Albuquerque Journal

Among UNM's chief concerns is how to replace Smith and Brown
By Greg Archuleta, Journal Staff Writer

One hundred and sixty-seven footballs.
       
Fall practice for the 2008 season began Monday at the University of New Mexico, which has several question marks to address before the Aug. 30 opener against TCU.
       
One of the biggest is finding a player or two — or six — to catch the 167 footballs that wide receivers Marcus Smith (91) and Travis Brown (76) accomplished last season as seniors.
       
"It's who's going to step up at wide receiver," offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin said. "If we get five guys that can catch 40 balls, that equals 200. That's about how many completions we had last year, so we should be OK."
       
The Lobos start fall drills with several players competing for playing time as targets for junior quarterback Donovan Porterie. Only senior Jermaine McQueen is at least penciled in to be one of the three starters UNM — at the Z, or flanker spot — will count on to replace the two first-team All-Mountain West wideouts of a year ago.
       
"We know it's going to take a group effort," says McQueen, who had eight receptions for 44 yards last season. "I feel a lot more comfortable than I did at this time last year. Last year, I came in without a spring practice and never got real comfortable. This year, I feel like my old self, getting better every day."
       
The other two spots in the Lobos' three-wideout attack are up for grabs. Sophomore Chris Hernandez is battling Daryl Jones at the X WR (split end) and junior Roland Bruno and sophomore transfer Bryant Williams are competing for the T-WR (slot) position.
       
Bruno is the leading returning wideout, having grabbed 21 passes for 186 yards in 2007. He says he studied how Brown and Smith approached their craft and is hoping to apply their techniques to achieve similar success for himself this season.
       
"I think that's every receiver's dream; you want to catch 80, 90 balls," he said. "Before I go to sleep, and when I wake up, I think about what I can do to become all-conference. But at the same time, you want your teammates to be able to do the same thing."
       
Baldwin says he's hoping at least one player can step up and fill Brown's role from a season ago.
       
"Even though Marcus caught a ton of balls last season, when Donovan got in trouble, he was going to Travis," Baldwin said. "It'd be nice if Donovan could find that guy that in certain situations, he knows he can go to that guy."
       
The team took its first step toward finding answers at wide receiver and elsewhere in a two-hour practice without pads — NCAA rules mandate four practices in shorts, shirts and helmets before teams can engage in contact drills. So while the coaches can't do a lot of player-evaluations, they can get other things accomplished.
       
"We try to get them to learn their assignments," coach Rocky Long said. "So when they get in pads, they don't have to think as much and they can react and we can see if they make plays and they're players."
       
UNM spent the final 20 minutes of practice working exclusively with young players to get them some repetitions and see how many might be able to help the team when the season starts.
       
Baldwin throws everything he can at his unit.
       
"We're trying to get in as much of the offense as possible," Baldwin says. "Because there's not a lot of contact, there's not a lot of bullets flying at them, so we can throw as many formations, motions and plays in the book as we can in these four day, and then we'll come back and refine it."
       
COMINGS AND GOINGS: Junior safety Mike Love and sophomore cornerback Jerrell Miller did not practice Monday because they still have academic work to complete, Long said. Wide receiver Nicky Lawson has returned to the team as a walk-on. UNM also signed defensive back DeShawn Mills, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound true freshman from Lawndale, Calif., to a scholarship during the summer.
       
SEASON-TICKET SALES: UNM topped the 13,000 plateau Tuesday afternoon, associate athletics director Mark Koson said in an e-mail. The surge pushed the team nearly 400 ahead of last year's pace.