New Mexico coach eager to see QB front-runner take the field

It’s never too early to talk about quarterback controversies. With the 2020 college football season “scheduled” to start Aug. 29, the University of New Mexico appears to have a three-man race to start under center. There is a frontrunner, though.

Head coach Danny Gonzales said last week that redshirt sophomore Trae Hall has emerged as the top QB just four weeks shy of the opener against … (opponent to be determined — long story).

But, Gonzales said, it’s been mostly a subjective point of view for a while.

“Hard to battle without being live and going against each other,” he said. “So, I mean shoot, I can look good at quarterback against air, so we’ll see.”

Hall started four games last year, completing 15 passes for 162 yards and four touchdowns. Juniors Tevaka Tuioti and Brandt Hughes are also in the running, Gonzales said, with redshirt freshman Connor Genal on the outside looking in.

So who gets the start in the opener? The better question is who the Lobos will play on Aug. 29, or if they’ll even play at all. The schedule, for now, says Idaho State, but UNM and New Mexico State went on record last week saying they were negotiating a potential deal to move their Sept. 19 game in Las Cruces up to Aug. 29, with the Idaho State game being pushed back into September.

◆◆◆

Escaping to the great outdoors remains an iffy prospect.

The New Mexico Parks Division will keep overnight use of all state park campgrounds closed through at least Aug. 28. Anyone who had made a reservation prior to that date will be issued a refund, although 31 state parks remain open for day use.

Masks are, of course, mandatory with violations potentially landing a $100 citation.

◆◆◆

Baseball is having its issues and football appears to be a COVID-19 disaster in the making, but there is one sport that is seeing a healthy spike in participation amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

According to the National Golf Foundation, the number of kids ages 6-17 who played from April to June was up by about 20 percent over the same time period the previous two years. The NGF says that it equates to about half a million new players, many of whom tend to be on the younger (and female) side.

Golf is one of the few sports where social distancing and remaining in well-ventilated areas are key parts of the game. Whether those increases become a permanent thing is anyone’s guess. After all, the last few months have given most people cabin fever and they’ll take anything they can get when it comes to getting outside and playing sports.

◆◆◆

UNM men’s basketball player Emmanuel Kuac took to Twitter on Friday with this post: “Being an international student has absolutely 0 benefits.”

Given the world around us, it could have something to do with the ban on people from the U.S. trying to go anywhere other than, say, Mexico, Turkey, Maldives, Tunisia, Serbia or Kosovo, which are a sampling of the few remaining countries that still allow people from the U.S. to visit.

Canada isn’t one of those — and that’s the problem.

A 6-foot-7 sophomore, Kuac’s hometown is Calgary, Alberta. He was one of four Lobos last season from a foreign country. Like the others, he has been in Albuquerque this summer getting ready for the fall semester and the start of the season in October.

Going home isn’t as easy is hopping on a plane anymore because it’s literally no longer an option.

Of course, there was a brief moment in July when it seemed the real problem might be the U.S. government, which was given the authority by the Trump administration to deport any international college student if the school they were attending didn’t allow them to take at least one class in person on campus. With the whole pandemic thing forcing a growing number of universities to implement an online-only curriculum this fall, Kuac could have been sent home.

That was all nixed less than two weeks later when a court ruling opened a loophole that allows them to stay.

That said, maybe Kuac has a point.