Jan. 17, 2007
Baldwin Named Lobos’ Offensive Coordinator (Jan. 16)
Click here to listen to the entire press conference.
HEAD COACH Rocky Long
“Dave has a lot of experience at a lot of different places and every place he’s been, the offense has been very good. As you get to know him, you’ll know that he has a lot of enthusiasm for the game. He’s got diverse experience. He can go with whoever our best players are and design the offense to fit our best players. Because of some of places he’s been, I think he fits in here really, really well. I think it’s a really good match and we expect to be a really good football team next year.”
(on what made Baldwin the best candidate for the job):
“I think the overall experience. I liked the idea that he’s been at several different places. He hasn’t always been at `have’ schools. He’s been at several `have not’ schools and has had great success. There were some candidates that were from mostly `have’ schools that have a lot of experience, but this is a different bird here (at New Mexico) and Dave’s been at places just like here and has had success at other places just like here. Whenever you interview coaches, there’s a lot of coaches out there that know their Xs and Os, but you can get a feel for if they’ll fit into your program, your community and how bad they want to be there. I think Dave fits into our program really well, I think he’ll fit into our community and his excitement for the possibility of the job will carry over to the players. If the coaches aren’t excited, the players aren’t excited and he was excited about the chance to come here. We had a lot of interest in the job, a lot more interest than I thought we would, but we picked the best guy.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR Dave Baldwin
“Number one, I’d like to thank Rocky for this opportunity. I think it’s a special opportunity to be back in the West, coming from Michigan. I’m excited about the opportunity and to get going here as fast as we can. We’re going to be a multiple offense, which means multiple formations, multiple personnel groupings. We’d like to be able to run the football with success because you have to be able to run the football, but yet we will throw the football, which we’ve done in the past. So when you say, `are you going to be a run emphasis or a throw emphasis,’ we want to be whatever the opponent lets us do and we want to do it well.”
(on the challenge ahead for the players having to learn the new scheme):
“I’ve looked at (last year’s) playbook and there’s some similarities there that we’ll combine with mine. I think we’ve got a longer period before spring ball now, Rocky has moved it back for us to be able to adapt (to the new offense). I don’t think it’s going to be difficult. I’ve gone into Michigan State, I’ve gone into Baylor, I’ve gone into San Jose State and we were ready to go.”
“I met with a couple of the kids today, explained some of the terminology and I think they understand what it’s going to be. It’s a challenge for them to go to a new class (on campus), adapt to a new class and get that education. I think the same think goes here. We just have to change the classes. It was Athletics 101 and it’s Athletics 103 now. They’re going to have to adapt to it and I’m sure they’ll be able to do it.”
(on his style of offense):
“What our offense is, is something where we try to have the players do the same things, but give it a different look. It’s a piece of cake, but we want to put chocolate frosting on it, we want to put vanilla, we want to put orange. We want to change the look, but keep it simple for the players. So we’re going to constantly move and change, like Boise State does, a lot of things like that, but we’re still doing the same things over and over, which is what the players have to execute.”
(his evaluation of QB Donovan Porterie):
“I was able to meet with the quarterbacks yesterday and I’ve watched him on film. Of course there were so many that played last year, hopefully he can be a guy that can step up and play. As all spring football (practices) go, and I think anyplace you’ve been, you want to say it’s open. Compete and the winner will win it on the field, not have (a starting job) given to them by the media or a coach. Win the position on the field and that’s what he’s going to have to do. Prove on the field his stripes and I’ll be excited about it.”
(his evaluation of the talent returning on offense in 2007):
“I’m really excited that there’s a great fullback in this system (junior-to-be Matt Quillen). He’s got a lot of talent, he’s a tough kid and he’s physical – just what you’d like. I like the two wideouts (seniors-to-be Travis Brown and Marcus Smith). I thought they were very productive last year, they can catch the football and they can run. And I like the tailback (junior-to-be Rodney Ferguson). Anytime you rush for 1,200 yards, you have ability to run the football. So those are the elements when you start combining an offense, the skill positions, I think we’re very talented there. With the offensive line, I know we’ve got to adapt some new JC kids in there, but they’re tough and they’re physical. They’ll come off the ball and hit you. Football has not changed over the years. Everybody thinks all these new things – you win it at the line of scrimmage and you have to be physical. They’ve had that here. They’ve been physical players. I think with the new terminology, just stay physical and we’ll be okay.”