ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
I misspoke-I was referring to the auto spot in the NY6 the highest ranked G5 champ gets.
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University of New Mexico cutting sports
- Thread starter Buffnik
- Start date
I misspoke-I was referring to the auto spot in the NY6 the highest ranked G5 champ gets.
What in their history has shown you that they are a team that could contend for NY6?
A consistent bowl team at New Mexico will always be difficult to achieve because of an extremely small in-state talent base. The school may border Texas, but there are a lot of G5 schools closer to the population centers in Texas which actually matter for football recruiting.
For sure. But bordering TX, OK, AZ and CO while also being able to recruit SoCal is a pretty damn good place to be for a G5 program, all things considered. Really, the biggest hurdle is the resources they have with it being such a poor state -- especially when oil prices are low.
They are not THAT close to the areas that matter though. There are numerous G5 programs closer to the areas.
The distances are huge. ABQ is farther from San Antonio (718 miles) than Washington DC is from Jacksonville FL (706 miles).
Sure, but we're talking about a program competing in the MWC. Very few of their conference mates are THAT close to the areas that matter or they wouldn't be in the MWC. Maybe SDSU, SJSU and UNLV. I think even Fresno State's a stretch. They can find guys more easily than most of these programs if they have their **** together as a program.
To my earlier point, though, that's true of the entire western US. I think ABQ is going to be a 6 or 7 hour drive even to Odessa and Midland. But I don't see how that's a competitive disadvantage versus their peers in the MWC. They have advantages for finding 20-25 guys a year. What's Utah State close to? Or Nevada? Or Boise State? Or Wyoming? Or CSU? Or Hawaii?
The Ogre
Well-Known Member
That was what I was getting at.
Well, Boise is a national brand at this point and Wyoming, CSU, Hawaii and Utah State traditionally are mediocre to dog****, so yeah, that fits New Mexico's competitive profile, I guess.
My ABQ story is similar. Driving down the street with my wife and we hear a couple of loud pops from behind us. It was fourth of July weekend so we were not too concerned. We pull up to a red light and a car pulls up next to us with some rough looking guys with their window down. The guy yells at me, "what are you looking at white boy?!" and I just kind of shrugged my shoulders. Well apparently that wasn't the right answer because the driver pulls up a gun and points it toward our car. I slammed the gas pedal and blew the red light and these guys did the same. Thankfully we didn't get in an accident. As I am hightailing it out of there, these guys are right behind us and we can hear more gunshots.
I kept driving until I came to a pizza shop and noticed two police cruisers up front. The other car must've noticed them too because they kept driving. I ran in and told ABQ's finest what happened and they could not have cared less. They didn't even take a formal statement or get up from their pizza. I felt like I was on another planet.
My wife and I moved out of ABQ a few weeks later after only 8 months there.
Right. Mostly the nature of G5 programs in general. My main point is you can pretty easily pinpoint why New Mexico fails to consistently win. There is nothing that points to a "sleeping giant" because the supposed geographical advantages (mainly in regards to Texas) are vastly overstated.
Did Rocky Long improve dramatically as HC at SDSU from his days at UNM or did the inherent advantage which comes into play SDSU just kick in?
Mike Price gushed over the fact that El Paso was closer to LA than to Houston when coaching UTEP. But was UTEP able to capitalize as a G5 member?
ABQ to LA is only one to two more hours than Dallas. Boulder is three more hours away from Dallas than ABQ. Ditto for Boulder to LA. UNM has a lot of potential as a P5 program. Airport is five minutes away from the football stadium and basketball arenas. What is holding them back is money not population despite renovating The Pit for $60 million (no brainer given basketball's importance at UNM). If it was population related, Oregon shouldn't be a P5 program since the Eugene area is about 1/3 to 1/2 the population of the ABQ metro.
If UNM gets into the PAC or Big 12, things could drastically change for the Lobos. IMO, the Pac-12 is a better fit for them at this point. ABQ is pretty much the last major metro out west that is not in the Pac-12's footprint if you already consider Las Vegas to be part of the Pac-12 footprint plus UNM isn't that much different from Utah when it comes to academics and research.
