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If you want to see how young the Lobo football team is, you need to look no farther than the secondary.
The Lobos lost their entire starting secondary from last season’s 4-9 squad, but defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Jeff Mills said the group has enough experience to overcome the losses.
“We’re trying to really get these guys as many reps as we can. They don’t have the acuminated repetition as far as game experience,” he said. “They’re starting to learn the position.
That’s what it takes, just practices. We need all the practices this spring and this fall to get ready for that first game.”
Head coach Bob Davie said he sees the youth in the secondary as a positive.
“It’s a really young group,” he said. “There’s a really youthful exuberance at cornerback … We’re young, but we have a little bit of depth. That’s really the truth at safety as well.”
UNM does have 10 returning lettermen from last year’s team, which ranked 103rd in passing defense out of 120 Division I football teams. Last season the secondary allowed 269.2 yards per game to opposing quarterbacks.
Out of the 10 returning lettermen, six made starts for last year’s team. However, only three are upperclassmen: junior cornerback Tim Foley, and senior safeties Dante Caro and Jamal Merritt. Merritt is coming off of surgery and will see little to no contact this spring. UNM also added junior college transfer David Guthrie to the fray, and in the fall three more defensive backs will join the group.
Foley said he has no doubt the younger guys will be able to come in and make a difference.
“Whenever you lose people it’s always hard, but we have guys that can come up and produce,” he said. “We’ll be able to fill those spots.”
Mills said he doesn’t think depth will be a problem for the secondary this season, and thinks the competition among the group will only help.
“Competition makes everybody better. You have to maximize the most of your repetitions when you’re out there on the field,” he said. “We got depth that we didn’t have last year, so I’m encouraged by it.”
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To add to the depth, the team moved junior SaQwan Edwards from wide receiver to cornerback and shifted sophomore David Anaya from running back to safety.
“(Edwards) really added some size and some athletic experience at that corner spot,” Mills said. “David Anaya brings a physical ability at the strong safety position. He’s another guy who is getting a lot of reps to learn the position. He’ll really bring it, whether it’s on pressures or on run support.”
If the secondary wants to limit the big plays that hurt the Lobos’ defense last season, it must become a more physical group, Mills said.
“They’re becoming more physical in their run support and in their coverage. That’s my goal and I think we’re coming along in that,” he said. “We’re becoming more physical, but we’re not there yet.”
