ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico coach Bob Davie says he’s leaving the Lobos without anything to apologize for.
“I put every ounce into this,” Davie said Tuesday. “My family has put every ounce into this.”
Davie and athletic director Eddie Nunez announced a day earlier that the former Notre Dame coach will step down after Saturday’s game against Utah State, calling it a mutual decision.
Davie is 35-63 in his eighth season at New Mexico, though he twice guided the Lobos to bowl games and earned New Mexico’s first bowl victory in 10 years. New Mexico is 2-9 this season and has lost its past eight games.
Davie acknowledged that he thought his time at the school was coming to an end.
“Truthfully, there were indications and signals to me for a period of time that this was imminent,” he said. “But it doesn’t come as a surprise.”
The players, who found out the news in an email from Davie on Monday afternoon, were trying to focus on Utah State while dealing with the coach’s upcoming departure.
“There are distractions and things going on but, at the end of the day, we have a football game to play this weekend,” linebacker Alex Hart said. “We’re just trying to stay focused on that and enjoy this week with each other, and enjoy these players and all the time and work we’ve put into this and gone through together and hopefully finish it off with a win.”
The past few years have taken a toll on the players.
“I have the utmost respect for Coach Davie and all the coaches here and what they’ve been able to accomplish here, looking back on from where the program was before Coach Davie came in and to where he’s got it,” offensive lineman Teton Saltes said. “These last couple of years have been brutal. Anything that could go bad or could go wrong went wrong.”
With two years remaining on his contract, Davie has an $800,000 buyout that must be approved by the school’s board of regents.