Nailed it. If Utah State or Wyoming can be good in football, UNM easily has a higher ceiling than those two as long as they don't choke in big games as some family friends from ABQ would tell me about those Lobos.
Those sports on the chopping block is a byproduct of money and simply not enough of it.
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
I remember an interview Kyle Whittingham did on the Rome show six or seven years ago (before Utah joined the Pac 12)-He said that you can get talent out of states like Texas if you're willing to invest time and money down there in recruiting regardless of where you are located, even as a member of the MWC. Its not that hard to get to six or seven wins in the MWC (a league with four teams that finished 3-9 or worse last year), especially since most of them play one bodybag game a year. Look no further than Mike Bobo's CSU teams. None of them have finished better than 2-2 OOC, with three wins against FCS competition.
Eastern NM is much closer to Lubbock than Albuquerque. I remember kids at summer camp from that part of the state were much more likely to wear Red Raider stuff instead of Lobo stuff.
I remember when Dennis Franchione was the head coach and doing a good job of building a solid team. In the last game of the year (against BYU?), they were competing for a division championship and couldn't fill the stadium. There simply isn't support for football there even when they are successful. Basketball is supported but football is not.
I remember when Dennis Franchione was the head coach and doing a good job of building a solid team. In the last game of the year (against BYU?), they were competing for a division championship and couldn't fill the stadium. There simply isn't support for football there even when they are successful. Basketball is supported but football is not.
I just don't understand the love affair with UNM and some of our Allbuffs brethren - specifically regarding the Lobos as a desirable choice to join the PAC.
They have had exactly 13 winning seasons in 50 years. They have been to 8 bowl games in that same time frame, 4 of which were in the New Mexico bowl (which was created mostly to give the Lobos a shot at a bowl game every year). Their best season was when I was in school there. They finished 10-1 - only lost to Jim McMahon's BYU Cougars and didn't even go to a bowl game that year.
The only - and I mean only - redeeming quality they could bring athletically to the PAC would be Basketball, Skiing, and Soccer (the last two are currently in discussions of being dropped). Currently, even the basketball program is down. Much of what is reported here about ABQ is also true. In fact, it's the primary reason why I moved my company from ABQ to Ft. Collins in 1994. It's definitely not a desirable travel destination unless you're into gangs or have a serious addiction to Hatch green chile.
They have had exactly 13 winning seasons in 50 years. They have been to 8 bowl games in that same time frame, 4 of which were in the New Mexico bowl (which was created mostly to give the Lobos a shot at a bowl game every year). Their best season was when I was in school there. They finished 10-1 - only lost to Jim McMahon's BYU Cougars and didn't even go to a bowl game that year.
The only - and I mean only - redeeming quality they could bring athletically to the PAC would be Basketball, Skiing, and Soccer (the last two are currently in discussions of being dropped). Currently, even the basketball program is down. Much of what is reported here about ABQ is also true. In fact, it's the primary reason why I moved my company from ABQ to Ft. Collins in 1994. It's definitely not a desirable travel destination unless you're into gangs or have a serious addiction to Hatch green chile.
That story was so good I printed a hard copy before it became redacted...
In the age of Trump, a story like that should get me to a cabinet position at least!
The only way these smaller G5 programs can ever get anywhere is to either strike gold on a young coaching prodigy or pay gold for a big big name. It seems thats the only way to jump over the recruiting hurdle. I think Nik is right that ultimately the P5 further distance itself and likely be its own division (it more or less is) from the G5 programs.
Those women belong in the kitchen instead of on the soccer pitch.
I'd like to see UNM in the Pac for selfish reasons. How much would they really add to the conference is the problem with me. You've got their basketball program of course but little else imho.
My wife gets so pissed when I make jokes like this in front of our daughters. Somehow, humor isn't allowed on these types of subjects in our house.
UNLV once hired a real coach who once coached USC and can't get anything done. When UNM has decent coaches such as Fran, they would be more likely to get the job done than UNLV. The Raiders might eventually kill UNLV football.
your jokes aren't so funny now, are they Mister Man?
