Q&A with New Mexico offensive coordinator Luke Schleusner

Concepts, not plays.

Attacking for 60 minutes.

Find playmakers — and get the ball in their hands.

All are hallmarks of Luke Schleusner’s offense — one New Mexico fans will get to know this fall.

UNM’s first-year offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach recently sat down with the Journal to discuss spring practice, new transfer additions and key competitions entering fall camp.

A Q&A with Schleusner:

Responses have been edited for clarity.

Journal: What were your key takeaways from spring practice?

Schleusner: I was excited about the way we ran the football. You know, offensive line was a big concern going into spring ball, and I feel like we’re a good seven, eight deep up front. Obviously we brought in a lot of transfers at that spot, so part of it was just figuring out what positions guys are going to play.

So that was a big part of the spring just between the offensive line and then the tight ends as well. We were still thin at the tight end group, so we brought in a couple transfers. But really happy with, you know, (tight ends) Cade Keith and Dorian Thomas. That last week of spring ball and even the spring game, they both had their moments.

So, it’s kind of one of those (deals) — it starts up front. If we can give the quarterback time to throw, if we can establish a run game, then everything else is going to be a lot easier. To me, that was probably the biggest takeaway from spring, feeling confident about where this offense can go because of where we were at up front. We got a few more transfers coming up front, and we got (injured left tackle) Tevin Shaw, a guy we’ve been really impressed with in workouts — he just hasn’t been able to do much football stuff yet.

There’s still spots to be won and things that we have to lock down and see who our guys are.

J: Pretty compelling battle between Isaiah Sillemon and Idaho transfer Kaden Robnett for the starting center position this spring. How did you view their springs?

S: I think they were neck and neck. Obviously Kaden had a little bit of an edge with knowing our offense — but he was coming off injury. He was a guy that we had to limit reps on in the spring, so that really gave Isaiah a chance to get in there and get a lot of reps.

Obviously it had been a while since he had snapped, so I thought his snapping got better as the spring moved on. And that kind of goes back to where I was talking about, you know, we’re seven, eight deep up front, I feel. Especially on the interior, center and guard, the competition is going to be really fierce.

There’s a handful of guys that can’t snap, but Kaden played guard for us at Idaho as well. Isaiah had played some guard here in the past. So we really see the center and two guard spots as kind of interchangeable, and feel really good about where we’re at with those three positions.

J: I know you guys like athleticism on the interior offensive line, too — the ability to pull guards, pull a center occasionally. Who are the guys that have stood out in that regard?

S: (Malik Aliane) is a guy that we noticed right away in the weight room this offseason (in) some of the competitions that (strength and conditioning coach Caleb Heim) does as far as like, speed and explosiveness. He’s got a unique background and just needs more reps. But he’s a really athletic guy that I can see being a great player for us down the road.

And then another one, I’ll butcher the name, but (Mercer transfer guard Israel Mukwiza), he’s athletic. When we got here, just with our offensive system, we challenged the offensive line to slim down. And I think they’ve done a really nice job across the board — almost all those guys have lost 10-20 pounds, which is just what we do with our stretch zone game, our mid zone (running plays). And then the amount of screens and different things that we run as well, where we get our offensive line out on the perimeter.

(We) challenge those guys to be more athletic. Coach Heim is really working with those guys, getting all their athleticism out of them. And then Kaden was a really good athlete for us at Idaho and we pulled him a lot at center. We don’t always pull our center, but if we have somebody who can, then it’s a luxury to have.

J: I know it wasn’t ideal to have Idaho transfer quarterback Jack Layne out for the majority of spring practice. But you had an opportunity to take an extended look at quarterbacks James Laubstein and Gabriel Motschenbacher – what was your read on how they performed?

S: I thought James had a great spring. His leadership improved as spring went along. I think the spring game, just with the weather that day made it a little tougher on the quarterbacks and throwing the football, you know, just with the amount of wind that we had.

The biggest challenge for him will be being consistent. You know, he’s a really talented football player and can run as well, and did a nice job picking up the offense as we went along. Gabe beat out a couple of those guys that were ahead of him and, you know, he’s still just a young guy. Think of it — he played as a true freshman at the JUCO (level) last season. This spring was his second semester in college.

(I) think he’s a guy that will just continue to improve and, you know, he may not be ready to challenge for the starting spot this year, but he’ll have his time in the future.

J: You’re bringing in UConn transfer quarterback Cole Welliver this summer. What made him a fit?

