Ex-Lobo leaves for bigger pack

Welcome to the NFL fraternity, Erik Cook.
The UNM football team’s former center was the 27th pick in the seventh round (229th overall) during the 75th annual NFL Draft. Cook was drafted by the Washington Redskins and first-year head coach Mike Shanahan, who is a two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach with the Denver Broncos.

The Cooks’ bloodline is deeply entrenched in the NFL. Cook’s brother, Ryan, plays for the Minnesota Vikings.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Cook said. “When I answered the phone, I heard, ‘This is Mike Shanahan. Welcome to the Washington Redskins.’ I kind of just didn’t know what to say for a second, and it was probably one of the best phone calls I have ever received in my entire life.”
Things continue to get better for Cook.

He’s the lone Lobo taken in this year’s draft. He was named to the first-team All-Mountain West Conference as a senior and was a second-team All-MWC as a junior.

Cook played in 39 games for UNM, starting 33 of them. As an outstanding offensive lineman for the Lobos, Cook moved around filling different positions on the line, before becoming the starting center for UNM in 2008.

UNM head football coach Mike Locksley said that any time a player from the program is drafted into the NFL, regardless of which round they’re taken, it benefits the entire football team.

“It definitely validates (UNM),” Locksley said. “Whether for future recruits or for current players, if you do a good job and work hard, you can be rewarded by coming out of New Mexico. If you look at the fact that the Mountain West Conference had so many players drafted, I think that it really validates the ball played in this league.”

Cook was one of 13 MWC players taken in this year’s NFL Draft, and, like every other college football player, he will have to make the transition from the collegiate level to the professional level during the NFL’s summer training camps.

“The competition is going to be a lot harder,” Cook said. “Going in there and playing against men who have been in the NFL for five to 10 years or however long. I mean, that is their job. It’s unlike college. (In college), if you don’t perform, you don’t get cut, and you keep your spot on the team. You are just fighting to survive out there, and you have to give it your all.”
Cook’s transition, however, shouldn’t be difficult, Locksley said.

Locksley said that UNM runs similar schemes, the same ones that Washington will run under Shanahan.
“A lot of that success he had in Denver relied on zone schemes,” Locksley said. “I think it’s a great chance for Erik and his talents. You know, the offense we ran. We’re a big zone scheme team as well. I think with Erik having a chance to play in a system like the Washington Redskins, it definitely benefits him.”