UNM football: Observations on the offense from Tuesday's practice
Apr. 9—New Mexico started its third week of spring practice on Tuesday morning, opening up the first 30 minutes for a media viewing session during the Lobos' seventh practice under head coach Bronco Mendenhall.
A few offensive observations and some insight from Mendenhall on running spring practice with the transfer portal about to reopen:
1. UNM's running back pecking order, April 9 edition: Andrew Henry, Javon Jacobs and...Ray Iwai? At least for Tuesday, yes.
During an observed routes-on-air session (media in attendance were dismissed before the end of the session), the redshirt sophomore running back from Matika-City, Japan took handoffs with the third team — certainly not the most revealing of situations, but one that Iwai hadn't been in (at least from what's been seen) previously under this staff or really the one before.
Walk-on running back Josh Perry was also noted handling a few reps during the same session, and while considerable space has been devoted to UNM using practice time to set up Eli Sanders in the wildcat, Tuesday was the first observed practice where the Lobos didn't employ it. Sanders was not seen in a turquoise jersey (denoting a limited or injured player) despite seeing minimal action during the open viewing period.
And speaking of turquoise jerseys: quarterback Justin Holaday was spotted wearing one for the first time on Tuesday, but did throw during the routes-on-air session.
2. After two weeks of relatively consistent offensive line pairings, Tuesday's practice provided the most shuffling seen thus far. Matthew Toilolo, Tavien Ford, Wallace Unamba, Jawuan Singletary, and Richard Pearce represented the first team offensive line with McKenzie Agnello subbing in for Ford during a couple series; said personnel shuffles led to a second team offensive line comprised of James Bailey, Malik Aliane, Baraka Beckett and, occasionally, Ford.
3. College football's transfer portal reopens on Monday, triggering another wave of portal entries after most schools have already concluded spring practice — except for UNM. The Lobos hold their last spring practice on April 27 (the portal formally closes on April 30), continuing a later spring practice calendar Mendenhall favors due to the ability to complete an uninterrupted strength cycle and get 15 allotted practices in without any interference from spring break.
When asked about how UNM is approaching the task of contacting and recruiting portal entries during spring practice — not to mention the possibility of trying to manage more departures on its end — Mendenhall admitted his staff will be "challenged" working two fronts at once.
On the other hand: "I do like the hold that it has on existing players: possibly rather than looking or considering the portal, you know, they're committed to their team and they're working to get better," Mendenhall told the Journal on Friday. "And so I think that makes the process a little bit stickier for many, rather than just being able to, on a downtime after spring practice, depart. I think there's some challenges and advantages and each leader has to try and gauge what will work best.
"But no question, we'll be tired as a staff."
