April 8, 2008
2008 Spring Football Central
The University of New Mexico looks to build on one of the most successful seasons in program history when it opens 2008 spring practice on Thursday. Head coach Rocky Long returns for his 11th season at his alma mater where he has developed one of the most consistent winners in the Mountain West Conference.
Since 2001 New Mexico is the only team in the MWC to record at least six wins every year and never post a losing record in conference play. The Lobos’ overall record during that span is a program-record 49-35. UNM has also played in five bowl games over the past six seasons and in 2007 it snapped a 46-year bowl drought to become the fourth New Mexico team in 109 seasons to win at least nine games (9-4).
The 2008 spring season offers plenty of intrigue with several key position battles on offense, defense and special teams, and perhaps the most challenging and attractive non-conference schedule in program history on tap this fall.
On offense the Lobos must replace the most productive wide receiver tandem in school history in NFL hopefuls Travis Brown and Marcus Smith along with four starters on the offensive line. After four different systems in four years, however, offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin returns for a second season in Albuquerque armed with a bevy of talent in the backfield.
Two-time first team all-MWC running back Rodney Ferguson, third-year starting quarterback in Donovan Porterie and running back Paul Baker, ESPN’s New Mexico Bowl Player of the Game, are all back along with a large group of future starts on the offensive line and wide receiver.
While Brown and Smith are gone, Porterie should have plenty of targets with starting tight end Chris Mark and five veteran receivers returning, including six-game starter Roland Bruno. Junior college transfer Bryant Williams – a former Michigan State signee – was also added to the mix to bolster the receiving group this spring.
Up front the offensive line unit, better known as The Hitmen, return versatile junior Erik Cook who started nine times at both tackle and guard in 2007. The rest of the group, however, will a facelift with three junior college transfers, five returning lettermen and several talented redshirt freshmen battling for four starting jobs.
On the other side of the ball, Long and new defensive coordinator Troy Reffett – a four-year veteran of the staff – direct a gang-tackling defensive unit that finished 13th in the country in 2007. New Mexico, however, must replace a pair of speed rush defensive ends in Tyler Donaldson and Michael Tuohy, as well as four veteran linebackers.
Led by the sensational cornerback tandem of DeAndre Wright and Glover Quin, and three starting safeties in Blake Ligon, Clint McPeek and Ian Clark, UNM could have one of the nation’s premier secondary units in 2008. Ligon and Clark will miss the spring after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery, opening the door for several players, including Frankie Solomon and Frankie Baca, to expand their role.
Thanks to the heavy rotation of players on gameday, the cupboard is far from bare in the front seven with five returning letterman on the defensive line and four veterans back at linebacker. The spring will also be a tremendous opportunity for a large group of up-and-coming prospects to make a name for themselves on the practice field and take a step towards a regular role on gameday.
Two-year starting nose tackle Wesley Beck returns to anchor the middle of the line along with experienced backup Jeremiah Lovato. Defensive ends Kevin Balogun, Philip Harrison and Kendall Briscoe, meanwhile, have shown flashes of excellence in a reserve role and could be poised for breakthrough seasons as they compete for starting jobs on the edge.
Veterans Zach Arnett and Herbert Felder should fill two of the empty starting spots at linebacker after three years of regular gameday action at the position. Their supporting cast, however, will feature plenty of new faces. Special teamer Terel Anyaibe will get the first crack at the starting job on the right side, while another promising special teams contributor in Seth Johannemann and second-year man Carmen Messina will open the spring backing up Arnett and Felder, respectively.
The Lobo special teams will face quite a challenge in 2008 with open auditions for a new kicker, punter and deep snapper happening this spring and summer. Few programs in the country, however, have proven as adept at excelling in this type of situation as New Mexico.
UNM has had three former walk-ons earn first team all-MWC honors at kicker since 2003, and another former walk-on in punter Jordan Scott earn honorable mention all-league recognition last fall. The 2007 season also proved to be a banner year with unknown John Sullivan going from non-scholarship kicker to consensus All-American in the span of a semester.
A trio of practice squad player in redshirt freshman kicker Drew Zamora, junior punter Adam Miller and redshirt freshman deep snapper Kris Kemper will open the spring atop the depth chart, but the competition for the starting jobs is expected to go well into August. Defensive backs DeAndre Wright and Frankie Solomon give UNM a pair of experience return men for kicks and punts, respectively. Promising punt returner Ian Clark should also be a factor once again when he recovers from offseason surgery.
Long sat down to share his thoughts as he prepared for the 2008 spring practice season.
