New Mexico Football: Danny Gonzales is right man for job in 2020
2. Expect steady defensive improvement under Rocky Long
Rocky Long has long been one of the most respected defensive coaches in all of college football and chose to give up the head coaching job at San Diego State to become the defensive coordinator at New Mexico, where he used to be the head coach.
Long has been known to employ the 3-3-5 defense and utilize a lot of safeties to move around on the defense. The problem that he is going to have in 2020 is that the cupboard on defense is pretty bare, but on the other hand, this defense ranked 129th in the country in total defense so there is nowhere to go but up for the Lobos in 2020.
The defensive line will be completely new for the Lobos in 2020.
Omar Darame is a redshirt freshman that did not see any playing time in 2019, but is projected to start on one end and Ben Bertram is also a first time starter on the other end. Langston Murray will resume his spot in the middle of the defense after playing in 10 games last season and starting the final two at nose tackle. The Lobos will need to be better at pressuring the quarterback this season after only recording 22 all season in 2019.
The linebacking unit has some potential playmakers in Jacobi Hearn, who was the team leader in sacks last season with six, and Joey Noble, a JUCO player coming into last year, who really was coming into his own by seasons end. Brandon Shook is another senior that has a lot of playing experience, playing in 12 games last year, but this will be his first season as a starting linebacker.
The secondary will need to improve by leaps and bounds in 2020. The Lobos had the lowest-ranked passing defense in the entire country, but this is a strength of Long and they will hope to at least improve marginally. The best player on this defense might be starting cornerback Donte Martin, who had 41 tackles and nine pass deflections in 2019. The secondary is another spot on the team that is breaking in three new starters, but they are all seniors.
The defense is heavy on seniors in the secondary and in the linebacking corps, but will be weak and inexperienced up front. Even just modest improvement will be considered a step in the right direction for the Lobos, but Long will have New Mexico better on defense in the future.