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Notre Dame vs. New Mexico First Look
Can the Lobos compete with the Irish?
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Bob Davie faces his old team.
Head coach Bob Davie and this years New Mexico Lobo football team will get all they can handle as they travel to South Bend, Indiana, to battle the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 14, 2019.
The Lobos will face over 80,000 screaming Irish fans in front of a national television audience, on NBC, and this will be the first time the two schools have squared off.
For taking the (likely) beating, the UNM athletic program will receive $1.1 million for the game.
Notre Dame will be the Lobo’s second opponent after New Mexico takes on Sam Houston State at Dreamstyle Stadium in Albuquerque, for its first game to kick off the season.
Davie will be returning to South Bend, where he was the head coach of the Fighting Irish from 1997-2001. He also spent three seasons as the defensive coordinator under Lou Holtz.
As the head coach for the Irish, he went 7-6 his first year, 9-3 his second, 5-7 his third, 9-3 his fourth and 5-6 in his last before being let go by then Athletic Director Kevin White.
Davie led the Fighting Irish to their first BCS Bowl berth in 2001, a Fiesta Bowl loss to Oregon State. During his tenure with the Irish, Davie compiled a 35-25 record.
This is freaking Notre Dame
We are talking about Notre Dame, a place that’s won 11 national championships and the bar is very high when it comes to the wins and losses.
Notre Dame for the record has had 102 Consensus All-Americans, 7 Heisman Trophy winners and over 499 NFL Draft Picks. A College Football Playoff semifinalist team.
The Irish finished 5th nationally last year in the final college poll going 12-1 and 6-0 at home.
More recently the Irish have put together back-to-back double-digit-winning seasons for the first time since Coach Lou Holtz coached the Irish two decades ago. (1986-96)
Last years Irish football team averaged 37.2 PPG and primed to repeat that this year with a slew of running backs, starting quarterback Ian Book, four offensive line starters, and some receivers that look great during spring practice.
Book, who took over as the starting quarterback in place of Brandon Wimbush in the fourth game of the 2018 season threw at least two touchdown passes per game and averaging 306.9 yards passing per game.
https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/1151174660597223425
So here is coach Davie is 18 years later returning to a powerful Notre Dame team that longtime college football analyst Phil Steele has listed this year as preseason ranking of 9th in the country.
So the Lobos will get a baptism of fire in a hostile environment with over so many dynamics, new offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and lots of Juco players respond to a hostile environment could set the tone for the rest of the season.
Coach Davie was quoted as saying, “The game is a great opportunity for our players to experience what the dynamics of playing there will be.”
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Davie has a reputation for having his team ready for big games mentally when it counts for the Lobos, so this will very interesting to watch how the Lobo football team responds so early in the season.
Last years game on the road against the badgers of Wisconsin, the Lobo hung tough for at least a quarter before starting QB Tevaka Tuioti was injured on an option pitch.
But anyone viewing the game could not help be impressed with how the Lobo’s were not intimidated by the 60,000 fans at Camp Randall Stadium.
It was apparent that coach Davie and his staff had the Lobos ready to compete against the badgers.
For a quarter and a half before their starting quarterback Tevaka Tuioti got hurt, they looked very good!
So this will be a massive test for the Lobos in all facets of the game, testing their defense under Jordan Peterson, the new DC and the offense under new offensive coordinator Joe Dailey, the new OC.
So early in the season, the Lobos will have to have a lot of pieces in Bob Davies puzzle to fall into place to compete against the Irish a college powerhouse on the road!
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