how excited they are about the change and the kind of coach she is. I don’t need to say that for her, I say that because I’ve heard that from the girls. Austin Apodoca’s girlfriend is a player on the soccer team and a lot of those soccer players are really close with a lot of our players. I’ve had the opportunity to ask them myself and it’s been 100%. They are so excited about Heather. It’s building but that’s what is fun to me, and why I’m so grateful to be here, there is nothing like putting a plan in place and seeing that plan come to fruition and we aren’t there yet, but I couldn’t be happier and I’m sure she feels the same way.
J.R Oppenheim, Daily Lobo: One more follow up, one of the things you’ve talked about is maintaining a disciplined program on and off the field and that’s probably always going to be a very high standard correct?
BD: Well I can give you some tangible things. In three years in the Mountain West we’ve been the least penalized team in the league. In three years of all of college football, and I didn’t even know they kept stats on this, in three years of all of college football which is about 125 teams, I think we are the fifth or sixth least penalized team. (Editor’s note: New Mexico is one of four teams joining Army, Navy and Ball State to finish in the top 10 for fewest penalties in each of the last two seasons). It’s amazing because it actually is Air Force, Army, Navy and then it’s Iowa and Michigan. And then we are either five or six as the least penalized team in college football.
When we came in here, it was the most penalized team, and if you look of the field, and I always do this (Coach knocks on wood), these guys have been outstanding. We have 111 kids on the team that have been here all summer and they have done everything we have asked them to do, and if a problem does develop we immediately address it and try to fix it. As far as discipline, we are plenty disciplined enough to win.
J.P Murrieta, KOB: Back to that story from HBO of the team that doesn’t punt, does that mean you are more open to not punting on fourth down? Some would make the case that statistically it makes more sense.
BD: They went through all of the statistics, as (my wife) Joanne let me know with her little pad and pencil writing it down. We do go for it on fourth down a lot, we really do. We are a lot like the academies in that, and Georgia Tech does it too, we go for it on fourth down, and we will continue to do that. I don’t want to do it because there were times in the past we felt like oh no if we give the ball back to the other offense they are going to score. I’d rather do it because we really want to go for it. I just don’t want to do anything stupid and I don’t want to take the game out of the players’ hands. Sometimes because of ego or sometimes to see if it works or sometimes I want to be different and make a name for myself I’m going to go for it. I lay awake at night if you do go for it and it backfires and you’ve taken the game out of the kids’ hands. That’s something that haunts me. I’m going to do it, but it’s going to be well calculated and it’s going to be well-thought out and for the right reasons. Certainly, the statistics do back it up, particularly in this era now where people gain chunks of yards so fast. It used to be when Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes were doing this they had to drive that ball three or four plays at a time down the field. Now it’s big chunks that there is probably more risk on defense because they may score anyhow, even if they start at the 1-yard line. The game has changed so much that it does lean towards if we have the ball, let’s not give it back.
Scott Stiegler, 610/770 AM: Coach a few years ago you stood here and said in three or four years we are going to be where we are and watch us develop. Do you fell like there is anything that hasn’t happened yet?
BD: Yeah we aren’t good enough yet. It’s going to be a constant battle. I went back and looked, I think we were 4-38 in the last 42 games before I got here. I think in Rocky’s last year they lost five of the last six. Then we probably went into the lowest period that it’s ever been, for different reasons, so it’s going to be a constant battle. We are always going to be fighting to get players, and fighting to keep players, and we are always going to play a lot of close games, which is fine. Is there anything we’ve not done? I don’t know. It’s are we good enough? I know we are going to play close games, I know we are going to compete. We are past the stage of are they competitive or not. It’s can we go win, and that’s the next step of this.
Rick Wright, Albuquerque Journal: If Tevita comes out do you slide Eden over?
BD: I think so. You know I think Mahina would come from guard and Jack Lamm has played some center as well. Garrett Adcock has a hard time snapping as he’s had a situation with both hands so snapping is out of the mix for Adcock. It’s Fonua, Mahina and then Lamm.
