To say the UNM football team's offensive line weighs a ton wouldn't be far off.
The Lobos' line started off the year weighing a little more than 1,500 pounds altogether. But due to the nature of head coach Mike Locksley's system, they might shed a few pounds before the season is done.
In a no-huddle offense, it's the big men who sweat. In a standard game, the offense will run a play, huddle up, then line up again, giving the 300-pounders a deserved break. But in Locksley's offense, it's constant motion.
"We have to make sure that those guys are in shape," said Mike Degory, UNM's center and offensive guards coach. "Since we have started installing - since we have been here with our strength program and conditioning program - guys have started to trim weight."
Degory said the ideal weight for a UNM linemen would be somewhere between 295 and 310 pounds, depending on height, because the coaches plan to make it a war of attrition late in the games, and conditioning in the spring will make all the difference.
Most of the linemen are in that range, with a few exceptions.
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"We are rarely in the huddle," Degory said. "We are constantly at the ball. We are going to grind people down in the third and fourth quarter and take full advantage of that."
Degory ran the spread offense as a linemen coach at Illinois. A fresh set of legs every few downs would make the linemen's job easier, he said.
"We would love to rotate, but our concerns are with depth," he said. "We want to make sure that if we put a No. 2 in there, we don't miss
a stride."
For the team to hit every stride, they have to be not only physically prepared, but mentally as well.
A lineman's offensive playbook is second in complexity only to the quarterback's, but Degory takes responsibility for getting his men up to speed.
"We tell our guys, 'No matter what you know, just be confident in what you do because we want you playing fast,'" he said. "It is our job as coaches to make sure that they know what to do and are in the right situation."
The linemen seem to have bought into the system. Offensive guard Erik Cook, 315 pounds, and offensive tackle Byron Bell, 325 pounds, see the new offense and coaching staff as a step up.
On practice Wednesday, it got a bit rowdy on the sidelines, but Cook said that is making the practices more fun and enjoyable.
"The coaches are allowing that and letting that happen - the smack talking - wanting the offense to be as energized as the defense has always been here," he said. "We are starting to do that."
Bell said the coaching staff is youthful, something that was missing last year.
"With coach (Rocky) Long - he was a little old school," Bell said. "Coach Locksley is a little new school. He is a pretty young coach. It is really a new swing. (The coaches) interact with us so we know where they are coming from."