S: He’s a really talented guy. You know, he’s from Texas, so it was nice to get him a little closer to home coming back from UConn. We identified him early in the process just looking at his film — he had played just a little bit in games at UConn and then we had some practice film that he had shared with us.

For him, the big thing that stands out is his arm strength. You know, huge guy back there at the quarterback position. But when we brought him in, we were thorough and we kind of vetted him to see if he was the guy to bring in. (He) understands the game well — he played for (former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten) when he was in Dallas playing high school football.

With us being a pro-style offense — multiple offense as well 0151 he’s been exposed to those types of things. And that’s the biggest thing, just having a trigger man back there who knows where to go with the football and gets it out of his hands. We think he has a lot of potential.

J: This spring, Eck said five quarterbacks is the ideal number to carry — but you’d rather have six than four, too. Are you guys set with this five (Layne, Laubstein, Motschenbacher, Welliver and Toa Faavae) or are you planning to add any more?

S: No, we’re set at this five. I think five is the ideal number. (Eck) and I got a little nervous last year because we had four quarterbacks get hurt at Idaho — we literally played one game against Portland State where we only had one quarterback in uniform. But obviously that’s kind of an anomaly, and not something that you think is going to happen on the regular.

Usually five quarterbacks, one each class, (is ideal).

And when we got here, we knew there was going to be some competition. We had a lot of upperclassmen quarterbacks, you know. I think that kind of flushed itself out when we told guys where they were at and what their opportunities were going to be. It just wasn’t ideal having like, three senior quarterbacks and two juniors. So that king of sorted itself out through competition.

J: Are you anticipating an open competition among the quarterbacks?

S: I think so, yeah. Like I said, obviously Jack has played a lot in this offense and we just got to get him healthy and get him going that way. And, you know, it is how it is in football — you get hurt, you leave the door open. And James competed well this spring.

I think we’ll go into fall camp and see where we’re at and see how these guys perform. And they know. I mean, it’s pretty straightforward with me — the best player plays, period. We chart every throw they make in practice and in competitive settings. So, we’ll have a good competition.

J: You guys were a little thinner at tight end this spring, and then Keayen Nead decided to transfer. All of a sudden that room got really thin, with just Dorian Thomas, Cade Keith and Aiden Valdez. But you just brought in Cal transfer Simon Mapa and UTEP transfer Marcus Vinson — what are they bringing to the table?

S: (They’re) both big, physical guys that have played a lot of football. Marcus, I think he played 600-some snaps at UTEP last year — just that game experience helps a lot. And then both of them are physical guys that can help us at the line of scrimmage. That was a big thing we lost when we lost Keayen, you know, just a bigger on-the-ball tight end.

Cade, who’s coming off his true freshman year (at TCU), he just needs to continue to gain some weight. And Dorian is a great athlete. Both those guys are a little bit more of your move tight end, (they can) split out and do all the things. And I think they’re both going to be good enough to compete at the line of scrimmage as well. But just (with) some of the things that we want to do in the run game, it’s good to have a little more bulk.

J: You touched on the receivers earlier. What were your overall thoughts on the spring they had?

S: I think they all had their moments throughout spring, and it was good, just the competition back and forth. We moved guys around a lot, kind of trying to figure out where their best fit is going to be in our offense.

But it was good to get (Kansas State transfer receiver Keagan Johnson) back towards the end of spring. You can kind of tell just with him — probably what stood out compared to the other receivers — is his kind of composure. And he’s played a lot of ball — I mean, he’s started games at Iowa, started games at Kansas State. Even when he missed time, he just came in and didn’t miss a beat. You could kind of tell that maturity and that confidence he has from playing a lot of ball.

The other guys, I think they’re really working hard and really excited about what they can do, because we got a lot of guys that didn’t get a lot of run here (previously). Shawn Miller did some really good things this spring. Kader Diop, you know, he had a great spring and it really surprised us. He’s also physical, so I think some of the things we want to do with the receivers, (bringing) the physicality in the run game, he can help us out with. And then (Michael Buckley) and Isaiah Blair both had their moments as well.

A lot of it, too, is just a learning curve for us — like, what are these guys’ strengths? We move guys around, so they kinda have to know everything. But at the same time, you know, positions are a little different — it’s like, who’s a Z, who’s an X, who’s a W.

Some of them told me they were only a slot. I’m like, ‘well, you better learn to play outside in this offense (laughs) because when we play 12 personnel there’s only two receivers on the field — so you’re both outside guys.’

