Shuler looking to get expanded look
N.J. native thrives as tight end/H-back
Zahneer Shuler hails from Woodbridge Township, N.J., about a half-hour by train from New York City. But he’s neither a Yankees fan nor a Mets fan.
Giants, Jets? Not really. Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils? Forgot to ask, but probably not.
Shuler, a junior tight end/Hback at the University of New Mexico, has always been too busy playing sports to develop much fan interest. A football and basketball star at Woodbridge High School, he came to UNM from Lackawanna College, a two-year school in Scranton, Pa.
Apollo Wright, UNM’s quarterbacks coach and a Philadelphia native, recruited Shuler out of Lackawanna. The big (6-foot-1, 235 pounds), fast 20-year-old chose UNM over Coastal Carolina, Rhode Island and Bowling Green.
Shuler is UNM’s only player from New Jersey and one of five from the Northeast. Being more than 2,000 miles from home, he said, hasn’t been a problem.
“I had to do two years at (junior college), so I was on my own for a little while,” he said in a post-practice interview this week. “... It was a good (recruiting) visit. The players made me feel at home. They felt close, and (UNM) was just a good fit.”
Two things — versatility and a nose for the goal line — fit Shuler’s profile in high school and junior college. At Woodbridge, he played quarterback, running back and wide receiver. The past four years, at Woodbridge and Lackawanna, he found the end zone 41 times — 28 times rushing, 13 receiving. He even threw for three TDs as a Woodbridge junior.
He has yet to score his first touchdown as a Lobo, but he’s gradually finding his way.
On Sept. 23 at Tulsa, a 16-13 victory, Shuler caught his first pass — a 27-yard completion from quarterback Coltin Gerhart that could have been a touchdown had it not been slightly underthrown. Shuler caught two passes for 23 yards last Saturday in a 38-0 loss to Fresno State.
Shuler was the short-yardage, goal-line, third- and fourthdown back at Lackawanna — a role senior Richard McQuarley usually fills at UNM. But Shuler, who spends practice time with both the running backs and tight ends, is hoping to get some carries before the season is out.
Lobos coach Bob Davie was noncommittal on that possibility. But he’d like to see Shuler reach out and take an expanded role in the offense.
“He’s a guy that can do a lot of things,” Davie said. “We’ve got to get him doing some things really good. It’s just the process of maturity and elevating his play.
“He definitely has some ability and gives us some flexibility. That’s why we recruited him, for that specific kind of role. He just needs, like our team, to do things better at a higher level.”
Though the teams he’s played for are the only teams he really roots for, Shuler does have individual athletes he admires: Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell, Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor and, back in the day, Michael Vick and Randy Moss.
For a short while, he said, he was an Indianapolis Colts fan. But it was the individuals on those Colts teams, he said — Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark — that really caught his fancy.
Shuler’s no fan of losing, something he seldom experienced in junior college. The Lobos have lost as many games this season — three — as Lackawanna did during his two seasons there.
But he believes good things can be built on the ashes of the 38-0 loss at Fresno State as UNM prepares for Friday’s home game against Colorado State.
“It’s not good that it happened, but it’s kind of good because it teaches you how to come together,” he said of the Fresno State loss. “We took that loss as a team, so we’ve got to be able to just stay together and focus on the next (game).
“We’ve got to come together as a family and play hard.”