New Mexico Football: Bob Davie to Depart as Lobos Head Coach
The Lobos become the second Mountain West football team in the market for a new coach after the season is finished.
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The end of an era in Albuquerque.
After eight seasons as the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos, it was announced today that Bob Davie will depart from the program following the team’s season finale against Utah State next Saturday.
Following a meeting between and athletic director Eddie Nuñez, the AD acknowledged that “the time has come for a new director for our football program” after a third straight season in which the Lobos can finish with no more than three wins.
Davie himself appeared appreciative of the opportunity despite the ups and downs of his eight-year tenure, saying that he was “proud of what we accomplished at UNM, [though] we are all disappointed that we have not been able to sustain the success we acheived and all desire.”
Davie inherited a team that finished 1-11 in 2009, 2010, and 2011 and slowly began to build one of the most interesting teams in the Group of 5, developing an option-based running game that would finish third among FBS teams on a per-carry basis in 2012 and in the top 16 every year until 2016. It took four seasons for New Mexico to reach .500, but they did so in a 2015 campaign which marked the team’s first bowl appearance in eight years.
The Lobos followed that 7-6 finish by going 9-4 in 2016, a high point the program hadn’t seen since 2007, on the strength of that run-heavy offense which finished first in the country with 6.61 yards per carry. That momentum quickly tapered, however, when New Mexico fell back to 3-9 in 2017.
He goes into Saturday’s game against New Mexico with a 35-63 record, which makes him the third-winningest head coach in Lobos history. He also leaves the program with a 1-1 record in bowl games.
