The latest word
New head coach brings in Texas Tech’s system
Incarnate Word has a new coach and a new offense, and UNM coach Bob Davie is not taking the Cardinals lightly
Eric Morris said, “no,” when athletic director Brian Wickstrom first approached him about becoming the head coach of football at Incarnate Word.
Morris enjoyed his job as offensive coordinator at Texas Tech, where he had served in that role for five seasons. But a mutual friend of Wickstrom and Morris talked Morris into visiting Incarnate Word in San Antonio for an informal dinner. Morris realized the potential of the program and being able to recruit in San Antonio and central Texas. Morris changed his mind. The 32-year-old in his first head coaching job has injected new life into the Cardinals, and many have taken notice, including New Mexico coach Bob Davie, who held a press conference Tuesday at Dreamstyle Stadium.
“It’s a whole new era at Incarnate Word,” said Davie, whose team will play host to the Cardinals Saturday at 6 p.m. “That’s why they are dangerous. They have made a commitment to football just by going out and getting the coach they hired. To go out and hire the offensive coordinator from Texas Tech they’ve made a commitment, and to go get that defensive coordinator (Justin Deason) from Texas A&M Commerce … It’s the first game of the year. There’s always unknowns.”
Incarnate Word went 1-10 last year, but Davie is not paying any attention to that. It’s more about an aggressive offense from Texas Tech and a stingy defense from Texas A&M Commerce, which won the Division II national championship last year.
Incarnate Word is the fourth straight team with a new coaching
staff that UNM will face in a season opener. The Lobos won the last three, Abilene Christian (38-14) last year, South Dakota (48-21) in 2016 and Mississippi Valley State (66-0) in 2015.
Morris will try to prevent the Lobos from grabbing their fourth straight seasonopening win.
“I was young enough to bring some energy in here and put a spark into this program from the bottom up,” Morris said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “We are anxious to see where we are at. We have a tough one right off the blocks. That’s a strong team in New Mexico with seven returners on offense and eight on defense. Last year was a fluke, in my opinion. They could have won seven just as easily as they lost. Close games. Davie has been a great coach for a long time. We’re just looking to see if we can compete and make a couple of plays.”
Morris is proud that he has quickly improved the team grade-point average. It was at 2.2 when he arrived and shot up to 3.0 in his first semester with the Cardinals, he said during the Southland Conference media day last month.
It’s that type of change that makes Morris believe he can transform the culture at Incarnate Word.
He said he has left the defense up to Deason. Morris found out about Deason after he searched for teams that allowed the least amount of yards per play in Division I and Division II, Morris said.
Texas A&M Commerce showed up right behind Alabama at 4.2 yards per play.
On offense, Morris has yet to announce his starting quarterback. Junior Sean Brophy, freshman Jon Copeland and junior transfer Cole Brownholtz (Hawaii) have been competing for the job, Morris said. It will most likely be between Brophy and Copeland. Brownholtz is a dynamic player who can be used in certain situations, Morris said.
Davie can relate to the quarterback situation and to a sense of new energy. Redshirt sophomore Tevaka Tuioti was named the Lobos starting quarterback Monday, beating out senior Coltin Gerhart and junior transfer Sheriron Jones.
Davie has said there’s more energy with some new coaches on staff, including offensive coordinator Calvin Magee, who brings in runpass-option plays from the spread he learned from Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona.
“The excitement level, the anticipation level, the energy level is absolutely as high as it’s been,” said Davie, who enters his seventh season with the Lobos, who went 3-9 last year and were picked to finish last in the Mountain West Division Mountain Division. “Not that it hasn’t been high before, but tweaking the offense a little bit, we’ve got a good mix of continuity in coaches but we also have some new coaches that came in. Kind of the same with the players. It’s an exciting time. I mean that with sincerity.”
Trent Sellers, a junior transfer who began his college career at Georgia Tech and was slated to become a starter at defensive end, is out for the season with a torn left ACL, Davie said.
Reece Wilkinson, a freshman walk-on wide receiver from La Cueva, suffered the same injury as Sellers and is out for the year, Davie said.
Safety A.J. Greeley, a junior transfer from Fresno, Calif., is dealing with a knee injury, as is freshman running back Lawrence Johnson from Wisconsin. Davie said they will be back but did not provide a specific timetable for their return.
Danny Sutton, a graduate transfer from Maryland who was slated to be the kicker for the kickoffs, is out for Saturday due to illness, Davie said.
Davie said he has not decided on who will be the kicker in Sutton’s place, but that it will either be Dylan Kelly-Romero, a freshman out of Los Lunas, or freshman Stephen Ruiz from Illinois.