D’Avanzo not done with football yet
DL hopes he’s up to speed for scouts
The photo said it all. But, Nik D’Avanzo hopes, there’s another chapter to be illustrated: an NFL career.
That journey, he hopes, begins today.
On Dec. 17, after the New Mexico Lobos’ 23-20 victory over UTSA in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl, D’Avanzo engaged in a joyous postgame hug with head coach Bob Davie. Journal photographer Roberto E. Rosales captured the moment.
For D’Avanzo, a senior defensive end, that moment represented a satisfying end to a college career that wasn’t always easy but was always productive.
D’Avanzo’s 61 tackles last fall were the most by any Mountain West Conference defensive lineman. During his career (2013-16), he had 198 tackles — second on the team over that span behind his friend, linebacker Dakota Cox — in addition to 11 sacks and 27.5 tackles for loss.
He played in all but one of UNM’s 50 games during his career, starting 37.
It’s that productivity that D’Avanzo hopes will lead to a career in the NFL.
D’Avanzo originally committed to Temple out of Archbishop Curley Catholic High School in Baltimore, but later switched to Cincinnati. After a coaching change at Cincinnati, he and Cox, another Bearcat “orphan,” wound up at New Mexico — a team that had won just seven games the four seasons before his arrival in 2013. Immediate help was needed.
“The great thing about being at New Mexico,” D’Avanzo he said in a phone interview, “is that I’ve got four years of tape. So scouts can really see me progress and just my style of play.”
Last fall, as the Lobos went 9-4, D’Avanzo was named to the All-Mountain West second team.
There is, though, another vital step in the process: this afternoon’s Pro Day on UNM’s South Campus.
Sure, D’Avanzo. 6-foot-3 and 292 pounds, is stout and athletic. At Archbishop Curley, he played fullback as well as on the defensive line. He even played a little lacrosse.
But, in their effort to separate the contenders from the pretenders, NFL scouts have devised a set of drills designed to measure strength, speed and agility. That’s what Pro Day is all about.
Every inch on the standing broad jump, every repetition on the 225-pound bench press, every tenth-of-a-second in the 40-yard dash matters.
Toward that end, D’Avanzo has enlisted some off-campus help. He’s working with coach Adrian Gonzales at Elevate, an Albuquerque fitness center.
“I feel it’s going real well,” D’Avanzo said. “... I’ve got speed training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and then Monday, Wednesday and Friday are my normal lift days.”
Snipping off some precious tenths of a second in the 40-yard dash, he said, could be crucial.
“The area I needed to work on the most was definitely my 40,” he said, “just trying to get down to 4.8 (seconds), 4.9.”
A time of 4.8, if performed at the just-completed NFL combine in Indianapolis, would have put D’Avanzo well within the top half of the defensive linemen who participated.
While preparing for Pro Day, D’Avanzo has had to juggle those time demands with his studies at UNM. He’s scheduled to graduate, most likely in May but possibly after a summer session.
As for those NFL aspirations, one might think a Baltimore kid would be a Ravens fan. But, citing his father and grandmother’s love for the Redskins, Washington is the team he’d love to play for.
“Definitely being closer to the East Coast where my family could actually go and see me play,” he said, “that’s pretty important.”
Then again, he came west four years ago to Albuquerque — and that turned out pretty well.
Just look at the photo.