Well, that was epic. Ivan Pierre Aguirre—USA TODAY Sports
In a year of feel good stories around college football—Western Michigan and Colorado surprising everyone, Notre Dame going 4-8, etc.—New Mexico has flown under the radar. The Lobos went 8-4 in the regular season and won their first bowl game since 2007. They also finished with nine wins for just the second time since 1997.What makes New Mexico's run all the more exciting is that the Lobos did it with a coach that you might only remember from 1997, and one that his current players only remember as a broadcaster. That coach is Bob Davie, who left for ESPN after he was fired by Notre Dame in 2001 and didn't coach again until he was hired by New Mexico in 2012.Typically, hiring retread coaches who didn't work out at bigger schools is a bad idea. Former Notre Dame-turned-Kansas coach Charlie Weis is a great example. His schemes didn't work at Notre Dame—who had more talent than just about everyone they faced—so they sure as hell weren't going to work at bottom-feeder Kansas.However, the Davie hire was different. In his 12 years at ESPN, Davie travelled the country meeting with coaches, in what was essentially a 12-year doctorate program in the discipline of football. So at New Mexico, a program with inherent disadvantages in recruiting even within the Mountain West, Davie chose to run an offense he never would have run at Notre Dame: the triple option.The triple option is typically run by the service academies, since they have significant size and talent disadvantages compared to their Division I counterparts. The offense relies on decision-making and quick, not big, offensive linemen. Lots of coaches would refuse to stoop to the triple option, seeing it as a last resort. Davie saw it as an opportunity."I'm pretty realistic," Davie told USA Today. "I've seen a lot of things in college football, particularly during those years at ESPN. I can compare the haves and have-nots. I know who we are, I know what we are, and I just want to keep building this thing."I had decided that I was going to be unique, in that we were going to be triple-option style program. I knew that. I knew that five years before I coached again, that wherever I went that's what we had to do."The talent gap still takes its toll. The Lobos lost to both New Mexico State and Rutgers this year, but when the triple option is working, they can beat some very good teams. They proved that by beating Air Force and Wyoming, two of the best teams in the Mountain West.New Mexico is never going to be a perennial Mountain West power, because, well, it's New Mexico. Davie knows that. But every once in awhile, the Lobos can win a bowl game and go 9-4. Given where the program and the coach came from, that's something to shake a stick at.
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