COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Mountain West has released its official preseason polls, and for the New Mexico Lobos, that poll was a reflection of the past. UNM was picked to finish sixth, or last, in the Mountain Division. Head coach Danny Gonzales didn’t really give it much thought.
“Don’t care.” he said, adding, “We won’t be picked last for long around here.”
He’s got a point.
The poll is based on recent past, and recent past doesn’t look all that poll-worthy if you are a Lobo fan.
2017: 3-9
2018: 3-9
2019: 2-10
So the 21 members of the league media entities that voted can be forgiven for not putting much stock in what Gonzales is cooking in Albuquerque. Here is the thing though. He is cooking. Cooking like Jeff Mauro or Geoffrey Zakarian. While the media in the Mountain West might not be smelling with Gonzales has on the stove, others have taken notice.
For years, UNM has ranked low in the recruiting rankings, partially by the design of the former offense, a triple-option based package. But that’s out, and UNM’s recruiting game has skyrocketed. UNM is preseason magazines were ranked either fourth or fifth in the Mountain West’s overall recruiting rankings, and nationally, UNM finished ahead of a few Power 5 schools, something completely unheard of prior to the current staff and their arrival in the Duke City. UNM was just 0.46 points from ranking third in the league by Street & Smith’s
Lobo recruiting, once treated as sort of a prohibition era speakeasy in that it was going on and everyone was working the angles, just behind the scenes so let’s not talk publicly, is now more like a V-J Day celebration, with UNM coaches extremely visible on Instagram, Twitter and various platforms. While we might not see Gonzales on TikTok anytime soon, suffice to say that UNM’s recruiting is front an center for recruits, and fans to see.