After taking the first game on the road against San Diego State, UNM dropped the final two games of the three-game series. In the rubber match, the Lobos made a late run at the Aztecs, but two runs in the top of the ninth wasn’t enough for New Mexico.
Spring football has shown how thin New Mexico is at the linebacker position. The Lobos do have several linebackers with game experience on the roster, but that is mostly limited to backup minutes. The only regular starters in spring football are redshirt freshman inside linebacker Kimmie Carson and sophomore outside linebacker Donnie White. Both started eight games last season.
New Mexico turned to its defense and leading hitter to garner the program’s first win against Nevada Thursday in a 4-3 walk-off victory. In the bottom of the seventh with a runner on third, UNM’s junior center fielder Mariah Rimmer hit a shot over Nevada’s left fielder to take the first of a three game series against the Wolf Pack.
New Mexico’s youth shined against the No. 19 team in the country during a 6-5 victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders Tuesday afternoon at Lobo Field. Two freshman utility players led the Lobos through an unscathed ending despite UNM’s rocky start. Hayden Schilling and Lewis Gonzalez helped shut down Texas Tech’s offense in the final three innings of play, pitching scoreless relief efforts.
Not many quarterbacks switch positions after starting for their first three years in college. However, Cole Gautsche is making that transition. It was announced earlier this year that he will be moving to tight end after being New Mexico’s starting quarterback for the last three seasons. The junior will also redshirt this upcoming season in order to fully heal the broken left foot he suffered in a 31-28 win at UNLV this past November.
The New Mexico men’s soccer team won its first spring home exhibition of the year with a 4-2 victory over Fort Lewis on Saturday. With the match tied at 2, sophomore midfielders Olav Hovstad and Wayde Scibilia scored goals late to lift UNM. “Our quality showed throughout the match,” UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein said in a press release. “We scored two late to win 4-2. Overall, we were a little casual in our approach to the game, but it’s hard to recreate the atmosphere we usually play in front of when it’s the spring and a day game.”
Last week, New Mexico became one of the first Mountain West schools to announce that it has decided to fund the full cost of attendance for its student athletes. In an interview with LoboTV Thursday, Vice President for Athletics Paul Krebs said UNM will fund the full cost of attendance, which will add almost $1 million to the athletic budget. Athletic scholarships will increase by approximately $2,700, Krebs said. In the past, athletic scholarships only covered tuition and fees, room and board and books. The full cost of attendance now includes those needs plus course fees, academic-related supplies and other basic necessities.
It might be time for the New Mexico wide receivers to finally play a more active role in the passing game. For the past three years in Bob Davie’s triple option offense, UNM wideouts have done more blocking than catching. In this spring practice, there has been an emphasis on improving the air game, but that has been the case for the past couple of seasons. No wide receiver under Davie at UNM has caught 20 or more passes. The most catches a wide receiver has had in one season are 19, which happened twice in 2013 when receivers Jeric Magnant and Marquis Bundy both hit that mark.
Jake Cole had it going on at Lobo Field on Sunday. The junior reliever pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up zero hits and striking out three batters in a 5-1 New Mexico victory over Fresno State. Cole also earned his first victory of the season. “I don’t really think about it when I’m throwing,” he said. “I just try to get the job done and keep us in place to win.”
The New Mexico football team is hopeful that a new scheme and additional personnel will help solve some defensive woes. After allowing the most yards in the Mountain West last season, the Lobos needed a change and they are hoping that a nickel base defense and new defensive backs coach Al Simmons will clear up some of UNM’s issues. “To get someone who’s been in this conference for three years, been a defensive coordinator and all of that. So the resume is really impressive,” head coach Bob Davie said of Simmons. “What more impressive is his demeanor. He’s not going to flinch.
Unlike the quarterback position, there isn’t much question about who will be one of New Mexico’s top running backs come the fall. Jhurell Pressley is likely to get his fair share of the carries in 2015, but the senior tailback isn’t taking repetitions during spring practice because he’s not enrolled at UNM this semester. Head coach Bob Davie said Pressley will be back this summer and has not commented on why Pressley isn’t in school this spring. With Pressley not being at spring practice that only means other running backs will take his reps and get more accustomed to the offense.
