Off the field, things are well
Davie, Lobo players applaud team chemistry, academic success
HENDERSON, Nev. — Every Saturday during the past couple months, University of New Mexico football players meet for extra training to prepare for the upcoming season, offensive lineman Teton Saltes said.
Saltes believes many teams do that. But he revealed more about what takes place on those days during the Mountain West Conference media days at Green Valley Ranch Resort Spa & Casino on Wednesday.
Saltes provided an example of team bonding that has united the Lobos, who want to prove they are better than their preseason poll placement of sixth, and last, in the Mountain Division.
Saltes said players have stood up in front of the team and talked about their life story and what they have endured to reach their dreams of playing NCAA Division I football.
“It’s not a BS, motivational speech of ‘we can do this,’” said Saltes, a junior offensive lineman out of Valley High. “We don’t care about that. We don’t need that. We give the true, raw, unedited story of all the hardships, the pain and the struggles. The good and the bad. The things we would never tell anyone else.”
He said the honesty has brought the players closer together.
“When you truly know someone then you want to fight for them every day, you want to protect them, you want to do right by them,” said Saltes, who credited new strength and conditioning coach Scott Holsopple for organizing the sessions and challenging the players. “It translates onto the field because you’re always going to want to play hard for someone you care about.”
In addition, the Lobos believe they are stronger as a team through activities in the community and
improvement in academics.
That has led coach Bob Davie to believe that the team culture is the best that it has been as he enters his eighth season with the Lobos. He said he wasn’t trying to “throw some blind comment out there to deflect” from consecutive 3-9 seasons.
“It’s those little victories that no one else sees,” Davie said. “Quite honestly no one else needs to see or should know about necessarily, because we are judged on the fall and on our record.”
Davie said the Lobos’ ability to excel in the classroom is an example of what has enhanced the team culture. The team just produced the best academic year in its history with a collective 2.88 grade-point average.
Senior nose guard Aaron Blackwell, who was also in Henderson, is one of 14 MWC scholar-athletes (3.50 cumulative GPA) for the Lobos. The total of 14 scholarathletes is also the most in program history and the most by any current team in the MWC.
Blackwell expressed gratefulness for the athletic department and tutors who helped him reach a 4.0 GPA in the spring. He finished with a 3.68 cumulative GPA for the year.
“It’s a huge deal for me on a personal level,” said Blackwell, a junior college transfer who graduated in the spring with a degree in business administration. “It’s the highest GPA I’ve ever had in my life.”
Blackwell said a ping pong table in the locker room has provided more team camaraderie, as well as MMA training drills led by Holsopple.
Davie said some of the early start times for the Lobos’ home games were by design. UNM athletic director Eddie Nuñez has expressed in the past that afternoon start times could draw more fans to Dreamstyle Stadium. Davie knows that the temperatures might still be high, but he is on the same page with Nuñez.
The Lobos open the season against Sam Houston State Aug. 31 at 4 p.m.
The 2:30 p.m. start time for the Sept. 21 home game vs. rival New Mexico State, however, is dictated by AT&T Network, which is airing the game, Davie said.