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Ex-Lobos coach Dunn, defensive innovator, dies at 75

As a college football defensive coordinator, Joe Lee Dunn was all about tendencies.

He didn’t have any.

That, at least, was his goal – to confuse and panic opposing offenses with the controlled chaos of his blitz-happy 3-3-5 alignment.

And, yes, there was a tendency for an offense to panic against a defense that might rush seven on one play and drop nine into coverage the next.

Dunn, who came to the University of New Mexico as a defensive coordinator in 1980 and was the Lobos’ head coach from 1983-86, died on Tuesday at his home in Columbus, Georgia.