Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Quarterbacks....Other practice notes

Tanner Rust didn't take as many snaps with the first-team offense during Wednesday's Aggie spring football practice.

Instead, it was Jeff Fleming and Matt Christian getting most of the action at the quarterback position.

“He's sitting at third right now,” Walker said of Rust. “Fleming and Christian are battling it out. But (Rust) is still there. He's still in the mix.”

•••

Walker said, as of now, the team has 22 or 23 scholarships available, although he could use a handful of them before the 2010 season gets under way.

“Sure, I could get it down to 18, 19, 20 if I can get guys in that can help us win now,” Walker said of the team's scholarship count and how it could stack up following the season.

Walker also spoke about recruiting players from New Mexico. Walker said he would like many NM football players to come to NMSU, although attracting them to the school hasn't always been easy. He will continue to work at it, however.

“I want the best players in the state to come here,” he said. “History has shown otherwise. If I can get one, then that's a start. If I can get a bunch of them, that would be great.”

•••

From the receivers position, coach R. Todd Littlejohn said that Marcus Allen and Darrius Preston have made the most progress this spring.

Taveon Burke is expected to be in the top-four on the depth chart when the fall season rolls around, while tight end Kyle Nelson could see action split out wide.

Todd Lee, while battling a hamstring injury, is expected to take the field at some point this spring.

•••

Walker said the Aggies are looking at a couple possibilities at kickoff and punt returns this year.

At kickoffs, the team could go with Allen or Clay. Allen returned kicks last year for the Aggies.

On punts, Donyae Coleman and Lee will both get some looks.

In the kicking game, the team hopes junior college transfer Tyler Stampler can come in and handle the placekicking duties.

Kyle Hughes, who took over as the team's primary kicker and punter last season, should just take care of punts in 2010, which is a good thing. All-in-all, Hughes had a good year in 2010, but should be even better with a decreased work load.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know its only been a few days but how is JH adjusting to the switch to WR?

Teddy said...

Here's a quote from Littlejohn about Hall's play at WR:

“He needs to work on catching the ball, his routes, things like that. He has a lot to work on in the offseason.”

“We like what he can do in space and think he can do some things if the right matchup presents itself — like him on a linebacker in the open field. That's why we see him inside (in the slot).”

“The one thing is, he wants to be good at it and wants to work at it. With that attitude, we can make it work.”

Anonymous said...

Its good to hear they are working on special teams like punts and kickoffs. I only hear and see offense and defense with a little bit of fieldgoal kicking

NMSU Phantom said...

Teddy,

What happend with the Ohio QB? Haven't heard from him this spring. Did he leave the team?

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened to Trevor Walls? Is he 4th on the depth chart?

Teddy said...

Phantom; 11:21

Walls is on the roster but hasn't seen many snaps. It doesn't look like he's in the picture to start at quarterback.

Anonymous said...

Teddy, Still like Rust's attitude the best. The teams needs a leader. Not sure about Christian leadership, but Fleming seems like a nice kid and has a good arm, but not he leader as shown last year.

Anonymous said...

Check this out
http://www.chrissailerkicking.com/top-recruits/1210/PlayerProfile.html