Saturday night provided very
comfortable conditions for watching the New Mexico Lobos practice in full pads and
many spectators turned up to see the action at the UNM practice fields. Those
that were in attendance were able to witness some great one on one
collisions in the Alley drill and a very solid performance by the Lobo
defense in 7 on 7 drills and live scrimmaging. Some
personnel changes were made on the offensive line for this practice
with Sr. Matt Streid stepping in to run with the first team in place of
So. Mike Cannon at LG. Jr. Ivan Hernandez
was the first team LT with Sylvester Hatten still recovering from a
slight head injury.
Matt Streid
Every
unit of the Lobo defense showed up to play on Saturday night and
impressive plays were made by both newcomers and veterans.
True Freshman
Anthony Hooks, a CB out of Phoenix, continued to look like a solid
hitter as he produced some great collisions early on in the Alley drill. Later
during the Middle drill (designed to simulate rush and short pass
defense) Sr. DE Kevin Balogun used his size and strength to get into
the backfield for a tackle for loss. The
offense
ran a screen play to So. WR Bryant Williams that went for a nice gain
but resulted in a forced fumble by CB DeAndre Wright.
Wright
proved that he is not a finesse cover corner as he charged up to
Willams and stripped the ball from him with great force, shouting "my
ball!" after he secured possession. It is
great to see such pride being shown by the Lobo defenders as they play like they have
something to prove on every down. Bryant
Willams was the first to pat Wright on the back after his big play in
another great display of character.
#12
Anthony Hooks
The
Lobo offense managed a couple of big plays in 7 on 7 drills including a
deep post to Sr. WR Jermaine McQueen that would have resulted in a TD. Bryant Williams came back with a strong catch
over the middle during this segment of practice as well.
The
team did not stay in 7 on 7 drills for long and moved on to live
situation scrimmaging, though the ball was not advanced and each play
began from around the 50 yard line.
The Lobo defense continued to look strong
during the live scrimmage. Jr.
Lobo Clint McPeek and Sr. CB Glover Quin blanketed Jermaine McQueen,
shutting down the offense on the first play of the period.
Donovan Porterie was then forced to run out of bounds on the next play due to
excellent coverage once again by McPeek and was sacked by NT Wesley Beck on the third play for a three and out. Porterie
was not hit by Beck
as the QB must only be touched or 'in the grasp' of a defender for a
sack during training camp.
During the first possession for the second team
offense So. CB Jerome Jenkins joined the great coverage party preventing Fr. QB Brad Gruner from advancing the ball. Later,
true freshman Joe Harris blitzed from the right edge and sacked Gruner. Harris looks to be a great physical specimen
and athlete and is seeing time at both the LB and Lobo positions. Another
young defender, Fr-RS LB Carmen Messina, turned in a great play as he
tracked down the elusive WR Roland Bruno on a screen play.
The
offense managed a few successful plays toward the end of the live
scrimmage period as Jermaine McQueen caught a short pass over the
middle and ran through the second level of the defense for a gain of
about 20 yards. McQueen was on the
receiving end
of a huge hit by true Freshman CB DeShawn Mills at the end of his run
but was able to keep the ball secured for the big gain. WR's Chris Hernandez (Soph.) and Roland Bruno (Jr.) both had nice receptions as
well though the offense was kept out of the endzone during Saturday
night's live action. To be fair the ball
was not
advanced as mentioned earlier which made it quite difficult for the
offense to score during the scrimmage.
Next up: Two
practices Monday (6-8 am and 7-9 pm).
Interviews with Rudy C.
Offensive Player of the Practice:
WR Jermaine McQueen. Though
it was a tough day overall for the offense McQueen made difficult
catches, protected the ball during a jarring hit, and stretched the
defense with his outstanding speed. UNM
will need the Sr. from Raleigh, NC to be their vertical threat this
season to replace some of the speed that Marcus Smith provided last year.
Defensive Player of the Practice:
Lobo Clint McPeek. UNM
is very strong in the defensive backfield this season and especially
stacked at Lobo with Jrs. Ian Clark and Clint McPeek.
"Killer"
McPeek showed us his coverage skills tonight and has already
demonstrated his fierce hitting ability to quite a few opposing WR's. It will be great to see what Clark and McPeek
are able to bring to the defense when both are fully healthy.
505/575 Pride:
P
Adam Miller.
A
small part of each practice thus far has included live punting drills
and Miller, the Jr. from Santa Fe St. Michael's High, seems to be
emerging as the best at the position for the Lobos.
At
times Miller has launched huge, 60+ yard punts during practice and he
will be a great one for UNM if he can improve his consistency. Miller is extremely strong in the weight room
which is unusual for a Punter and has good size (6'2" 224 lbs.).
Tsk Tsk Journal
Did the Journal already cancel
Paint it Red? I've received plenty of positive e-mails that were sent
to our friends at the Albuquerque Journal and they haven't posted them
yet... Come on Albuquerque Journal, we know you are receiving many
positive e-mails about the Lobo football team right now. Please don't
tell me you aren't posting them because they are positive and not
negative.
Don't give up folks,
we want to give away these tickets! Remember if you get your positive
e-mail posted in The Albuqueruqe Journal you will receive a 4 pack of
Lobo football season tickets!
How
do you win these family packs?
Simple,
e-mail the Journal at Sportsspeakup@abqjournal.com
and
write your positive thoughts to the Albuquerque Journal’s Sports Speak
Up and
to my personal e-mail address admin@theredmenace.com
Talk up the Lobos, the stadium, and the upcoming season! In other
words, Pain
that sucker RED! Once I see your thoughts published and they are the
same you
sent me or posted on our message board and I will contact you to get
those
tickets! Remember I have 25 packages so get on it right away!
Tell your
friends and family how to win these tickets!
We want all 25 season packages to go and we want The Albuquerque
Journal and
the entire state to know that we are Lobo fans, plus we also want to
see if the
Journal has the integrity to post these positive posts!