With the conclusion of the annual psycho-drama series that is Lobo basketball, we return to our regularly scheduled program, starring Bob Davie and Lobo football.

We know not what the second year of Davie’s time with us will bring — although hopefully not the angst that accompanies that curious preoccupation that carries us through the winter between football and spring football.

Davie, himself, would be hard-pressed to predict 2013, but he can be confident it will be nothing like his initiation to football in New Mexico.

A spring ago, he scrounged to find enough players to properly practice. Even as he camped last summer in Ruidoso, he had no clue whether the team he was nurturing could beat the less-than-imposing Southern Jaguars. And in the fall, he could not be certain his Lobos would ever complete a pass, or, for that matter, ever stop a pass from being completed.

By autumn’s end, he could point to some statistics — rushing offense, scoring margin, turnovers, special teams stuff — and claim improvement. Even the 4-9 record was an upgrade over a three-year run of 3-33. And Davie admits to indulging in some of those numbers.

But, he says: “We are what are record says we were — a four-win team that lost our last six games.”

He even allows he cringed at times at the level of football his team played.

“We did some good things,” he says. “It was not a case of not being disciplined. It wasn’t a case of not being tough. It wasn’t a case of not wanting to do it. It was just a case of we weren’t very good.”

Before they could think about being good, the Lobos had to think about showing up — to practice, to class.

“Just the way we went about doing things was so dramatically different,” Davie says. “Here’s how we do things. No, we won’t accept it this way.

“It was all about that — more than the X’s and O’s. Here’s cover four. How do we attack cover four? Here’s how they’re going to defend this play in our triple option. The level of football, day to day, X- and O-wise, took a back seat to just trying to change the culture and build an identity.

“I didn’t want to come in here and start talking about all this X and O stuff, and look around and guys can’t even act the way you want them to act or conduct themselves the way you want them to conduct themselves.

“That’s why I said a lot of times, it’s too early to worry about results, too early to worry about the scoreboard, because I knew we were so elementary from just an X and O standpoint. … If you’re trying to get good at football, and all you’re talking about is X’s and O’s, and you don’t worry about guys going to class, and you don’t worry about guys doing this or that, you’re putting the cart ahead of the horse.”

So Davie comes into this spring with a cart and a horse that are at least side by side.

And while the Albuquerque masses fretted over tournament seedings, Davie was plodding ahead.

He spent time at the Fiesta Bowl, chatting up Urban Meyer, who used to work for him at Notre Dame.

He dispatched offensive coordinator Bob DeBesse to Mississippi State, where Dan Mullen, another ex-Davie assistant, resides as head coach. Mullen was Tim Tebow’s quarterback coach at Florida once upon a time and learned how to throw left-handed to get a better idea of how to school the young prospect. Davie can’t wait to see what DeBesse has in mind for UNM’s young lefty QB Cole Gautsche.

And Davie caught some hoops, too. He liked how Steve Alford’s group was unselfish and played with discipline, and he used that as an example for his own players when they gathered the other day.

Yet, it was Alford who strangely went on the defensive this week. For some reason he felt the need to defend a 29-win season. He made a point to mention the sacrifices he agreed to in his new 10-year contract. He felt compelled to point out his six-year tenure has been better than any other UNM basketball coach in recent memory, as if us old-timers needed a reminder.

Meanwhile, Davie trudges doggedly ahead. He has to hope the foundation he cements today will reduce those cringe-worthy moments of yesteryear. He has to hope his work today will put his Lobos on the happy side of that proposed flashy new scoreboard.

He knows it’s not about being afraid to lose, or what everybody else will think if you do.

It’s about building to win.
— This article appeared on page D6 of the Albuquerque Journal