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All Clayton Mitchem wants is an opportunity to show his skills. On Saturday at UTEP, he’ll get it.
On Tuesday UNM football head coach Bob Davie announced that the junior transfer quarterback will start in place of injured sophomore signal-caller Cole Gautsche, who is reportedly suffering concussion-like symptoms after leaving Saturday’s game against the University of Texas-San Antonio.
“I’m feeling pretty good about it,” Mitchem said. “I’m really more excited than nervous, I should say. It’s my first one on the Division I stage. Since I was a little kid I’ve been dreaming about playing on TV, and here it comes.”
Davie said Gautsche should be able to return next week when the team travels to Pittsburgh on Sept. 14.
“Again, those are day-to-day situations … it’s really out of my hands which it should be,” Davie said at the media luncheon Tuesday. “We’ll wait and see, but the early prognosis is that we should have him back for Pittsburgh.”
This will be Mitchem’s first Division I start. Before he transferred to UNM this spring, he spent the last two years at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. In 2012, Mitchem was named Southwestern Junior College Football Conference Player of the Year for the Golden Norsemen.
Mitchem received his first taste of Division I action against the University of Texas-San Antonio Saturday. With three minutes remaining in the game, Mitchem came in to relieve the concussed Gautsche. Mitchem drove the Lobos to UTSA’s 43-yard line but was unable to convert a fourth-and-five to extend the drive, which gave the Roadrunners a 21-13 victory.
In his first collegiate game, Mitchem finished 2 of 5 for 19 yards and rushed three times for eight yards.
“It jumps out there pretty quick that Mitchem is a pretty talented guy,” Davie said. “He throws the ball quickly, gets rid of the ball quickly, good velocity. He’s smooth and fast, which is a good combination. He’s got all the skills — he just lacks experience.”
Davie said the Lobos won’t have to change their offensive scheme at all because Mitchem has had time enough to get acclimated to the triple option system.
“The fortunate thing is that we had him in the spring,” said Davie. “Clayton has played a lot more football at the college level than Cole (Gautsche) did. He was a little bit more of a thrower and a double-read, not triple-read kind of option guy. We have the same exact scheme going in … that’s what we are, and that’s what we’re going to be.”
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One start may not display what type of quarterback Mitchem is, but Davie said it will help him decide if Mitchem has some of the intangibles a signal caller needs to succeed.
“Clayton Mitchem, I think he’s really good. I’ve been around a lot of quarterbacks, and on a talent level Clayton Mitchem is really good,” Davie said. “We’ll find out. We’ll find out whether he’s the guy. Some of them have the magic. I don’t think it’s just talent, it’s when they get under center and the moxie they have and the coach ability they have, the swagger.”
Injury report
Davie said junior wide receiver Chase Clayton may be out of the lineup until Sept. 28 against UNLV, after Clayton injured his PCL versus UTSA. Davie said Clayton hurt his PCL when he downed a punt inside UTSA’s one-yard line.
Skaer earns national recognition
Senior punter Ben Skaer earned a College Football Performance Awards honorable mention for his effort in the Lobos’ season-opening loss against UTSA.
Skaer punted seven times during the game, for a net average of 44.4 yards per attempt.
Skaer had three punts of 50 yards or more, four of which were downed inside the Roadrunners’ 20-yard line. This is Skaer’s fourth-straight CFBA honorable mention, dating back to 2012.
“Our punt team and our punter were as good as I saw the other night,” said Davie. “That was impressive.”