Following New Mexico’s first losing season since 2007, the Lobos are preparing to get back on track in the 2015-2016 season. In Craig Neal’s season ending press conference, the head coach addressed the need to get better in anticipation of conference play. Next season’s competition will feature a more difficult non-conference schedule than this past season’s play. Although Neal said the dates have not yet been set, the Lobos will play host to Northern Iowa, a team which finished No. 11 before losing in the 32nd round of the NCAA tournament. UNM will also welcome Rice to Wise Pies Arena, according the Neal.
Poor shooting from the field and the free throw line ends the Lobos’ season in a 63-60 loss to Oral Roberts in the second round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational. Despite a late push, New Mexico couldn’t overcome a 20 of 70 shooting performance from the field to advance to the WBI semifinals. Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said her squad came out of the gates without a lot of confidence, which cost the Lobos another home win in postseason play.
UNM needed only six innings of play to take the rubber match from Utah State 12-2 on Sunday. Junior pitcher Lauren Soles threw a gem, with the fifth inning as her only blemish, allowing two runs on four hits in her second complete game of the season. New Mexico’s offense provided plenty of firepower against Utah State (9-19, 1-2 MW), slugging six homers in Sunday’s contest. Junior outfielder Mariah Rimmer led the way in an eight-run sixth inning, crushing a solo-shot to left field and a three-run homer to collect all four of her RBIs on the day.
New Mexico’s post play will face a significant test against a prolific rebounder, as the Lobos host Oral Roberts in the Women’s Basketball Invitational second round. Vicky McIntyre, the Golden Eagles’ 6-foot-7 redshirt senior center, has 508 rebounds this season, which is sixth best all-time in NCAA history for a single season. Only nine players have eclipsed the 500-rebound plateau in a single season. “You can’t make it easy on her because she is awfully good,” head coach Yvonne Sanchez said. “She gets a double-double almost every game.”
New Mexico’s newest athletic program played on its own turf — sand, actually — for the first time on Saturday. The New Mexico sand volleyball team struggled in its home debut against No. 18 Grand Canyon University, dropping both matches 4-1 at StoneFace courts. UNM now sits at 1-3 on its inaugural season. Assistant coach Lisa Beauchene said the program is continually improving and New Mexico needs to keep facing quality competition to progress further. “We’re playing a lot of the Arizona teams more than once, which is really tough competition, but good experience for us,” she said.
Spread offenses have forced New Mexico to make a defensive change this upcoming season. UNM will shift from its base 3-4 defense to a 3-3-5 system in order to shore up its passing defense. The 3-3-5 is played with five defensive backs and just three linebackers, while the 3-4 has four defensive backs and four linebackers. The Lobos ran the 3-4 defense for the past three seasons and ranked near the bottom of Division I football subdivision schools in passing over that span.
One costly error and a lack of clutch hitting stopped New Mexico’s rally short in an 8-7 loss to No. 24 Houston on Sunday. UNM (11-10) has now lost four straight games by one run and have lost six straight overall. The Cougars won the first two games of the series by the same score of 6-5. “It’s a shame, but I just have to keep them confident and keep them fighting,” head coach Ray Birmingham said. “They’re a good baseball team; they just played a good baseball team. We could’ve won all three, and we lost all three.”
The quarterback competition for New Mexico isn’t bothering Lamar Jordan at all. 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.”
Quality performances from the pitching circle have granted New Mexico the ability to win without relying solely on offensive production. Head softball coach Erica Beach said hitting has been a strong point for the Lobos all season, but the pitching staff gives New Mexico a new dimension to have confidence in as the squad enters Mountain West play against Utah State today. “For our pitchers to have really been hitting their stride right now is something that we’ve needed,” Beach said. “We’re looking forward to seeing what they can do in conference.”
Solutions by The State News
