Lobo Football Alum Chambers to Team: Cherish It
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There’s not too many people left from Bob Davie’s 2012 team, his first with the Lobos. Kevin Cosgrove, Bob DeBesse, Brian DeSpain, Clay Davie and Chris Crooks. That’s pretty much the extent of it. “It’s amazing how time flies,” said Davie. That same sentiment was the crux of former Lobo offensive lineman Korian Chambers’s talk with the team at the end of practice on Thursday. And because time flies…don’t waste it.
Chambers, resplendent in a perfectly fitted suit and looking a little trimmer from his 6-6, 322 playing days on the offensive line, got the chance to speak with the Lobo team after Thursday’s practice, and it was equal parts uplifting, emotional, and funny. It was a nice opportunity for the Lobo players to see a guy formerly in their shoes who has done a lot in the five years since donning the Cherry and Silver his senior season in 2012. Chambers left UNM and was invited to camp with the Cleveland Browns, then spent time in Canada with the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL. From there he became a coach at Arizona Western Junior College (where he played before coming to UNM), coaching against several players who are now on the Lobo team. Now, degree in hand, Chambers is settling down, running the ABQ Sunport Enterprise Rent-a-Car business and working on a wedding date. Still, he had time to send a powerful message to the current Lobo team.
“The first time I met coach Davie, it was on that field over there,” said Chambers, pointing to the western-most practice field. That was basically in December, and Chambers over the course of the next 12 months became a leader in the locker room, a senior who learned what was important. Regarding what every players’ goal should be, that was easy. “The first thing should be your degree.”
That’s when Korian got emotional, and with good reason. He watched plenty of practice, not surprisingly watching the offensive line work. It was easy to see that he missed the hitting, the football, the camaraderie that binds teammates into brothers for life. “I’m getting emotional,” he told the team, “because I wish I had another down. I swear, because when this is gone, it’s gone. I can’t put on another helmet and hit someone. Cherish it. That’s the attitude you have to develop, that mentality. That light switch mentality.”
That light switch mentality is what allowed Chambers to be a monster on the field, a coach of young men, and a leader of a store for a major company off of it. “I put on my helmet, the light switch came on and I’m smashing anything in my way. You don’t want to look back and say I wish I gave more at practice, or I wish I would have gotten up and hit those weights. Don’t squander the opportunity, and don’t waste it, and it’s easy to do it. Come out here with the best attitude and your best foot forward. If you do that, I promise you, people will see you.”
Chambers is a perfect example of that. The Browns saw it. The Stampeders saw it. Arizona Western saw it, and now Enterprise sees it. Better yet for Coach Davie … the players saw it.
The 2017 home opener is on September 2 against Abilene Christian at 6 p.m. at Dreamstyle Stadium. Season tickets sale have picked up, including Lobo Family Packs (two adult and two youth season tickets for just $120, just $5 per person per game), and UNM’s Sweet Deal (two Silver section season tickets for $130, a 53% savings). In addition, single-game tickets are now on-sale at the Dreamstyle Arena Ticket Office, in the UNM Bookstore Ticket Office, and online at www.unmitckets.com.
The first 5,000 fans to the season opener will get a free giveaway, a pair of Lobo shoelaces. In addition, fans can enjoy many of the new concessions at the Lobo 505 stands, and with gates opening 90 minutes prior, early bird fans can get special “Happy Hour” pricing for the first 30 minutes the gates are open with $5 domestic beer and $2 hot dogs. Tickets are also available for the very popular “Chama River Brewing Company Craft Corner” where fans get a seat at field level in the South End Zone, and the Corner has a buffet and plenty of TVs as well. Specially craft beers options that aren’t available elsewhere in the stadiumare available for purchase in that section.