UNM Riding Youth Parade

Try telling the University of New Mexico football team that player inexperience is overrated. Chief among the struggles of a 0-4 Lobo football team looking to turn around its season at - of all places - Texas Tech (2-2) on Saturday is a lack of a veterans upon which they're relying this season. Of UNM's traveling squad of 60, the number of players the NCAA allows Division I-A teams to dress for road game, 30 are sophomores or younger, or first-year players. Eight of the sophomores played last season and three - left tackle Byron Bell, quarterback Brad Gruner and kicker James Aho - started. That leaves a lot of room for growth. "Sometimes, you've got to deal with that in college football ," defensive coordinator Doug Mallory says. "We're seeing improvements, maybe not as fast as we'd like, but we're making strides." Mallory has had to use 10 players that had not been in a Division I-A game before this season. Only seniors Clint McPeek and Frankie Solomon returned as starters, and McPeek is playing a different position - moving from lobo back (safety) to strong linebacker. The secondary is the youngest position, with the Lobos currently using two sophomores - one that didn't redshirt in starting cornerback Anthony Hooks - three redshirt freshmen and one true freshman, backup cornerback Emmanuel McPhearson. And he didn't arrive until the second week of fall camp. McPhearson says the biggest adjustments he's had to make in the transition from DeMatha (Md.) High School has been adjusting to the game speed at the college level and learning how to be a student of the game. "In high school, you practice more than you watch film," he says. In training camp, "we watched film all day except for the two hours we practiced. You've got to learn the game before you go out on the field and play. "In high school, you could backpedal and cover a wide receiver, but here if you do that, you're going to get burned." The trial by fire has led to a unit that ranks 107th among 120 I-A schools in total defense at 421.0 yards per game. "I've told everyone that travels (on defense), they're going to have a chance to play," Mallory says. The offensive struggles have been worse. The unit ranks 118th in yards per game at 262.0 and 119th in scoring at 11.5 points per game. Nine players had no I-A game experience prior to 2009. True freshman RB Demond Dennis says he was shocked to have fumbled twice this season, having never suffered one in high school. "I took it pretty bad," he admits. "The coaches told me to forget about it and go on to the next play. But now, ballsecurity is something I have to take a lot more seriously." Dennis still sounds shocked he was caught from behind at the Aggie 12 on Saturday after a 62-yard gain in the 20-17 loss. "I promise to never get caught again," he says. Coach Mike Locksley says there's no timetable for new players to start performing at a reliable level. "Larry Fedora at Southern Miss texted me and reminded me that he lost five in a row (after opening 2-1) last year, finished 7-6 in the same style of offense, implementing the same system we have here. He told me, 'I don't know what it was, but all of a sudden it just clicked and we were off and running.'" Locksley, however, also is suggesting - for the first time - that the process could take a few seasons: "The nucleus of what we have coming back and what I expect to be able to add to it is why I have so much optimism. It's about building it the right way through recruiting, evaluating the players currently on your team and getting it to year three." Saturday New Mexico at Texas Tech, 1:30 p.m. TV: Fox, Comncast Channel 10 Radio: KKOB-AM (770)/Lobo Network