The UNM football team spent its ninth spring practice of the year teaching kids the basics of football.
“It’s good to give back,” defensive lineman Rod Davis told Golobos.com. “For us to be out here and to coach the kids and be around them is a good thing for everybody.”
150 high school coaches and more than 400 grade school children from kindergarten through eighth grade attended Saturday morning at University Stadium.
“It’s nice that we can do this and give back to the community and the kids,” junior tackle Darryl Johnson told Golobos.com. “You always have fun when there are kids around.”
Head coach Bob Davie said interacting with the Football Coaches Clinic and the Lobo Football Youth Experience for the two-hour practice was a great way to connect with the football community.
“These last 10 years just being out in communities every weekend all across this country, you see how important high school football is on Friday nights,” Davie said.
Davie said he would attend high school games almost every Friday in the city he was broadcasting in when he was at ESPN.
Inviting coaches to practice is a way for Davie to show what kind of a program he is running at UNM, Davie said.
“This is the first step in building a relationship with these guys,” he said.
In his first press conference as head coach in November, Davie mentioned that recruiting in New Mexico would be a priority for him. This opportunity to have an inside look into the operations of Davie’s program for high school coaches could be the bridge that connects high school talent to UNM football, he said.
After three one-win seasons and several scandals within the football program under former head coach Mike Locksley, Davie said the football program is trying to improve its image.
“If you ask the kids who were out here today what our record was the last three years, they’d have no idea, and that’s how it should be,” Davie said.
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Repairing the team’s image seems to be easier than repairing its losing record, he said.
“I don’t like to practice in the stadium ever, but particularly right now,” Davie said. “We’re not even near ready to go into that stadium.”
Davie said injured players and transfers have depleted the Lobos’ roster.
“It’s frustrating because we really can’t practice the way we really need to practice in this situation,” Davie said. “Because of the limited numbers, we can’t scrimmage as much as we’d like to. We don’t have as much as competition at positions as we’d like to have.”
Even with the struggles on the field, Davie said Saturday’s practice was a positive one.
“It was great for our players to be around young people, feel like they’re giving something back,” Davie said.
