I took a mini vacation from the blog, but I'm back on the football and women's basketball beats this week.
I spent Wednesday through Sunday in Florida attending the Poynter Institute's Sports Writing Summit. There were some pretty heavy hitters there, ranging from the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins to Jason Whitlock of Kansas City Star and ESPN.com fame. I'm getting to work on lots of great ideas I picked up from the summit.
Now on to some football notes.
Aside from watching the players learn the offense, one of the more interesting things has been watching former offensive coordinator Dan Dodd adjust to his new role as the wide receivers coach.
Talk about the most awkward job change in history.
Most people just get fired and move on, but for a variety of reasons Dodd stayed on the staff.
I give him a ton of credit for being aggressive during spring practices and working the receivers just as hard and as vocally as he used to back when he oversaw the entire offense.
New offensive coordinator Bob Toledo doesn't see much of a quarterback battle brewing.
"Kole is the starter and no one has come anywhere close challenging him so far," Toledo said Monday.
An interesting battle, however, has developed between Chris Nelson and Donovan Porterie for the backup job. I missed a few practices for my workshop, but I'd be surprised if Porterie isn't Kole's backup next season.
After talking with several of the coaches, I get the sense they make some minor depth chart adjustments but will be looking at how hard players work during the summer and their play in fall camp before settling on final rotations for next season.
And just a reminder, the Cherry-Silver game is Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at University Stadium Admission costs $2, allowing fans to attend both the football scrimmage and UNM baseball game afterward at Isotopes Park.

Posted by ilimon at 12:31 PM | Permalink