UNM Football: The Evolution of a Program

In the past twenty years, UNM has not had an exemplary season. There have been decent teams fielded, but nothing for Lobo fans to hang their hats on when it comes to football. UNM’s best seasons were in 1997 and 2007, with 9-4 records. Even though the Lobos have come close, they haven’t won a conference title since 1964 back in the WAC. It does not look like they will ever win a MWC title the way things are going now.

Dennis Franchione Era (1992-1997): The Program Is Born

The Lobos were just coming off an abysmal 9-50 record under Mike Sheppard. In 1992, they hired Dennis Franchione. Franchione was coming off successful seasons at Pittsburgh State University and SW Texas State University. It was Franchione’s first D1 head coaching job. Franchione started out in ’92 with a 3-8 record and worked his way up to an eventual 9-4 record in ’97. Soon after, Franchione left UNM for bigger and better things.

Rocky Long Era (1998-2008): The Program Is Noticed

UNM decided that Rocky Long was the best man to fill Franchione’s shoes. He was the defensive coordinator for UCLA prior and also was an alumnus. Rocky Long was known for fielding strong defensive teams. Although Long was not known for having the prettiest offenses, his teams were always competitive. It was hard for UNM to play the highly touted teams sometimes just because of his impressive defenses.

Long went on to be the most successful coach at UNM- accumulating a 65-69 record. His most notable stretch was from ’01-’07- garnering a 49-38 record. Even though Long did not recruit the sought-after athletes, he still was successful at coaching them and surpassed expectations. He took the Lobos to seven straight bowl-eligible seasons. His first bowl win came in ’07 against Nevada.

In ’08, after a sub-par season of 4-8, he resigned stating that he could not take the Lobos to the top as the head coach. He then went on to bash the fan support stating “If you want to compete with the big boys, you've got to act like it."

Mike Locksley Era (2009-Present): The Program Gets a Complete Makeover (Not a Renovation)

In ’07, Illinois had tremendous success and garnered a 9-4 record. Even though they lost in the prestigious Rose Bowl to USC, a lot of eyes focused on the Fighting Illini football team. Mike Locksley was the offensive coordinator and had tremendous success with recruiting.

Paul Krebs, the athletic director of UNM, knew that the UNM football lacked success on the recruiting trail. Locksley was hired in ’09 in order to implement a strong offense and bring in the sought-after recruits.

In his introductory press conference at UNM, Locksley stated "I don't look at this as a rebuilding job. I think the job that coach Long and his staff has done is one of the reasons I was attracted to the job. I know that you guys are a tough, hard-nosed group of guys. To me, I look at this as a renovation job. I'm going to come in and put my touch on my house, on my family, but I don't have time to rebuild…"

He even went on to say that UNM would need to add an extra digit to the scoreboard because his teams would be so successful offensively.

So far UNM has gone 1-14 under Locksley and have averaged some of the worst stats in FBS.

The problem with the Locksley hire is that this is his first head coaching job and he does not have a proven track record. Locksley went 18-30 while at Illinois. Also, he has made some rookie head coach mistakes, getting in an altercation with an assistant coach and being accused of sexual harassment.

Although it might seem Locksley is driving the football program over a cliff, his new systems he brought to UNM completely change the program. His new schemes demand certain players Long did not have. A renovation is quick; a makeover is not.

Conclusion

In one or two years, we’ll be looking back to these abysmal seasons and either will be glad we stuck with Locksley and reaping the rewards, or will be rebuilding the program with a new head coach at the helm. For UNM’s sake, I hope Locksley succeeds immensely or completely fails so that they can move on to a coach that will bring UNM to the national spotlight- in a good way.