Last year you became the fourth team in school history to win at least nine games and capped the season by winning the first bowl game at UNM in 46 years – what impact did that success have on the program?
“I think it’s nice that we got the bowl victory. I think that takes a little of the pressure off because we’ve had a pretty consistently good football program, but the knock was that we hadn’t won a bowl game even though we had been in five in the past six years. I thought last year’s team overachieved. I thought in the preseason, we weren’t expected to do as well as we did. I think a lot of that success had to do with the senior leadership. This spring we have to develop some leadership and some players out of guys that didn’t play very much. There were a lot of playmakers in last year’s senior class.”
There’s quite a bit of buzz surrounding the 2008 non-conference schedule with Texas A&M and Arizona coming to Albuquerque and road games at Tulsa and New Mexico State – how are the players and coaches approaching the schedule?
“It’s obviously the most challenging in the last 11 years and I think if you go back it might be the most challenging schedule in the history of this program. I think the players are excited about the opportunity to play so many good teams. As a coaching staff we approach it as an opportunity to prove that our program has improved. There’s a lot of opportunities when you play teams that everybody else considers to be good.”
The 2007 defense was the best statistically in your 10 years at UNM, finishing 13th in the country after snapping the nation’s longest scoring streak in the bowl victory – what made that unit so successful and what do you have to do perform near that level in 2008?
“We played a lot of players so the players in the game were fresh and they had a lot of energy. We had quite a few playmakers on defense – some of them are gone – but quite a few that made big plays in critical situations. The most impressive thing was that early in the season we had some teams really put up big numbers on us, especially in the passing game, but as the season went along we got better and better. I think our secondary improved, especially at the safety positions, and we got more consistent pressure on the quarterback as the season went along.”
You could have one of the best secondary units in the conference in 2008 with returning starters at four of the five spots and a lot of talented, experienced players back – what would you like to see out of this group during the spring?
“I think next year our secondary will be really good, but we’ll be missing a couple guys who were starters during spring practice with Blake Ligon and Ian Clark out after shoulder surgery. We have to take this as an opportunity to develop younger players, especially at the safety position because we lost two seniors that played a lot in OJ Swift and Tyson Ditmore. So some of the younger guys will play a lot in the spring to develop their skills.”
Seniors DeAndre Wright and Glover Quin have proven to be one of the best cornerback tandem’s in the country – where do they rank with some of the duos you’ve had in your coaching career?
“We’ve been lucky around here. We’ve had several years where we’ve had a combination of two really good corners at the same time which allows us to do a lot of things on defense that you can’t do unless you have good corners. I think the combination of the two are as good as what we’ve had here in the past. We’ve had a lot of corners get a chance to play pro football and I think they’re comparable to those guys.”
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You return a pair of talented players at lobo safety in Clint McPeek and Ian Clark, who split time as starters last year – is there any plans to move one of them to a different position so that you can get them on the field at the same time?
“Probably not because we have Frankie Solomon and Blake Ligon at the wolf safeties and we have some other safeties we think can play. If both of them are healthy they would split time at the lobo position. That position is critical, especially to stopping the run because we expect them to walk up there and play at linebacker depth a lot. So it’s good to have two quality players in that spot.”
The defensive line lost some key players, but also has several experienced players returning and some talented young players as well – talk about how you see that unit developing this spring.
“We lost a couple of big time playmakers at defensive end in Tyler Donaldson and Michael Tuohy, but a lot of the returnees have experience and there’s a lot of depth there so we can continue to rotate those guys like we did in the past. There’s some guys that are going to have to make up for the tackles for loss and sacks we got out of Donaldson and Tuohy, but they will also get to play a lot more than last year which gives them an opportunity to make those plays. The depth there is good and we’ll be a little bigger than we have been in the past. We might not be quite as quick up front, but we’ll be bigger and stronger, which allows us to do some different things with the linebackers and secondary that we didn’t do in the past because we were trying to shore up against the running game.”
You lost four regular contributors at linebacker, including three starters – how important is spring practice to that unit in particular?
“The only real concern on defense is at linebacker. We only have two guys with any real experience (Zach Arnett and Herbert Felder). So there’s a lot of guys that have to get a lot of work in spring practice and develop so that they can play at a high enough level for us to continue to play well on defense. Arnett and Felder played well last year and they’ve both played a lot of football. There’s absolutely no depth there right now with anybody that has played defense in an actual college football game. So those young guys will get a lot of work in the spring and hopefully we’ll develop a little depth there. We’d like to alternate like we did last year at all positions. It looks like we can right now at every position but linebacker.”
