Know Your Notre Dame Football Enemy: New Mexico Preview
Notre Dame football will open their home slate against former Irish coach Bob Davie and New Mexico.
Bob Davie shouldn’t be a head coach anymore. There’s a few reasons why, and setting the Notre Dame football program backwards after Lou Holtz’s success is not one of them. A head coach should get some benefit of the doubt, after failing the first time around.
Off the field issues happen, but not often on the scale of what has happened to Davie at New Mexico. If New Mexico had the notoriety of a Power 5 program, Davie’s time there would have been compared to an Art Briles-level scandal.
There were multiple sexual assaults at New Mexico, and it was alleged that Davie played a part in covering them up. Though never confirmed, Davie was accused of saying some highly inappropriate things about a sexual assault victim in a team meeting.
He was subsequently suspended for a month, but kept his job.
He should not have a job in college football, where he’s supposed to be helping to teach moral lessons to people as young as 18.
Not that you should, but put that aside for a moment and look at the lack of success on the football field. Davie went 3-9 in each of the last two seasons. In seven seasons, Davie has only had the Lobos bowling once.
Attendance is abysmal as well. That’s not too surprising. People don’t like watching terrible teams play, and they really don’t like to pay to watch bad teams lose. In 2017, the Lobos had an average attendance of 21,194 people a game. Their stadium holds just under 40,000 people. Through three games in 2018, their average attendance was down to 17,908 people per game. That number might have been fluffed up by the university. New Mexico doesn’t scan tickets, and probably bumps up their numbers to look better on paper.
In other words, Bob Davie has no business coaching the New Mexico Lobos anymore.
2019
In an attempt to continue to save his job, Davie is bringing in a new offensive coordinator and a ton of JUCO players.
Joe Dailey is the new offensive coordinator. Dailey has been at Liberty since 2012, and played quarterback for Nebraska. Last season under Dailey, Liberty had a top 50 offense. That was against a weak schedule, but it was also the Flames’ first FBS season. So Dailey has shown his worth recently.
On the other hand, Davie was unclear what type of offense Dailey would bring. “He will be able to mesh our offensive concepts because of his unique background as a player and a coach”, Davie said. In other words, he’s going to do a bunch of different things, and not run one set style of offense.
Dailey has very little to work with at New Mexico, however. The Lobos’ starting quarterback — Sheriron Jones — ranked 100th nationally in passing yards per game. Maybe a new offense will help him improve. It’s also possible that Jones regresses in a new offense that he may not entirely fit into.
The running game was only 88th in the country in 2018 with 153.2 yard per game. Again, there is potential for improvement here, but the running game is unlikely to make enough of a jump to help Jones keep the Lobos ahead of the sticks.
This means that New Mexico is likely going to need Sheriron Jones to convert third downs, especially third and longs if New Mexico wants to consistently score in 2019.
Again, that’s not something the Lobos were good at las season. They only converted 37% of third downs. On the other hand, the Notre Dame defense was very average on third down last season, with opponents converting on 39 percent of opportunities. That was 64th in the country.
It’s a chance for the Irish defense to get some confidence going on third down.
On the defensive side of the ball, New Mexico was even worse than they were on offense. They finished 119th in total defense, allowing 473 yards per game. As far as points allowed per game, the Lobos allowed 36.2, good for 113th in the country.
That’s pretty terrible.
It’s even worse when you consider that Davie was a good defensive coordinator and had good defenses while he was the head coach at Notre Dame. At New Mexico, however, it’s been a struggle.
The vast majority of New Mexico’s secondary from last season is gone. A bad Lobos defense is getting worse. It should be a big stats game for Ian Book. The Lobos won’t be able to pressure or cover.
In an attempt to keep up talent-wise, Davie is bringing in twenty JUCO recruits. That’s an insane number. Most coaches bring in a JUCO player or two to fill holes that the younger players aren’t ready to step into yet. Davie decided not to recruit young players and instead only try to plug holes.
That’s no way to build a program.
Bringing in young talent, developing them, and growing as a team is how you get better. A bunch of gambles on JUCO guys is not.
vs. Notre Dame
This will be the first meeting in football between the two schools, and it won’t be close. Notre Dame is better at every single position.
Ian Book should put up some insane numbers against a completely new secondary. The defense will catch an offense transitioning to a new system. They should have a field day, forcing more three and outs than first downs allowed.
New Mexico, for their part, will probably be in awe of Notre Dame Stadium. They will also, probably, know in the back of their minds that they’re already beat walking into the stadium. It’s a tough mental spot to be in. It may also be tough for the Lobos to stay focused on the game, with their arch-rival New Mexico State coming to town one week later.
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Enjoy your homecoming Bob Davie.