Walker says he's still looking to build Aggie program

Had a recent sit down with New Mexico State head football coach DeWayne Walker. Walker spoke about a number of issues, but one interesting comment came when asked about his future with the Aggie program. Here’s the snippet:

“I’m excited. I’m not going to lie, this was a tough year. I know there were some things said in terms of what I think we need to be more competitive and improve the program. I think a lot of it’s been healthy. There’s been a lot of conversations behind closed doors about all of it. What’s been said behind closed doors, I feel better about what we’re trying to do to move forward. I’m not just going to walk away from this job because I’m just wining and crying about what’s not being done. I’m not built that way. I came here to try and change this program and that’s what I want to conitinue to do. There’s been a lot of soul searching and a lot of conversations with people that I respect. My focus right now is to continue and try to accomplish that.”

“I have dreams and nights I can’t sleep. And I still have a vision of the administration, the faculty, the student body, the community to kind of help me figure out how to get all those entities together to help change this program. It fires me up to think of, when that day comes, it’ll be a historic moment for New Mexico State football. Is it going to be hard to do? Sure it is. You know how it is. Everybody kind of jumps on when it’s already going. Where we are right now, everyone needs to jump on when it’s not going. And then when it gets going, we can say that we did this as a football program. ... Collectively, I think it’ll be more fun for all of us, if all of us could pull it together to get this thing done.”

Here’s other portions of the interview, which included Walker’s comments of an open quarterback competition in 2013:

On looking for a new offensive line coach:
“That’s probably our weakness on offense, probably the biggest weakness we have, is the O-line position. We gotta find a guy that can fix it. Not that Brad (Bedell) did a bad job coaching, but we gotta get some better personnel. And if we can get that going, we’ve got to make sure these guys are getting better coached to play at a BCS level. To me, I think the whole team, we have to go into this offseason thinking like a BCS football team. We can’t think like a mid-level football team. That’s everything that we do, because we’re playing five BCS teams. Half of our schedule is against that caliber. That’s our thought process, from coaching, player development. Everything we do has to be on whole different level this year. The O-line position is critical. Players and who we hire as a coach.”

On playing an independent schedule this year:
“We gotta grow up, man. Fast. Strength and conditioning. I’m never going to overlook the coaching part of it. We’ve got to coach better, period. We can sit up here and talk about this, talk about that. I’ll be the first one to say we didn’t do a good enough job coaching. From a coaching standpoint, along with improving our players from a strength and conditioning standpoint and a playing standpoint, we’ve got a lot of work to do. Coming into the season, we’re starting from scratch and I’m going to reevaluate everything. From how we practice, our meetings. I think I really need to go back over the whole concept of what we’ve tried to do the last four years.”

On talking bowl game leading up to last year:
“Obviously four years as a head coach, I’m learning and getting better too through all this stuff. You look at last year’s schedule, the schedule was really a good enough schedule to where talking that way last year was OK. I just thought we underachieved in some ways. At the same time, you don’t look at two new coordinators, 17 new starters, these teams actually played above what you thought (they would) going into the season. .... This year, I don’t want to set us up, or the fans up, especially with that schedule. Now you look at it, well now we have an experienced team coming back. There’s going to be some changes, obviously, for the positive. Looking at what the administration’s trying to do, we’re taking steps of getting things that I feel will help us play better on the field. Now, half your schedule is BCS.”

On the defense going into 2013:
“This may be the first year, maybe (outside of) our first year, where you can come into the season and, at least on paper, the defensive personnel may be better than the offensive personnel. That excited me. Looking at it from a realistic standpoint, how do we get this defense to play like a Utah State defense? How do we get this defense to play like a San Jose State defense? I think we’re going to have to play on that level this year to really give us a chance to win more games. On paper, I like what I see. In terms of the production part of it, I think we have a challenge in front of us to get the defense to play at a high level.”

On getting more resources into the Aggie football program:
“I think we’re taking steps toward getting some of the things that I voiced my opinion (about) throughout the season. Obviously that’s positive. Again, taking steps and continue to take steps throughout the rebuilding phase of it. .... Talking with the administration throughout the offseason and sitting down, I’m more positive that we’re kind of heading in the direction to build this program the right way.”

Follow me on Twitter @TeddyFeinberg