UNM football: For a 'callused' Tavian Combs, spring is about getting comfortable again

For each player, there are themes to spring practice. Some are transfers trying to carve out roles in position groups both deep and thin — competition. Others are already at or near the top of said groups, looking to supplant themselves even further — consistency.

Tavian Combs’ theme, however, is different.

“Callused is the word I’ve been stuck on as this recovery process goes on,” New Mexico’s sixth-year safety offered Thursday. “Just beating it up, tearing it down, letting it heal — like it’s a callus.”

To be clear, the word fits. For the first time in two years, Combs is healthy for spring practice, old wounds mercifully blistered over with time and work. The sixth-year senior stands in the late morning sun and smiles when he says he feels 100% physically, a grueling stretch of hard luck looking like it’s coming to an end.

What’s next might just be the hardest part.

Remember that Combs was an honorable mention All-Mountain West selection in 2021. A hard-hitting and dynamic presence in the secondary, he finished second on the team in total tackles (81) and third in snaps played (711) over 11 games as a sophomore. If UNM was building something then, Combs was set to be a foundational piece, a near-perfect match between scheme and skill set.

He tore his ACL three games into his junior season and missed the next spring practice entirely: Setback No. 1. He recovered to post 16 total tackles — numbers that didn’t quite befit his overall impact on the field — before nagging leg injuries ended his senior year with five games played: Setback No. 2.

Combs entered the portal after the 2023 season, eventually withdrawing to play for former head coach Bronco Mendenhall. He was hopeful he’d recover in time to join the team for the end of spring practice last year, but it never happened. Those same injuries and an elongated recovery process kept him out until a game against Wyoming on Nov. 2, a return that seemed nearly overwhelming at the time.

“I almost shed a tear when I first got back out there and they put me in,” Combs remembered. “That play when I blitzed? It was just a lot going through my mind — I guess you could call it bad luck.”

Two weeks later, he announced he was entering the portal again. A return did not seem likely. For a few days in mid-December, Combs was committed to the University of Louisiana-Monroe, set to play for former UNM assistants Bryant Vincent and Troy Reffett.

It didn’t last. On Christmas Day, UNM announced Combs would return for his sixth season. The Lobos would not, in fact, be starting from scratch in the secondary.

“I talked to (head coach Jason Eck) and it was just a comfortable feeling,” he said of his decision to return. “It just felt like it was the right thing for me, (the) best thing for me.”

Which brings us to this spring, and Combs’ search for that comfort on the field. When he’s rotated at strong safety with UCLA transfer Clint Stephens, there have been glimmers of the player who was supposed to be a building block but never quite got off the ground. And if UNM is setting up a similar ascent, it’s not hard to see how he could play a role in said rise.

But it’s different — at least right now. When he watches Combs play, Eck thinks he doesn’t notice any physical limitations. “He does not look like he’s favoring it,” he said earlier this month.

And yet, if there isn’t a mental block, there’s a slight hesitancy as he adjusts to a new defense and simply playing again.

“(Director of strength and conditioning Caleb Heim) in the offseason even said, ‘you feel like he’s almost holding his breath waiting for something bad to happen’ — because he’s had that happen,” Eck said earlier this month.

“You can do so much, like working out and running and stuff,” Combs said. “But when it’s time to play football, it’s a whole different mode, a whole different speed. I’m getting back to (being) accustomed to it, for sure.”

If they weren’t before, Combs now feels every rep is precious as he tries to return to his old form. He tells younger players the same. After all, it’s hard to feel like yourself again out there.

Then again, it’s hard to get back out there period. If the hardest part is yet to come, Combs hasn’t taken facing it for granted.

“It almost makes me want to shed a tear,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, you only have so many opportunities that are coming to you.”