Lobos Open Spring Pratice
Printable 2019 Practice Roster
Next Practice: Thursday, March 28 (Open for fans/media) 8:30 am to 11 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There were 98 players, 10 assistants, various medical personnel and lots of equipment room personnel running around on Tuesday morning at the south practice fields at the UNM Athletic Complex. There were fans watching, media members filming, and drills upon drills upon drills. Watching it over was eighth-year head coach Bob Davie. Just don’t ask him who the stars of day one were, because it was about, as he put it, whole-part-whole.
“It’s the whole-part-whole teaching progression,” said Coach Davie after practice. “We put in a whole lot of whole over the pre-spring practice, and now today you get out here and put helmets on and actually have a football, you break it down into the parts. Now we are trying to fine the parts to eventually put that whole back together.”
UNM opened its official spring practices with a morning practice at the south practice fields on Tuesday, with the second spring practice scheduled for Thursday at 8:30 and lasting until 11 a.m. All spring practices this season, as in all seasons past under Davie, are open to fans and media.
Over the course of spring practice, GoLobos.com will be teaming up with LoboTV and UNM Marketing to highlight one position per practice, with inside video and coaches mic’ed up. GoLobos.com will break down each position, who is here, who is still to come from the National Signing Day class, along with stats and analysis. That will start on Thursday with the running back position group.
UNM’s start to spring practice is one of the latest in the nation. Only Hawai’i, which starts on Friday, and Iowa, which starts Wednesday, have a later start. Illinois, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, New Mexico, Nevada, Maryland, Arkansas State and Wyoming all started spring practice today, in that order.
As for Tuesday’s practice, UNM saw the return of plenty of faces that suffered through 2018 with injuries. Of note, Tevaka Tuioti returned to full practice after missing eight nine games and parts of two others with an injury. Also participating in limited capacity were receiver Q’ Drennan, defensive lineman Trent Sellers, linebacker Alex Hart, running back Kentrail Moran and receiver Reece Wilkinson.
“To have Alex back out here, and Trent Sellers, even though they aren’t doing contact, is great,” said Davie, who noted that Hart doesn’t have to be on the field participating to make an impact. “Alex Hart coaching young linebackers. He’s standing behind the defense and making strength calls, stunt calls. It puts it into perspective how when Alex Hart went down, much like when Tevaka went down, it’s like losing two starting quarterbacks, one on offense, one on defense.”
Spring practice is underway! @UNMLoboFB #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/A4ZePIjkl3
— New Mexico Lobos (@UNMLOBOS) March 26, 2019
It was also the first time on the field for the two new Lobo Coordinators, and while Jordan Peterson will be in his firsts season as the defensive coordinator, it’s his third with the Lobos. Not so for Joe Dailey, who is new to the staff. Davie likes what he brings. “Just his energy, his enthusiasm, his absolute maniacal way … he’s put a tremendous amount into football and he’s maximized every minute of it.”
NOTES: Several players swapped numbers, including two quarterbacks with Tuioti now wearing number 8 and Will Heckman switching from 13 to 14. Other offensive number changes include Lawrence “L.O.” Johnson (from 26 to 2), Elijah Lilly (19 to 3), Daevon Vigilant (21 to 5), Bryson Carroll (9 to 6), Cedric Patterson III (17 to 11), Aaron Molina (81 to 13), Q’ Drennan (8 to 15), Thomas Vieira (31 to 19), Anu Somoye (12 to 80), Jeffrey Jones, Jr. (87 to 82) and Erik Beilman (75/86 to 83) … defensive number changes include Patrick Peek (12 to 3), Kameron Miller (15 to 11), Nico Bolden (21 to 13), Brandon Burton (27 to 21), Nic Wilson (31 to 26) and Josh Woisin (28 to 45)