Jan. 16, 2008
UPDATE – The University of New Mexico’s record-setting wide receivers Travis Brown and Marcus Smith will both be looking to improve their NFL stock with appearances at a pair of upcoming all-star games. Brown was a late addition to Saturday’s East-West Shrine Game (Houston), while Smith will play in the Senior Bowl (Mobile, Ala.) on Jan. 26.
Senior Bowl officials also announced that former Lobo All-American and current Chicago Bears All-Pro linebacker Brian Urlacher will be inducted into the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame prior to this year’s game. Urlacher was the Defensive MVP for his team at the 2000 Senior Bowl.
The 83rd East-West Shrine Game will be broadcast live on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. Mountain, while the Senior Bowl will be aired one week later live on the NFL Network at 2 p.m.
New Mexico has had at least one player at the East-West Shrine Game each of the past four years and six total since 2005. Brown, however, is the first Lobo wide receiver to play in the game.
Last year’s participants, linebacker Quincy Black and offensive guard Robert Turner, both finished the 2007 season on active NFL rosters. Black was a third round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Turner signed with the New York Jets as a free agent.
Smith, meanwhile, is the 13th New Mexico player selected to play in the Senior Bowl and the fifth during head coach Rocky Long’s tenure. New Mexico’s four representatives at the Senior Bowl since 2000 – Urlacher (’00), FB Jarrod Baxter (’02), WR Hank Baskett (’06), OL Ryan Cook (’06) – have played multiple years in the NFL.
Smith is the third Lobo wide receiver to appear in the game, joining Baskett and Terance Mathis (1990). Baskett, who started his pro career as an undrafted free agent, just finished his second season with the Philadelphia Eagles. Mathis, a sixth-round pick of the New York Jets, played 13 years in the NFL, mostly with the Atlanta Falcons. He made the Pro Bowl in 1994 and caught seven passes for 84 yards and a touchdown in the 1999 Super Bowl.
Brown (West Covina, Calif.) and Smith (San Diego) turned in the greatest season in Lobo football history by a wide receiver tandem in 2007. Both earned first team all-Mountain West Conference honors – the second duo in conference history to sweep the first team wide receiver spots – and became the first pair in school history to go over 1,000 yards receiving in the same season. They also combined to catch 12 passes for 206 yards and scored the first two touchdowns in the Lobos’ 23-0 New Mexico Bowl win over Nevada on Dec. 23.
A three-year starter, Brown finished his career ranked third all-time at UNM with 182 career receptions, fifth with 2,196 receiving yards (12.0/catch) and tied for ninth with 12 career touchdown catches. He posted eight career 100-yard receiving games and finished his career with a reception in 37 consecutive games, which ranked 2nd all-time at UNM.
In 2007, he had career-highs of 76 receptions, 1,031 yards, six touchdowns and six 100-yard games in 13 starts. Brown’s best performance came in a landmark road win at Arizona as he recorded a career-high 10 catches for 121 yards and a career-best two touchdowns against a Wildcat secondary led by consensus All-America cornerback Antoine Cason.
A former tailback, Smith was the Mountain West’s most productive pass catcher in 2007 and a standout special teams player throughout his 49-game career. He finished ranked sixth all-time at UNM with 3,749 career all-purpose yards, had 19 games over 100 yards all-purpose, and recorded 26 tackles (22 solo) and a fumble recovery on kick and punt coverage.
Despite just two seasons as a regular in the wide receiver rotation, Smith finished ranked among the top-10 all-time at UNM in receptions (153 – 4th), receiving yardage (2,073 – 7th) and receiving TDs (13 – t7th), and closed his career with a catch in 27 consecutive games.
In 2007, he caught a school record 91 balls for 1,125 yards and four scores, and posted three 100-yard receiving games. Smith also averaged a career-best 23.3 yards on 28 kickoff returns, including a long of 82 – the best by a Lobo since 1998 – and was third in the MWC, averaging 139.2 all-purpose yards/game. He led the team with 37 plays of 20+ yards (19 receiving) and had three of the four longest plays of the year for the Lobos, including a pair of touchdown catches over 60 yards in the final two games.
Like Brown, Smith turned in his best game of the 2007 season on the road against the Wildcats, catching 11 passes for 164 yards and a touchdown, often against man coverage by the Jim Thorpe Award winner Cason.
For complete information about the 2008 East-West Shrine Game and Senior Bowl, including the Hall of Fame Class of 2008, please visit the following websites:
www.shrinegame.com
www.seniorbowl.com