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New Mexico Spring Football Primer

By Jeremy Mauss

New Mexico is looking to drastically improve from their 1-11 season, and my suggestion is to first stay out of trouble with the law (looking at you coach Locksley).  The good news is that it will take a miracle for the Lobos to get any worse.  They started spring practice this week in search of a new quarterback since Donovan Porterie is gone, and this could be a good thing; not because Porterie was a bad quarterback but he was never able to be himself because of his torn ACL he tore the year prior. 

The top replacements look to be between B.R. Holbrook who pushed Porterie for playing time last year plus Tarean Austin and Darian "Stump" Godfrey. Austin is from Florida and Godfrey was an all-state player in Texas, both of whom are true freshman.  Just add to the list of true freshman or sophomores who could be a starting quarterback in the Mountain West.

To help find the new starter is Dave Reaves who is the new quarterbacks coach:

"The number one thing is we have to have a great decision maker," Reaves said. "Our guys have got to make the right decision with the football. You have got to protect the ball, great footwork, timing and all the fundamentals of the position. We’ve got to find a guy that can put the ball in the right place at the right time."

"In this offense, you have to run the show," he said. "It’s a no-huddle offense that makes all the calls on the line of scrimmage. The guys have done a good job. There is a lot of thinking and heads are swimming a little bit right now, but once we get this thing down, they will be a vocal leader out (on the field) for us."

Reaves is experienced and has worked for Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier at South Carolina for about 10 years, and most recently spent a year at Tennessee.

Besides finding a quarterback the Lobos also have a need at a lot of other positions like trying to replace four starters off of the offensive line and some receivers from last year.  RB James Wright is the top returning play maker and running back looks to be a strong point on offense which is even more of an incentive for the offensive line to improve.

The defense and more particularly the secondary will be in trouble within the pass happy Mountain West.  The Lobos must get at least a decent defense to improve off of their 35.9 points they gave up per game.  The defensive line looks to be the strength of the defense with a couple of Illinois transfers who were with Locksley at the Illini, and four-star freshman tackle Calvin Smith.

Here are reports from day one and day two of spring practice.


Coach: Mike Locksley
Last season: 1-11 overall, 1-7 in the Mountain West.
Spring dates: March 23-April 17.

RETURNING STARTERS

Offense (5): T Byron Bell, RB Demond Dennis, WR Ty Kirk, TE Lucas Reed, RB James Wright.
Defense (6): CB Nathan Enriquez, T Peter Gardner, CB Anthony Hooks, E Jaymar Latchison, LB Carmen Messina, E Johnathan Rainey.
Special teams (1): K James Aho.

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