Ed Johnson, Albuquerque Journal: Coach how do you feel the community has responded to your program.
BD: I’ll let you guys decide that. I’ve always gone by the mantra of coach your team. I think you can get spread a little too thin when you worry about so many things. Hopefully I feel there is some momentum and I really I feel that because I personally feel that we are going to be better. To ask me how the community is reacting, I think I’d be doing a disservice to our team if I was out there worried a whole lot about that. I think you just spread yourself too thin. I know at the end of the day if we put a good product out there and we can win I have total confidence that people will show up and watch us play.
It’s like this week, we are playing on Labor Day weekend, we are playing a team that quite honestly people don’t know who they are. I just appreciate the people that come out this week so I’m not going to sit back and worry about how many are coming and who didn’t come. I’m going to worry about if they do come, let’s play our butts off and bring them back the next time. Hopefully they are but I can only do what I can do, and that’s coach this team.
Henry Tafoya: Along those lines, I watch (North) Dakota State the other day against Montana, I thought the atmosphere helped Montana win that game. Will atmosphere help win a game?
BD: Without a doubt. But you have to give the people something to cheer about to create the atmosphere. It’s hard if you go out there and stink it up to ask people to go and be your home field advantage. We have a responsibility in that and I think we can deliver that. The best part about the North Dakota State game was Brent Musburger doing that game as he lives right there in Missoula. He was talking about those microbreweries. Definitely the crowd can be a factor, we know that.
Orlando Sanchez, KOAT: I know it’s still two weeks away from the Tulsa game but doing a story honoring our heroes and our veterans and things like that. Is that a no-brainer to do a game like that and get a chance to honor those people like that?
BD: No doubt. I don’t want to make it bigger than it was but I did have a chance to go to the Middle East on a tour several years ago and visited some of our bases and it’s unbelievable. First of all if someone would have told me I was staying there for a year and you aren’t going home after four or five day you are staying here, I don’t think I could have done that. I probably could have gutted it out but what those people do over there on those bases out in the middle of nowhere. We were there for five days and it was over 120 degrees three of those days out in the middle of nowhere, and that’s gone on forever. That’s why this country is what this country is. So anything we can do, it’s well deserved so to me it’s a no-brainer.
Scott Steiger: Talk about Mississippi Valley State and what was the connection with them to have the game in the first place.
BD: Really not a connection. If you notice, Alcorn State plays at Georgia Tech this week, Alabama A&M goes to Cincinnati. Grambling goes to Cal so it’s another SWAC team that’s playing an FBS team right off the bat. Their coach came from Jackson State. Last year was his first year at Mississippi Valley State and he had a lot of success at Jackson State, actually won the SWAC title his last year there. He has his whole coaching staff together, it took him about a year as some of those guys stayed at Jackson State. They are going to line up and throw the heck out of the ball. They have two returning quarterbacks, they are going to spread it out and I look for a lot of empty, no-backs. It’s a good test.
They will do a lot of different things on both sides of the ball. They have two new coordinators so we think we know what they are going to do but we really don’t know. A new special teams coordianator so that will cause us to adjust as the game proceeds. They are a SWAC team where the most famous thing is Jerry Rice played there. They will come in here excited. They are coming in early on Friday and get here and get acclimated and they will be excited to go play.
Fred Hultburg, 101.7 The Team: (Question about two-deep with receivers)
BD: They are all going to play. I think you are going to be excited to see our receivers. We have some taller guys and some more physical players. Patrick Reed has been an amazing move for us from quarterback. Delane Hart-Johnson has come in and been everything we had hoped he would be, a big strong receiver. Matt Quarells is a freshman that we redshirted last year. Matt and Patrick Reed give us two guys that have four years of football and Delane has three. We are going to be able to redshirt Q’ Drennan and Anu (Somoye) our freshmen. I think we have turned a corner just on size and athletic ability at wide receiver.
OK guys? Alright, let’s see what happens.
(Editor’s note: The questions and answers have been edited for grammar and clarity)