With less than two weeks to go before the beginning of the 2018 football season, head coach Bob Davie said it’s time for some urgency from his team.
“Today we didn’t have great energy or great execution,” Davie said following Tuesday’s practice. “It’s not time to panic right now, but it is time for urgency right now because there’s a lot of things we might have a misconception that we think we can do, but I’m not sure right now that I saw anything out here this morning that I think we definitely can do.”
Luckily for Davie and his staff, there’s still time to fix that, which is something that he says begins with the players and the team’s leadership to pull themselves out of a nose dive. He added that he was not disappointed, but simply concerned.
The biggest change for the team this year is the offensive scheme under new offensive coordinator Calvin Magee, as the Lobos blend the triple option they’ve run in years with the spread option offense that Magee was in charge of at the University of Arizona. A coaching change, and a change in scheme, means that the offense is looking to find its new identity.
New to the program, it took Magee some time to get to know his players, and perhaps more importantly, getting them to know his offense.
“That was fun, I was really looking forward to it,” he said. “ Getting that kind of understanding everywhere, getting them to understand some of the base foundations of what we want to do on offense. I’ve been in camp now, it’s even better now because I think they have a true understanding of it.”
Magee wouldn’t go as far as to say that he feels good about where the offense is at, there are still things that he is very worried about, but that’s all part of installing a new offense and working in camp. It’s a process to get everything up to speed, but he said that the players are working hard and watching film.
Last season, Magee oversaw a breakout star in quarterback Khalil Tate. Tate burst onto the scene against the University of Colorado in early October and set a new FBS rushing record for quarterbacks.
Now, he oversees a three man battle to be the next starting quarterback for the UNM. One of the three, Tevaka Tuioti, talked about the excitement that comes with getting to work with someone who had such success last year.
“Just being able to watch it on ESPN last year and getting to see it up front, meeting coach Magee, being able to take his offense in, it’s exciting,” Tuioti said.
Tuioti, a redshirt sophomore who served as the Lobos backup last season and often found himself splitting time with the now graduated Lamar Jordan, is battling for the job with senior Coltin Gerhart and junior college transfer Sheriron Jones. Davie believes that they’re getting close to reaching a decision on who will start against Incarnate Word, and expects a decision as early as Saturday.
Cameron Goeldner is a sports beat reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s soccer, women’s basketball, softball and the Albuquerque Isotopes, but also contributes content for baseball, basketball, football and track and field. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @goeldfinger.
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