Lobos Chestnut, Vigilant ready to let loose
Running backs eye bigger roles in 2017
If you’re a University of New Mexico running back, patience, if not a virtue, is a necessity.
The true virtue, though, is determination.
Running backs Daryl Chestnut and Daevon Vigilant are two of the most highly recruited high school players to have found their way to Albuquerque during the Bob Davie coaching era.
Chestnut, a UNM senior, had scholarship offers from Florida State, Indiana, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, West Virginia and North Carolina State after finishing his career at Columbus High School in suburban Miami. He was ranked as the eighth-best all-purpose back in the nation that year by rivals. com.
Vigilant, a redshirt freshman, had offers from Michigan, Utah, Colorado and San Diego State. He rushed for 3,074 yards and 25 touchdowns during his junior and senior years at Downey (Calif.) High School.
Yet, for different reasons, neither player has made significant impact in an offense that relentlessly features the running game.
In two seasons at UNM, Chestnut has carried the ball just 73 times. He has worked and waited as first Jhurell Pressley and Teriyon Gipson, then Gipson and Tyrone Owens, got most of the work. There’s fellow senior Richard McQuarley as well.
With Gipson gone, despite the continued presence of Owens (1.097 yards rushing last season) and McQuarley (18 touchdowns), Chestnut, listed at 5-foot-8 and a 192 pounds believes his time has come.
“I see my role increasing a lot, just to help the team — doing a lot of things that Gip did,” Chestnut said after Wednesday’s practice.
After his senior year at Columbus, Chestnut signed with Indiana in February 2014. He enrolled at Indiana that summer but failed to qualify academically and wound up at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College that fall — though he didn’t play there. He enrolled at UNM in January 2015. Last August, in just the third practice of preseason camp, Vigilant, 5-7 and 182 pounds, suffered a torn ACL. He watched the 2016 campaign, as well as 2017 spring practice, from the sidelines.
“It was tough,” he said. “It was real motivational, though. I had a lot to think about, like why was I really here, why I love the sport. Just the mental part helped me a lot, actually.”
Now, he said on Wednesday, his rehab is complete. He broke a long touchdown run in Friday’s practice, displaying the speed that helped him average 8.2 yards per carry at Downey.
“I’m confident,” he said. “I’m just taking it one day at a time.” Even so, he said, the situation calls for patience. “I’m just following the older dudes,” he said, “Just trying to step up and do my part to help the team.”
ABOUT PRACTICE: The Lobos scrimmaged — tackling to the ground — for the first time Wednesday, finishing the workout with 10 minutes of 11-on-11 work.
There’ll be more where that came from, Davie said.
“It was a good start,” he said. “... We’re going to get us a lot of scrimmage snaps in this camp, because we’ve got more depth (than in previous years).”
Sophomore running back Javohn Jones, a walkon from La Cueva, broke a long touchdown run during the brief scrimmage.
NEW ARRIVAL: Radson Jang, a 265-pound freshman center, is in camp and is on scholarship. Jang, who’s from Honolulu, signed with Army and spent a year at the U.S. Army Preparatory School before coming to UNM.
Jang has been taking snaps with the secondteam offense, giving sophomore Beau Hott, last year’s backup center behind starter Blaise Fountain, the opportunity to get some work at guard.
INJURY REPORT: Redshirt freshmen Kentrail Moran, a running back, and Nahje Flowers, a defensive end, left practice early with apparent leg injuries. Both walked off on their own power.
Junior running back Tyrone Owens (ankle) practiced fully Wednesday. Junior outside rush linebacker Everett Powell (knee) was held out.