If giving speeches and making plans won football games, Mike Locksley would be undefeated as a head coach.
The man who calls himself “Coach Locks” moved forward to Phase II of his proclaimed “renovation project.”
But everyone knows how Phase I went.
In 2009, Locksley encountered several off-the-field distractions, hampering the results of a year that included a 1-11 season. Many of those were blow-out losses. Quickly, the football team was overshadowed by the men’s basketball team’s hot start across University Boulevard in November.
But in 2010 for Locksley, Phase II is a new year, which gives the second-year head man a clean slate and an opportunity to revive a program that saw some of its darkest days in almost 20 years.
UNM spring practices began on Tuesday at the UNM practice field. And Locksley began on the path toward redemption, on a journey to accomplish what he set out to do some 16 months ago, when he replaced former head coach Rocky Long as the face of UNM football.
“I have seen great determination and drive by our team,” Locksley said. “One of the things we did, after we came back from Christmas break as a staff and as a team, is we got together, and we challenged each other to make a full commitment to this program.”
From now until April 17, when the annual Cherry-Silver game will be played at University Stadium, Locksley and his coaching staff will break down all positions and see which players appear to be leading candidates as starters for fall camp later in the year.
Linebacker Carmen Messina, who led the team in tackles and led the nation in tackles per game during his sophomore year, will be one of the team leaders, not only on the defensive side of the ball, but for the whole team.
Messina said he and the team are more comfortable in year two under Locks.
“The coaches came and said how they wanted things to flow,” he said. “They set the way they want things to be and everyone has bought in, because Lobo football is so important to us and we really want to strive to become a better team.”
If UNM wants to improve on the field, they will have to earn it on the practice fields, Locksley said.
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Much like last year, the Lobos head coach announced that all starting positions are open for 2010 and the competition begins in spring practice.
So not even UNM’s 41 returning lettermen, some who had starting spots during the 2009 season, are safe.
“The purpose of spring ball is to try and identify those playmakers,” Locksley said. “I think we have the nucleus of some pretty good football players to help us take that next step as a team. Everybody’s competing for a starting position and that’s just not coach-speak. We’re going to rotate guys in and out of there.”
And perhaps tailor the offensive philosophy a bit.
After Locksley said in jest that University Stadium would need a third digit on the scoreboard to accommodate the high-scoring offense he envisioned, UNM’s head coach wants the Lobos to become a more physical, brute force to win games.
The Lobos failed to score an offensive touchdown in the first 15 quarters of the 2009 season
Still, one of the building blocks Locksley wants to work on during the spring practices is running the ball and stopping the run.
“For us to take the next step in our program, we’ve got to improve and the first thing we got to do, it starts with the running game,” Locksley said. “I think our running back position is one of the strengths of our team, and I think familiarity in our system will allow us to take that step. We really feel as a staff and as a team, we’ve got to be able to run the ball to stop the run.”
