sports@dailylobo.com
@ThomasRomeroS
Throwing the ball or defending the pass — neither was a pretty sight for the New Mexico football team in 2012.
“It’s no secret that we have to develop the level of football through the air,” said head football coach Bob Davie at the spring football press conference on Tuesday. “We ended the season at level zero with the ball in the air.”
The Lobos ranked 119th out of 120 Division I football programs in passing offense this past season. UNM managed a total 895 passing yards, five touchdowns with a 51.3 completion percentage. The United States Military Academy had 98 fewer passing yards than UNM to rank dead last in the country.
Last year’s team instituted a two-quarterback system with the oft-injured B.R. Holbrook and the run-oriented Cole Gautsche. With Holbrook now graduated, Gautsche will be the focal point of the Lobos’ offensive game plan this upcoming season. Gautsche paced the team in yards per carry average at 7.0 and was the second-leading rusher with 760 yards on the fifth-ranked rushing offense in the nation.
However, as a passer, Gautsche completed 13 of 31 passes (41.9 percent) for 222 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in 11 games played. When Holbrook was out with injury, the Lobos’ offense stayed grounded due to Gautsche’s lack of a passing ability.
To improve the passing game, Davie said he will attempt to progress Gautsche along with a healthy quarterback competition. Gautsche’s opposition comes in the form of junior-college transfer quarterback Clayton Mitchem and junior Quinton McCown. The Lobos will have eight total quarterbacks on the roster when fall rolls around.
Mitchem threw for 2,435 yards and 27 touchdowns last fall for Northeastern Oklahoma A&M leading the Golden Norsemen to a 9-2 record. He enrolled at UNM in January and will partake in spring practice.
Davie said McCown has improved physically and had one of the top verticals on the team along with an impressive shuttle drill time.
“Cole is an incredibly hard worker … He can really run for a big guy,” Davie said. “Somebody’s going to have to beat him out, but we have some competition for him … I’m anxious to watch him.”
On the defensive side of the ball, UNM ranked 103rd out of 120 in passing defense. The Lobos allowed opposing quarterbacks to throw for 33 touchdowns, 3,500 yards, and to complete 65 percent of their passes.
UNM lost every secondary starter from last season and only has one returning part-time starter, junior defensive back Tim Foley.
Davie and his staff recruited hard to help solve the problem with five defensive-back signees. The Lobos will also bring back safeties Brandon Branch, Jamal Merritt, Dante Caro and Devonta Tabannah along with cornerbacks SaQwan Edwards, Rashad Jackson, Vershad Jackson and Cranston Jones.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The Lobos improved to 4-9 in Davie’s first year as head coach after three consecutive 1-11 seasons.
“We did have some significant increases, things that we were really proud of,” he said. “But I’m not trying to spin the statistics. We were what our record indicated.”