Is there any plans at this point to change your defensive alignment because of the youth at linebacker?
“No, it shouldn’t change the alignment, but sometimes it changes what you do – how you blitz, how you stunt and those kinds of things. You want to put the pressure on the experienced guys rather than the inexperienced guys.”
Quarterback Donovan Porterie will be a third-year starter this fall and will have the luxury of being in the same offensive system for a second straight season – how important is it that he become the clear leader of this offense this year?
“It’s always great to have your starting quarterback coming back. I thought Donovan got better as the season went a long and understands the offense a whole lot better now than he did a year ago. The leadership role is always pressed upon the quarterback. I thought he did a nice job last year, but obviously with another year under his belt and more confidence it’s going to help his leadership. The more confident you are in your own ability and the more confident you are that you understand the whole offensive scheme, the better leader you’re going to become.”
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You seem to have quite a few weapons at the running back position – how do you see the carries being distributed this spring?
“We’ve got experienced running backs. We’ve got an all-conference tailback coming back (Ferguson), but we also known that there’s some depth there with Paul Baker playing so well in the bowl game. We’ve got a couple of young tailbacks and we’ve got a couple of what we consider really good fullbacks. In the spring we’ll use a lot of tailbacks and the carries will be equally distributed. We know what Rodney can do. We’ve seen what Paul can do in one game (as the featured back), but (sophomore) Mike Love and (redshirt freshman) James Wright, those guys need a chance to prove that they can play too.”
Obviously the loss of your top two receivers in Travis Brown and Marcus Smith will have a big impact on the passing game – who do you think will fill that void this year?
“We’ve got some experience in some tight ends that played pretty well. Now we have to develop some wide receivers because the majority of the catches last year were by two seniors (Brown and Smith). We think we have talented athletes at the wide receiver position, but most of them haven’t played very much. So some of them are going to have to step up and take up for that slack in production so that we don’t drop off there. I think the best thing about the receivers is that there’s enough of them that there will be great competition and competition always makes everybody better.”
Does having an experienced quarterback in Porterie help those young receivers develop quicker?
“That definitely helps. There’s going to be fewer times that there’s bad balls thrown or receivers not getting a chance to catch the ball. Now receivers need to be in the right place too. They have to learn to read coverages as well as the quarterbacks. So the receivers have a lot of work to do in spring ball. Having a veteran quarterback that can tell them when they make mistakes, obviously will help a lot.”
Four starters are gone on the offensive line, but you brought in some talented junior college players and there are also some promising young players that will get a chance to prove themselves – how critical is their performance this spring and summer?
“I think the most important thing is that our offensive line has to come together. Nothing else works unless the offensive line plays fairly well. The difference between the competition at wide receiver and offensive line is that in the fall you might use a lot of receivers. You might catch just as many passes, but it might be spread out over four or five guys. In the offensive line though, for the continuity of the offense, you’d like to stick with five guys. So this spring and early next fall the competition in the offensive line is going to be amazing. Once you establish yourself in the starter in the offensive line you usually get to play most of the game which is different from those other positions.”
For the first time in four years, the offensive scheme will be same as it was the previous season – how much does that help when you’re looking to develop new starters on offense?
“That makes it easier that nothing is changing on offense. The guys who have been here understand the scheme and so now they hopefully get better at techniques and become better football players because they don’t have to think as much. But we’ve also recruited junior college players that are going to have to compete for starting roles and they still have to learn the offense.”
On special teams, you lose your starting kicker, punter and deep snapper – what’s the plan to fill those holes in 2008?
“We have kickers, punters and deep snappers in our program already. They will have a chance to compete with each other and prove that they’re the best one we have, but there will be more kickers and punters and deep snappers that will show up in the fall too. That’s a position where you don’t really need spring practice to be the best. The guys in the spring who prove that they’re the best will have a leg up when we start in the fall, but there’s still a chance that there’s a guy that’s not on campus yet that could be the starter at any one of those positions.”
You’ve proven – perhaps better than any other program in the country – that a player can walk on at New Mexico and develop into a special teams star – obviously, the walk-on system works here.
“We actually get more walk-ons than most people do because if they become our starters, they get scholarships. So there’s guys out there that have those skills that want an honest chance to prove they’re the best guy and earn a scholarship, and they get an honest chance here. If anyone proves it, it’s a guy like (2007 consensus All-American kicker and four-year walk-on) John Sullivan. A guy that sticks in your program and wins the job might have the best season of anybody that’s ever been here.”