Media Guy Musings: Lobo Spring Practice Update #1

Throughout Spring Ball (probably on Thursdays as that’s the day I have the most time), I’ll posit some thoughts on Spring Practice … this will be more of a stream of conscience thing since I have to run around quite a bit at practice, and I don’t see everything that goes on.

COLOR MY WORLD

For Spring Ball, the Lobo offense was in white, and the defense was in red, and as always, the quarterbacks wear black.  The Lobo offense in white was different then every other Spring practice from 2020, 2021 or 2022, when the offense wore red.

Is it Coach Gonzales trying to change the mojo?  Is it a preference of coach Vincent?  Did Ashley run out of the red practice jerseys?  Nope, it’s none of those things.  The offense is always in the color of the next game, and since we open with Texas A&M on September 2, the offense will wear white this spring.

NO DAYS OFF FOR THE DBs

Several Lobo defensive backs have been interviewed through the first two days, and the prevailing question is whether or not it’s been harder to cover the new receivers in practice, and to a man, that answer has been “yes”.

GOING UP AND GETTING IT

Already through two days, it’s been fairly obvious that the offense looks a little different, what with three new quarterbacks throwing passes and at least 15 new guys catching those passes (that’s including tight ends and receivers).

While the media has been chit-chatty with newcomers on the outside like D.J. Washington, Caleb Medford and the likes, no one so far has talked to the guy who has made two of the wilder catches on deep balls … Alex Murrell.

Oddly, Murrell wasn’t selected by the media for post-practice interviews, but he high-pointed a 45-yard or so pass down the sideline that was eerily reminiscent of Delane Hart-Johnson and some of the stuff he used to do.

Now, when you bring in this type of influx, it does one of two things to the returning guys … it either makes them go into a shell and they drop everything, or they pick it up, and to the everlasting credit of guys like Luke Wysong, Andrew Erickson, Austin Erickson and Duece Jones, they have really ramped it up through two days.  All four returners have looked strong, and it’s created a tremendous amount of competition.  The great thing is everyone seems to get along.  It’s hard to watch the guys and see Duke Miller do a little dance after a play, or Jeremiah Hixon and his perma-smile and not feel good about the receivers right now.

The other bonus is one would think that the new guys, knowing that receiver is where we struggled, would just come in and sort of act like they own the joint, but after each practice, all of them are getting extra reps on the JUGGS machine, or working with rapid-fire tennis balls to work on hand-eye coordination.  This is the group that has stayed the longest after practice, and both days they were the ones turning off the lights.

It’s a talented, but extremely hard-working group.

SPEAKING OF HARD WORKING…

If you follow new running back Andrew Henry on Twitter, he might have proclaimed himself as the best running back in college football.  While I suppose time will tell, to his credit, he and Dorian Lewis stayed well after practice to work on some running back stuff (cuts, spacing, pitches, etc.).

When I said I was excited to meet the greatest running back in college football, he smiled and laughed, and then took his glove off to shake hands and say hi.  I think the fans will like watching him play.  So far, the new guys have really meshed well.

STAT THAT WILL BE DIFFERENT IN 2023

@statsowar on Twitter posted a graphic of the average depth of target for G5 QBs last year that threw at least 150 passes.  Of that list, Miles Kendrick for UNM qualified, but of the 70 or so QBs on the graph, UNM’s Kendrick was next to last at 5.2 yards average depth of target.  Only Marshall was less than that at 4.3 yards for former Utah State QB Henri Colombi.  After two days of practice there is ZERO change UNM will be in that spot next year.

SEEING RED
Ashley Nowak was one of four female football equipment managers last year, and the only one that had to deal with an entire new set of helmets.  Those were the red ones, and UNM was wearing them for the opening week of practice.  Why wear those?

The silver ones, which are the main helmets, are out getting reconditioned and in some cases repadded, so they will not be seen in the Spring.  The team will flip to the anthracite helmets next week.

SNAP DECISION

Brendan Durkin, a transfer from Albany, has been taking both the deep snaps for punts and field goals, but the two backups have been interesting.  Jimmy Gallegos, who was an equipment manager last Fall after trying out in the Spring, has taken snaps and looked good at it, along with quarterback Isaiah Chavez, who has bounced around from quarterback to holder to snapper to even a little defense.

For Gallegos, who is also working out at H-Back and running back, a great way to make a team is to be able to do something very important and niche, and being a backup snapper is certainly one way to do it.

ONE-WAY OJ
O.J. Bartley was a defensive tackle last year that had the unique split of being a sometimes fullback.  Last year in the finale, he forced a fumble that UNM recovered and then three plays later laid a key block as a fullback on a fourth down conversion.  Now, Bartley is a tight end/H-back, and will most likely go just one-way in 2023.

LOBO ELLIS
With Tavian Combs not quite ready for full-speed practice, it’s been Christian Ellis manning the Lobo back slot, and the upcoming sophomore who should see the field somewhere at a safety spot, has held down that fort well so far.  Ellis is an interesting player for UNM.  He was hurt (upper body) in the Fall last year, and came to photo day with a grill (the gold plated mouthpiece thing).  I made him take it out, telling him I made Corey Hightower wait six years before being allowed to take a picture with that, and Ellis was hurt hadn’t done anything.

However, Ellis actually impress me with a work-ethic and intensity I didn’t realize he had.  He could have coasted on his injury, redshirted and gotten ready for 2023, but despite our losing streak, Christian worked extremely hard every day in therapy and busted his tail to be ready to just practice.  Then at practice he quickly worked his way onto the kickoff team and special teams, and if you watch any of those kickoffs, he’s the first guy leading the charge downfield, almost always for naught because the kick was a touchback.

That earned him time as a safety late in the year, and he showed he was a quick study and played well.  I told him after the season that I misjudged him, and that I appreciated how hard he worked, and that his approach is what we need, and that he earned my respect.  Christian and I are tight now, and while I won’t publish any photos of him with gold teeth, all let him take a few for him to put on his socials. He completely earned it.

ROSTER STUFF

If you click the roster below, note I haven’t updated the heights and weights of everyone yet (I won’t do that until after the Spring lifting period).

The roster is broken up by position so if folks come to practice it should be easier to find folks.  Also, the numbers are their practice numbers, which in some cases are different than their game numbers, because we are due for all new practice gear for the Fall, so Ashley just moved guys to different numbers in the Spring.