Lobos close third week of spring practice with full-contact scrimmage

New Mexico closed its third full week of spring practice with a full-contact scrimmage, one that saw multiple freshmen make plays and revealed a new detail about the Lobos’ quarterback competition.

A sampling of drives from Friday’s scrimmage with notes from each:

First-string offense vs. first-string defense

First-and-10: Quarterback Toa Faavae fakes the handoff to running back Scottre Humphrey, drops back and almost hits wide receiver Jered Renick on a deep ball. Good pass, better defense was just a little better on the back end.

Second-and-10: Humphrey takes the handoff up the middle. Gain of three.

Third-and-7: Faavae hands off to Humphrey, who finds the right edge and charges ahead for nearly a 10-yard gain. First down.

First-and-10: Humphrey takes the handoff up the middle. Gain of two.

Second-and-8: Humphrey back up the middle – looked like he ran somebody over and kept his legs moving – behind a good push from the line. Physical run for a gain of five.

Third-and-3: Faavae takes the snap, drops back and barely escapes defensive end Albert Tuakalau to get out on the run in the open field – first down.

First-and-10: Bad snap from center JoJo Matautia goes over Faavae’s head, play is whistled dead. Loss of eight.

Second-and-18: Faavae rolls out, but defensive lineman Xavier Slayton gets him before he can get rid of the ball. Loss of one.

Third-and-19: Defensive line pins their ears back and gets Faavae on the run. Gain of five, but the offense is forced to settle for a field goal:

Series notes

Eck says it often: It’s hard to evaluate running backs in practice unless it's full contact.

In that vein, that’s probably the best series I’ve seen out of Humphrey this spring. He didn’t pop off any particularly long runs, but the junior looked relatively explosive and met contact well.

UNM is also effectively splitting its first-team quarterback reps between Faavae and Luke Moga, the other candidate to compete with Jack Layne for the starting job come fall camp. And to be clear, Moga did log snaps with the first-team offense later in the scrimmage.

But at least as of Friday, Faavae is UNM’s first-team quarterback — a change he said was made on the internal depth chart Monday.

“My mentality doesn’t change (because of the change) — just keep stacking days and try to get better every single day,” Faavae added.

Second-string offense vs. second-string defense

First-and-10: Quarterback Gabriel Motschenbacher hands off to running back Kiefer Sibley, who is gang tackled in the open field. Gain of four.

Second-and-6: Motschenbacher hits wide receiver Miles Johnson on a quick pass. The latter was also gang tackled — looked like cornerback Jahmir Torres was in on the action first. Gain of four.

Third-and-2: Another quick pass to wide receiver Abraham Williams and that’s enough to move the sticks. First down.

First-and-10: Motschenbacher connects with tight end Simon Mapa, who runs over a defensive back before going down. Gain of seven.

Second-and-3: Motschenbacher hits Williams on a screen and he surges up the sideline for a nice gain — first down. Good blocking on the perimeter set it up.

First-and-10: Motschenbacher hands off to Sibley, who raced out into the open field Torres cuts him off. Gain of two.

Second-and-8: Motschenbacher finds tight end Max Leeper on a quick pass. Gain of two.

Third-and-6: Motschenbacher hits running back Cameron Mathews on a screen. Gain of four.

Fourth-and-2: Motschenbacher hands off to Mathews, who tries to run to his right, has to change directions and is bottled up for no gain. End of series.

Series notes

No picks for Torres after he logged a three-interception practice Wednesday, but he played fast and aggressive this series. Consider him a standout.

Also worth noting: Motschenbacher has a steep hill to climb before he can contend for a top-two spot in this quarterback room, but he’s almost always moved the ball well in these scrimmages.

Third-string offense vs. third-string defense

First-and-10: Quarterback Cade Mitchell gets the snap and fires a pass over the middle — intercepted by linebacker Hayes Baum, who returned it for the lone touchdown of the day.

First-and-10: Mitchell gets a do-over on the series and opens with a pass to wide receiver Ty Battle, who’s brought down quickly. Gain of one.

Second-and-9: Mitchell hands off to running back Jerod Terry Jr. Gain of one.

Third-and-8: Mitchell is forced out of the pocket and passes on the run to Johnson, who makes a heck of a catch in traffic. First down.

First-and-10: Terry takes the handoff and pops up the middle for a nice gain of eight.

Second-and-2: Mathews takes the handoff, gets out and accelerates down the sideline to move the sticks.

First-and-10: Another handoff to Terry. Gain of two.

Second-and-8: Mitchell passes to Leeper, who initially bobbles the pass before securing it for a nice gain — first down. Safety Keshawn Monroe effectively brought Leeper down by himself.

First-and-10: Mitchell is forced out of the pocket and keeps it. Gain of five.

Second-and-5: Mitchell hands off to Mathews. Gain of three.

Third-and-2: Mitchell hands off to Mathews again, but Monroe is all over it. Loss of one, and that’s enough to bring the field goal unit out.

Series notes

An electric interception and moment to cap a nice week for Baum, who’s come a long way from what he called his first “deer-in-headlights moment” as a Lobo — simply watching film with linebackers coach Nate Palmer.

That’s also another series where a freshman defensive back (Monroe) made his presence felt. And while it isn’t the smoothest operation yet, Mitchell had some pretty good moments, none better than his pass to Johnson on third-and-long.

Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at @lenaweereider.