Media Guy Musings: Lobo Spring Practice Update #2

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.

LID LIFTERS

For the first week of Spring Practice, the Lobos almost to a man wore their alternate red helmets, but this week (on Wednesday) the team switched to its alternate anthracite helmets.  Why the switch?

Well, during the spring, with the silver helmets getting reconditioned (the team wears them the most during the season so they wear out faster), the team is just swapping out helmets in order to have the new players get used to both helmets.  For the spring game the offense will wear one set and the defense will wear the opposite.

HEY, WE WERE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM ONCE BEFORE (PART I)

While everyone watches the quarterbacks (truth be known, I watch them a lot too), its really fun when the team is doing seven-on-seven passing drills to watch the offensive and defensive lines going against each other.

On Tuesday, the defense send out back-to-back-to-back Bryce Santana, then Tyler Kiehne and then Zach Doyle.  All three Lobos were teammates once before, playing for the Las Lunas Tigers.

It’s always fun to think about all the New Mexico high school players on the team and the fact that some were teammates, some were rivals, but all are now Lobos.

HEY, WE WERE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM ONCE BEFORE (PART II)

The transfer portal has changed all of college athletics, but it really changed Lobo Football, and it did it in a hurry.  No situation showcased that better than a play in an 11-on-11 situation.  On the play, center CJ James (Abilene Christian transfer) snapped the ball to Dylan Hopkins (UAB transfer).  He faked a handoff to Andrew Henry (ULM transfer) and then pump faked to receiver Jeremiah Hixon (Alabama State transfer).  He then threw deep to Caleb Medford (TCU transfer), who was defended by D’Arco Perkins-McAllister (TCU transfer) and Marvin Covington (TCU transfer).

Of all those guys, only James, the center was at UNM last semester.  Crazy.

Also, after Perkins-McAllister and Covington knocked the pass away, all three guys jogged back to the huddle together, and it was obvious they were having fun.

UPDATE ON THE GREATEST RUNNING BACK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL…

Andrew Henry said it … I’m just repeating it.  Henry finally got an interview request on Tuesday, and I had the chance to chit-chat with him, and I usually lead off with reminding him that he is the self-proclaimed greatest running back in college football.

Now, you would think that someone who posted that on Twitter would be full of himself, and while Henry is confident…well, he is beyond confident, he’s also extremely humble.  Henry has an amazing story that I can’t do justice to here, but he was telling me about foster care, and all the kids he grew up with and not having food and clothes, and how he sees coming to UNM as an opportunity to better himself, but also to have an opportunity to reach underprivileged kids and talk to them about how to never give up and better your situation.

This was my first conversation with him.  I was really taken aback because most guys after practice just want to know where to get some food, but Henry was really wanting to know what youth group he could talk to.

THE HUNTER IS NOW THE GATHERER

At Saturday’s small scrimmage, Sherod White broke a long touchdown run.  Dion Hunter, who was not on the field at the time, gathered the defense together and had some stern words, but all 11 guys looked into Dion’s eyes and listened.  There was a lot of head nodding, and Dion wasn’t ripping anyone … he was coaching, and he was leading.

Now, Dion missed three games in 2022 but he still was fourth in tackles with 69.  I watched every play of every game and had I not consistently look at our stats I wouldn’t have guessed he was fourth.  But what he did might be more important than any tackle.  He turned into a leader at that moment, and everyone, a mix of new and old guys, listened.

Coaches will always have to coach, but when players coach and take over instilling culture and teaching points, that’s usually the sign that you want to see.

SPEAKING OF HUNTERS…
Most folks wouldn’t know who Ms. Liz is, but Liz Romero is the do-it-all, jack-of-all-trades member of the equipment room staff.  One of the things that Ms. Liz does is sew.  She stiches up jerseys and fixes them, but with UNM’s new uniform set, she also sews nameplates on jerseys, and even unsews and resews numbers to different jerseys, which is mind-boggling to watch, but if a player is wearing No. 26, and that jersey is an extra large and he needs to wear a large, Ms. Liz will unsew the four 26s off of one jersey (front, back and both sleeves) and resew them onto another.

Hopefully she doesn’t get confused with all the Hunters and Washingtons on the team.  The Lobos have four Hunters…Dion Hunter, Everett Hunter, Hunter Sellers and Hunter Rapolla.  Even crazier, the Lobos have for Washingtons on the roster.  DJ Washington, Christian Washington, Jalen Washington, and very soon Bryson Washington.

UNITED NATIONS

A few years ago it was really neat when UNM had an Australian punter in Tyson Dyer, as generally teams don’t have players from foreign countries.  Whelp, for UNM, that’s no longer the case as UNM has three foreign countries represented.  Michael Buckley is a receiver originally from Mexico, Ray Iwai is one of four Japanese-born players in the FBS, and new tight end Magnus Geers is from Switzerland.

Look for a big story on Geers, how he learned to play football while in Switzerland, and his recruitment from Albuquerque Journal new beat writer Sean Reider in the coming weeks.

ROSTER STUFF

The roster below is slightly updated from last week, with the addition of Lucas Lucero, a Rio Rancho product by way of Western New Mexico.  He’s been on the team, but I didn’t have his info until Marty Watts of Proview Networks contacted me.

Marty, who loves all things Lobos, thinks every single Lobo should be a starter, which is hard when there are 115 guys on a team, but I’m appreciative he caught the slight.

INITIALLY…

Wide receiver DJ Washington is really good.  Like really good.  However, after he checked our interview board to see if he had one, I pulled him aside to ask the most important question I usually have for players … what name is he going by?  I hear DJ and I hear Desna, so I asked.

His reply was DJ, which always leads to the next question … DJ, or D.J.?  DJ it is.  I had the same question for DC Tabscott, who is just DC.  It’s the little things.

SATURDAY SCRIMMAGE THOUGHTS

I spent 20 minutes of the Saturday scrimmage driving to the indoor facility to get a whiteboard from there because my new ones I ordered from Amazon hadn’t been delivered yet so I didn’t see everything, but a couple of notes.

An initial offensive penalty hurt the offense in the early going, but the team sprung a few good runs, including the aforementioned Sherod White touchdown and a terrific strong run from Zach Vigil.

Zach Morris, who saw a little bit of time at corner last year, is going to be a terrific player.  Zach had a perfect read on an out pattern that was thrown really well by Hopkins, but Morris just got a hand in to break it up.

Mihalis Santorineos will be all over the field on Saturdays.  He will play linebacker and could be on every special teams for kickoff and punts.  He’s a rangy player that tends to do really well here.  He had a massive hit on a short pass that elicited a lot of oohs and aahs.

SAVE THE DATE

The Spring Showcase is Monday Night, March 6 at 6 pm.  We will have a big release later today about it and everything that will be going on at the Spring Showcase, but it will be a fun time, and completely free (unless you buy food from the food trucks … you have to pay for that).