Carroll, Lobos are meant for each other
Dual-threat San Antonio QB runs offense similar to UNM’s
If there were an equivalent of an online dating service for college football recruiting, matching a school with a player that suits its scheme, Bryson Carroll and the University of New Mexico almost certainly would have been paired.
Come Wednesday, Carroll said by phone last week, the match officially will be made. That morning, the dual-threat quarterback from Roosevelt High School in San Antonio, Texas, plans to make good on his July commitment to the Lobos by signing and faxing his letter of intent.
“I’m committed to New Mexico,” said Carroll, who had scholarship offers from seven NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision schools. But only three wanted him as a quarterback.
“I had several offers to play other positions, like running back and slot (receiver),” he said. “But the only quarterback offers I had were from the service academies (Army and Navy) and New Mexico.”
At that point, the decision wasn’t difficult. “I just wasn’t into the military aspect of things,” Carroll said. “It just wasn’t for me.”
So, the Roughrider is poised to become a Lobo. It’s a match made, if not in heaven, then in college football eHarmony.
Under offensive coordinator Bob DeBesse, UNM runs a triple-option offense devoted to moving the ball on the ground. Last fall, the Lobos ran the ball 79 percent of the time. New Mexico led the nation in rushing with an average of 350 yards per game.
Under head coach Matt Carroll, who happens to be Bryson’s father, Roosevelt ran the ball 76 percent of the time last season. The Roughriders may not have led the state of Texas in rushing, but they did average 7.5 yards per carry.
Roosevelt doesn’t run a triple option, but leans heavily on the zone read. The Roughriders sometimes operate out of the pistol formation, as does UNM, and shows the defense multiple looks. Roosevelt doesn’t throw the ball often, but, like the Lobos, keeps the defense honest with the occasional swing pass and looks to go deep when the secondary cheats up to stop the run. Sound familiar?
In that system, Carroll has rushed for 2,417 yards the past two seasons. On one memorable night in 2015, he rushed for 351 yards. He also passed for 218 yards as the Roughriders amassed a Texas state record 906 yards of total offense in an 83-65 victory over San Antonio Lee.
That performance should have opened recruiters’ eyes, but Carroll’s 5-foot-9, 175-pound frame discouraged those looking for a drop-back quarterback.
DeBesse, though, was undeterred. He began recruiting Carroll last April.
Carroll is a San Antonio native. The family spent seven years in Waco, where his father was the head coach at University High School, but returned to San Antonio in 2013.
Albuquerque isn’t San Antonio — no River Walk, no Alamo, no Spurs — but Carroll liked what he saw and heard on his two recruiting visits.
“I liked the scenery there, the coaching staff and the players,” he said. “Pretty much every aspect of it.”
Speed is Carroll’s hallmark. He has run the 40-yard dash, electronically timed, in 4.4 seconds — handtimed in 4.35. He said he has run the 100 meters in 10.4 seconds on the track, a tenth of a second off the school record, and hopes to equal or surpass the record this spring.
Carroll completed slightly under 50 percent of his passes last season but notes that he threw fewer than 10 passes per game.
“I’m sure if we did a lot more, everything would be more crisp and better,” he said. “But the percentage deal is just the connection you have with the receivers. It’s not there every time because of the fact that you don’t throw much.”
Playing for his dad, Carroll said, hasn’t always been easy but has enhanced his football education.
“It’s hard, but also really cool at the same time,” he said. “I come home, and I’m able to learn the game of football and just every aspect of things when it comes to recruiting and get me to where I’m at right now.” His plan is to follow his father’s career path. “I’m looking to study education and social studies,” he said, “and become a teacher-slash-coach.”
GALLAGHER COMMITS: Jordan Gallagher, a 6-foot5, 280-pound two-way lineman from Horlick High School in Racine, Wis., has committed to attend UNM.
Gallagher confirmed his commitment via social media while on a recruiting visit to UNM this weekend.
At Horlick, Gallagher was a first-team Associated Press and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel selection as an offensive tackle.
But he also played defense and is listed as a defensive lineman on some recruiting websites.