J: Are there plans to add another receiver out of the portal?

S: I think (we're set), unless something crazy fell out of the sky. But we looked at some guys. We had a lot of guys contact us that were interested, just didn’t quite find the right fit there at that position. And, you know, we have a lot of talent — it’s a little bit like the offensive line where we have a lot of older guys, too. And then there’s like, a lull in there, like (in) the redshirt freshmen, the sophomore (classes).

There’s not a lot of young talent, you know, whether they followed the last staff, or just weren’t here. It’s not really worth analyzing too much. But we have a little bit of a lull where we have a lot of upperclassmen receivers and then not much from that sophomore or redshirt freshmen class.

J: In terms of the guys in the running backs room — mainly transfers Scottre Humphrey (Montana State), Damon Bankston (Weber State), Deshaun Buchanan (Idaho) and D.J. McKinney (Sam Houston State) — how are you looking at the skill sets they bring to the table?

S: I’m excited about those guys. There’s no doubt that (it’s) a really talented room. I didn’t realize Scottre played only like, five or six snaps in the scrimmage, but I just told (running backs coach John Johnson) after (Humphrey’s) long touchdown run, ‘I’ve seen enough of that' (smiles). Obviously we barely played him in the scrimmage, but he showed in limited snaps what he can do.

And that room is really talented, (with) a lot of explosiveness. I think we’re gonna have to be creative and find some two running back packages and things like that, because it is one of the deepest position groups on the team — we kind of have a four-headed monster. (Buchanan) and D.J. were both slowed by hamstring injuries in the spring. Those guys didn’t get to show a lot this spring, but we already know how talented those two guys are as well.

So, you know, it’s a good luxury to have four backs who you think could all be the No. 1. We’re excited to see what those guys can do this fall.

J: Everybody molds their offense to the players they have, but you guys have carried over a pretty clear system from Idaho. How much have you had to change or accommodate what you’re doing scheme-wise to mesh with the players you have?

S: I think we’ll really get to do that once we get into Michigan week. Because especially early, you’re just trying to give the guys a chance to show what they can do. And really, multiple chances because you don’t want to be like, ‘oh, one time he didn’t do it, he can’t do that,’ you know? You want to give guys a chance to do it.

I mentioned Kader earlier. Like, he’s not the biggest guy, so you wouldn’t suspect that he would be a super physical blocker. But he did some really good things where it was like, ‘OK, we have something here.’ And that’s why you can’t always judge the book by its cover. You got to give him a chance to see it and show him what the expectations are, and what they can do.

So, we’ll kind of stay on that path quite a ways into fall camp as well. It’s kind of like, when you get to game week is when you really start to (think), ‘OK, we’re gonna put these guys in these situations, and this is our quarterback — we’re going to mold the offense around. His best things are these types of things.’ So that’ll be a process that’ll take a while to play out.

J: No trick plays installed yet?

S: Didn’t run any in the spring (smiles). But obviously, I think everybody knows from coach Eck and I’s history that’s something that we’re going to have dialed up.

J: You guys have had a few big ones over the years — favorite trick play you've run in the past?

S: Not really? We’ve ran a bunch of them, so whichever one’s successful. And obviously, with those trick plays, we’ll study the defense, too. So it’s not like we just run them no matter what each week — we probably have a menu of about 10-12 trick plays. And obviously, when you run one, usually you don’t run it the next week. You give it a couple weeks or something.

But we’ll have a menu of those and then we’ll kind of look accordingly to the defense, because some are better against one-high (safety), some are better against two-high (safeties), some are better against man-to-man teams. We kind of analyze that week in and week out — you know, ‘these are the trick plays that we really like, against these defenses we like these three.’ Because that’s usually what we carry on a call sheet, probably around three trick plays into that week.

We’ll put them in early in fall camp and practice them over and over again so that when we do go run it, we feel confident that we can execute it.

Q: You guys will open the season with a night game against Michigan on NBC. How excited are you for that opportunity?

A: I’m really excited about this Michigan game. Obviously just the opportunity for our guys to go and play on that national stage … It'll be a really good measuring stick to kind of see where we’re at as a program. And we’re not going to back down. We’re gonna go in there and play to win, lay it all out there and let the chips fall where they may.

So, we got a lot of work to do before then, but it’s just exciting for everybody, exciting for the fan base. When you see the schedule coming together, (you know) it’s starting to get real. I saw something about (how) it was like 100 days away or something the other day.

We’ll see. It’ll be a lot of fun.