Losing is new to Lobos freshman
Guard Briggs says team’s struggles have motivated him
Albuquerque is a different world for University of New Mexico freshman offensive lineman Cade Briggs, who lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, for two years previously.
The food and the elevation aren’t the only new experiences for the 18-year-old Briggs.
Losing with the Lobos has been an adjustment for Briggs, who played for powerhouse Bishop Gorman, a highly successful program that has won 17 state championships, including 10 straight.
However, a change in scenery hasn’t necessarily meant a change in culture. Bishop Gorman went 24-5 the two years Briggs was there. The Lobos are 2-6, 0-4 in the Mountain West Conference and on a fivegame losing streak.
“Losing makes you want to work that extra day, that extra hour because no one likes losing,” said Briggs, the lone true freshman to start for the Lobos on offense or defense. “Having that feeling of winning every game is just so nice. It just makes you feel like you never want to lose again. So having the losing here, it just pushes you.”
Briggs, who has started four games, including three at right guard, returns to Nevada this Saturday when the Lobos play at Mackay Stadium in Reno. He has helped pave the way for Lobo running back Ahmari Davis (743 yards) to be the top rusher in the Mountain West, and UNM is No. 3 in the conference in team rushing (1,693 and 211.6 per game).
Briggs was last at Mackay Stadium in 2017 when
Bishop Gorman won the state title to complete a 13-2 season.
Briggs previously played at Tracy High School in northern California, which is also much different than Las Vegas. Tracy is known as a “cow town,” Briggs said.
“I felt like I had more in me,” Briggs said of his move to Las Vegas to play for Bishop Gorman. “Nothing against Tracy. I loved it there and I grew up there. But I just knew I had more in me.”
While at Bishop Gorman, Briggs became heavily recruited by Mountain West programs, including Colorado State, Hawaii and Air Force, all of which made scholarship offers.
But Briggs made a strong connection with UNM offensive line coach Saga Tuitele, who was the acting coach of the Lobos for two games this season when head coach Bob Davie was recovering from a health scare.
Tuitele sensed something special about Briggs from the start. When the Lobos played at UNLV last year, Tuitele went to watch Briggs play and that basically sealed the deal for Tuitele in knowing that Briggs would be a special player.
“I had never seen an offensive lineman make offensive play calls before,” Tuitele said. “The quarterback was asking Cade for the plays. I asked the offensive line assistant coach, ‘What the hell is Cade doing?’ He said, ‘Cade controls a lot of the stuff.’ Cade was playing right guard at the time and helping the quarterback. That further sold me on him. His ability after that too. He had to play tackle. Gorman plays a lot of good teams.”
The night before signing his national letter of intent with UNM, Ole Miss offered Briggs a scholarship, Briggs said. He had to consider it, but it actually confirmed that he wanted to be a Lobo.
“I was like a second choice to them,” he said of the Rebels. “One of the linemen they wanted didn’t end up signing with them so they called me. It’s just not what I wanted. I didn’t have a connection with them. I talked to them a couple of times. I talked to Saga every day. I just felt at home here.”
Briggs’ comfort at UNM did not lead to complacency, or to a plan of redshirting his first season with the Lobos. On the contrary, he went right to work with the intent to become a starter. He said he had the confidence and knew that he would work hard. He gained that confidence from his success at Bishop Gorman.
“When I first went there no one thought I could start at Gorman,” Briggs said. “It was that whole transition from a little public school in NorCal to Gorman. It’s kind of that people-neverbelieved mentality and I wanted to go in there and prove a point.”
Briggs is also proving a point at UNM and will not be a redshirt. The reason he became a starter was simply because he earned it, Tuitele said.
“He’s one of our more aggressive guys,” Tuitele said. “He can move people. He likes contact. From the first day he walked up in here you could tell he was going to be something special. He’s still battling through some freshmen problems that all of the freshmen on the field face, but he was physical and it was right for him at the time. He had enough practice and he had enough X’s and O’s for me to feel confident to throw him out there. He’s played good.”