Making The Rounds: New Mexico And Their Opponents

New Mexico

Emmanuel McPhearson Battles Diabetes and Football:

"It changed my life in a good way and a bad way. When I go out with friends, I have to watch what I eat. Playing football, you have to keep a healthy diet. Being a diabetic will keep you managing that diet 24-7. It has its ups and downs."

Lobos hold first spring scrimmage and their defense was subpar (and that is being nice):

Said Mallory: "We weren't real good in our base defense at the goal line. But that's the first live work we've had there. We need to get better down there."

"We gave them a chance to go out and be under the fire a little bit," said Locksley. "We have competition at the position and we wanted to see how they respond under fire."

Stats from the scrimmage:

Rushing: Demond Dennis 25-83, 1 TD; Kasey Carrier 13-61, 1 TD; Terence Brown 15-58; James Wright 9-54, 1 TD; 1 TD; B.R. Holbrook 9-20; Brad Gruner 8-20, 2 TDs. Totals: 79-296, 5 TDs.

Passing: B.R. Holbrook 17-22-0, 199 yards, 1 TD; Brad Gruner 10-19-1, 78 yards. Totals: 27-41-1, 277 yards, 1 TD.

Receiving: Michael Scarlett 7-40; Bryant Williams 4-14; Lucas Reed 3-20; Kasey Carrier 2-12; Demond Dennis 2-10; Ty Kirk 1-67; Quintell Solomon 1-37, TD; Jonathan Mader 1-18; Nick Wilhelm 1-16; Myles Daughtry 1-15; Chris Hernandez 1-12; Josh Fussell 1-8; Terence Brown 1-6; James Wright 1-2. Totals: 27-277, 1 TD.

Oregon

The Ducks are in a full on quarterback battle this spring between Nate Costa, Darron Thomas, and Daryle Hawkins.  Newcomers are making a splash this spring:

Three junior college transfers enrolled in January and are making their presence known on the depth chart one week into spring drills. Ryan Clanton played guard consistently with the second-team offense last week and during the fourth practice of spring Monday; Brandon Williams is the No. 2 tight end; and Isaac Remington has typically been with the third team as a defensive tackle.

New Mexico State

The Aggies began spring practice this week with a ton of optimism -- as if any team would be down --

"Always on the first day, there’s a bunch of energy and tempo, everyone is excited, but I want to see if we can have that same intensity and energy on day seven and day eight," head coach DeWayne Walker said. "I was pretty happy with that piece of it. On the first day, we are just trying to put our schemes in and trying to take a look at certain guys in certain positions. I’m looking forward to watching the tape and getting ready for Wednesday’s practice."

Matt Christian, Tanner Rust, Jeff Fleming and Trevor Walls are all vying for the quarterback spot:

"I've worked with fast quarterbacks, slow quarterbacks, ones with strong arms and ones that like to take off and run," Dunbar said when asked what type of a QB best fits his scheme. "I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep over that aspect."

UTEP

Miner Rush talks with a few players after the latest spring scrimmage:

RB David Buckram

"From a running backs perspective, we saw good signs from everyone.  Everyone looked really good.  The non-scholarship guys also looked good."

DB Braxton Amy

"I'm loving it (the 4-3).  In the 3-3-5 we were playing man coverage every play.  We have great coaches here who understand how to teach the new system."

TE Jonny Moore.

"Spring is about locking in more, staying focused.  We work hard to be consistent in production."

Texas Tech

The starting quarterback battle will not be decided until spring since Taylor Potts is having surgery on his throwing hand and will not be able to throw for the duration of spring practice:

"Doctors feel like they have to go in and attach a couple of ligaments that either loosed or detached,’’ Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said Monday. "They don’t want to take any chances, so they’ll operate on him tomorrow and he’ll have it bandaged up for at least three or four weeks but won’t be able to throw for eight weeks.’’

With Potts and Steven Sheffield out for spring the majority of the snaps to fellow QB's Jacob Karam and Seth Doege.

"They’ll go with different groups each day and try to give them a fair opportunity to throw to different receivers, have different offensive lines and, of course, have a different defense coming at them, too,’’ Tuberville said. "It’s a little bit different with that first defense coming, with the speed, and the we do a little bit more blitzing with group one.’’

Also, Tuberville wants to acknowledge that if the performance warrants it, that Doege and Karam have an opportunity to put some pressure on Sheffield and Potts:

"These guys will fight for the job (in 2011), so it’s an advantage for them to have six or seven practices by themselves with the first team and second team,’’ Tuberville said. "They know going into two-a-days they’re going to be spectators. But you never know. One of these two guys might bounce out of the pack and put a little pressure on the seniors going into two-a-days.’’