On Friday, Aug. 15, the University of New Mexico Lobo football team hosted a scrimmage open to the public, giving fans a chance to get a preview of the team in action and see them in action ahead of the season kickoff on Aug. 30 against the Michigan Wolverines.
Only the most eagle-eyed fans may notice the team looks slightly different from last year: the Lobos lost their head coach, star quarterback, two running backs, four receivers and a swath of other players. Demonstrating the Lobo’s perseverance, the new Lobo football Head Coach Jason Eck has been able to put together a quality roster that could take the Lobos to decent success.
While a starting roster hasn’t been released yet, a few players are already standing out in their positions, but there are still a few positions where the first-string spot is still up for grabs.
During the scrimmage, the defensive line remained strong and managed to successfully put pressure on the quarterback throughout, and were occasionally successful at stopping the offense's ground game. The defense took the edge over the offense to give the Lobos a victory over the Lobos.
“I think our D-line is doing a good job. I think we're going to be greatly improved on the D line from the line last year,” Eck said. “We're still tinkering with some lineups and again, trying to get what our best lineup is up front.”
Despite the solid defensive play, there were occasional explosive running plays, mostly through the efforts of running back Scottre Humphrey, a junior from Seattle, Washington, who made his way to Albuquerque by way of two previous seasons at Montana State University. Even without the ball in his hands, Humphrey made an impact off the field as he was one of the most vocal players the whole day, cheering on his teammates and keeping the energy high.
One of the big questions following the scrimmage was who will be the starting quarterback. As the season opener draws near, the competition for the leader of the team is still wide open, though Eck has said he will release the starting lineup on Monday, Aug. 18.
There were three players who saw snaps at QB during the scrimmage: Jack Layne, James Laubstein and Cole Welliver.
Layne, a junior with the most in-game experience out of any of the quarterbacks, followed Eck from the University of Idaho. Laubstein is a returning player from last season and a redshirt senior. Welliver, from Flowermound, Texas, is a redshirt freshman.
One highlight for the offense was fast starts; on their first drive, they managed to score a touchdown, mostly through the efforts of Humphrey and Layne.
“I really liked how the one offense started out the scrimmage. I thought it was a really nice opening drive to go down and score,” Eck said.
However, the bad news for the offense is that it was the only time they saw the endzone that day. They managed to secure another three points from a field goal from kicker Luke Drzewiecki, who went 1-for-3 on the day, but saw no further scoring.
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“I thought we played great red zone defense today. We had a lot of great stops down there,” Eck said.
Jaden McKelvey-Francis is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on X @jadenmckelvey
