Open Announce

#BestOfThe2000s: The Hitmen

@UNMLoboFB on Twitter

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For years, anywhere in New Mexico, if you mentioned the term “The Hitmen”, everyone knew what you were talking about.  It wasn’t The Sopranos.  It wasn’t Law & Order:SVU.  It was the offensive line of The University of New Mexico.  It was a group full of NFL players, All-Americans, and all-around big dudes.  It’s no shock that for the #BestOfThe2000s, the men that made up “The Hitmen” represent several spots on the squad, with another player being coached by one of the other four.  Jason Lenzmeier, Ryan Cook, Erik Cook, Byron Bell and Aaron Jenkins all earned spots on the squad after fan voting, with Jenkins edging his way onto the squad by percentage points.

Lenzmeier, Ryan Cook and Byron Bell easily made the squad, topping over 50% in their respective polls.  Overall 800 votes were cast over the polls to determine the squad.  Overall the offense now has seven members out of 12 named, and the defense has four.  The next poll will determine the #BestOfThe2000s placekicker for the squad.

The series is a way to engage Lobo fans with the current situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

 

Lenzmeier played from 2000-03, and remains to this day the only offensive lineman to earn Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week honors.  He picked that up as a senior after a 47-35 win at No. 23 Utah and he also was the 2003 outstanding offensive lineman award winner.  Lenzmeier, who is in his third stint as offensive line coach at UNM, was one of three First Team All-Mountain West selections in 2003 for the Hitmen.  The other selections that year were Claude Terrell (a two-time pick at first team) and Ryan Cook.  Cook was a sophomore that year, and he became a rare three-time First Team All-Mountain West pick, earning the honor against in 2004 and 2005.  He played in the Senior Bowl and earned the outstanding offensive lineman award for 2005.Cook had an eight-year NFL career, starting with Minnesota.  He was drafted 51st overall as a second round pick of the Vikings.  After five seasons with Minnesota (2006-10) he spent one with Miami (2011) and two with Dallas (2012-13), playing in 90 games over his career with 50 starts.  He graduated from Albuquerque’s Cibola High School.
 

His younger brother Erik Cook also earned his way onto the squad, becoming the first brothers on the squad.  Cook was 2008’s outstanding offensive lineman award winner, and in 2009 he was named the Reese Hill Award winner as the team’s offensive MVP, the only offensive lineman to earn that distinction since the award has been handed out, starting in 1981.  A team captain in 2009, he was First Team All-Mountain West in 2009 and he played in the Texas vs. the Nation postseason All-Star game in 2010.  He was a seventh round pick in the 2010 draft by the Washington Redskins, and he was with Washington for three seasons, from 2010-12.
 

 

Byron Bell was a teammate of Cook’s, and took over the mantle of the teams’ top Hitman.  Bell was named outstanding offensive lineman in 2010, and he was a team captain on that squad.  He was named honorable mention All-Mountain West, and then signed a free agent contract with the Carolina Panthers, starting an eight-year NFL career in which he played for Carolina (2011-14), the Tennessee Titans (2015-16), the Dallas Cowboys (2017) and the Green Bay Packers (2018).  Overall he started 83 games and played in 102.

Aaron Jenkins, the most recent of the Hitmen to have played at UNM, is the school record hold for games played with 52, including 50 straight starts, also a school record. Jankins is a two-timer Lobo winner as outstanding offensive lineman, winning as a redshirt freshman in 2015 and again as a senior in 2018.  He was a Mountain West All-Academic selections, and a team captain in 2018.

#BestOfThe2000s Team (Selected by the Fans)
 

Offense Defense
QB Lamar Jordan DL
RB DL
RB DL
WR DL
WR LB Dallas Bollema
WR LB Dakota Cox
TE Marcus Williams LB Carmen Messina
OL Byron Bell LB Nick Speegle
OL Erik Cook DB
OL Ryan Cook DB
OL Aaron Jenkins DB
OL Jason Lenzmeier DB
PK
P
KR
PR
AP