Instead, Jordan, the redshirt freshman incumbent starter, is embracing the fact that several signal-callers are gunning for his job. Quarterbacks Caleb Kimbro, Jajuan Lawson, Patrick Reed and junior college transfer Austin Apodaca are all in the running for Jordan’s spot this upcoming fall.
“I feel like you never get better unless you have competition,” Jordan said. “The shy people shy away from competition. I’m a wolf: I’m going to get what I want. I’m going to compete with whoever it is, no matter if he’s bigger than me or smaller than me.”
Jordan’s main challenger for the starting position is Apodaca, who spent two years at Washington State. However, Apodaca has quite the learning curve to endure when it comes to the triple-option offense.
The key to the triple-option is learning how to read the defense at the right time to either keep, hand off or throw the football — something that will take Apodaca time to learn.
“It’s going good. I’m making progress for sure, but it’s definitely difficult,” he said. “I’m a little bit unfamiliar with some stuff. The offense that we run is fun. I’m just trying not to make the same mistakes twice.”
Even though the quarterback competition is fierce, both signal-callers said they try to help each other. Jordan provides tips to Apodaca about running the football, while Apodaca gives Jordan advice on throwing.
“I help him out and he helps me out — that’s how the quarterback room is now,” Jordan said. “We all just help each other out; we all want the best for each other. I hope everyone gets a chance to play.”
Apodaca said he thinks he has a good shot at earning some playing time this fall. Last season Jordan and former quarterbacks junior Cole Gautsche and senior Clayton Mitchem all started games.
“I think the coaches have been honest with me the whole time. I think the biggest thing for me is that I control my own destiny, so to speak,” Apodaca said. “If I do what I’m capable of, then I’ll go and get the starting job. I’m going to battle my butt off every day and see where the chips fall.”
Open practices
For the first time in Bob Davie’s tenure at UNM, spring practices are open to the public and the media. The head coach has previously made just the first 30 minutes of every spring practice open to the media.
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Davie had closed off a majority of practice earlier in his run as Lobo coach because of an incident that happened when he was the head coach at Notre Dame, he said.
During his stint at Notre Dame a fight broke out during spring practice between two players. Fans and media at the practice saw the incident, and the next day the hot issue was whether the Fighting Irish players were disciplined or not, Davie said.
“At the end of the day it’s not a real big deal to me,” he said. “The reason why I shied away from the past is because I’ve had some experience with things that people shouldn’t be discussing and evaluating because it’s practice.”
Davie said he changed his mind about opening up practices this season because he wants to recruit more fans. In 2014 UNM generated the second-lowest ticket revenue in seven years.
“The positive is if we can get one more person interested, one more excited about Lobo football, which means maybe one more person in the stands come September to helps us win a game, then I’m all for it,” Davie said.
Thomas Romero-Salas is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ThomasRomeroS.
