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LoboZone: Lobos defensive standouts have long history of competition
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Tribune
Clint McPeek (left), Nicki Lawson (7), Ian Clark (30) and Frankie Solomon (96) chat before practice. Despite competing for playing time at the same Lobo position on defense, sophomores McPeek and Clark are close friends. In splitting time, each player has found success: McPeek, the starter, leads New Mexico in tackles. Clark has 25 tackles in the past four games and returned a fumble for a touchdown in a victory at Wyoming.
Photo by Craig FritzTribune
Tribune
Clint McPeek (right) tries to stop Jaymar Latchison from making a catch in practice. McPeek plays the Lobo position, a hybrid of safety and linebacker. Brian Urlacher once manned the same spot for UNM.
Photo by Craig FritzTribune
Tribune
UNM's Ian Clark tosses a ball while stretching prior to practice. Clark splits time at the Lobo position with close friend Clint McPeek. "They are both going to be really good," said Lobos coach Rocky Long. "If they get to the point where they are two of our best DBs, then one of them probably moves to a different position."
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Take two kids from opposite sides of a city.
Give them the same basic physical dimensions. Let them enjoy the same sports. Bless them with above-average athletic abilities and competitive drives. Make them rivals in high school. Have them attend the same college. Place them on the same football team. At the same position.
OK, all this we can buy as weird coincidence. Sort of.
But Lobos defensive standouts Clint McPeek and Ian Clark attended the same military camp at age 8?
Cue the freaky-deaky music, please.
"A long time ago when we were kids," says Clark, trying to recall the exact moment he met McPeek. "I think we tried to race each other or something. . . .
". . . You'd go to the mountains and shoot . . ." McPeek adds.
". . . Blanks . . ." Clark corrects.
". . . We'd rappel and do morning PT (physical training)," McPeek counters. "I'm not sure what the point of it was."
The point of this is to illustrate that Clint McPeek and Ian Clark - twin denizens of the University of New Mexico football team's Lobo position - are as intertwined as inhaling and exhaling.
Individually, they are pretty good football players, hybrid linebacker/safeties who help key the UNM defense. Together, as many Mountain West Conference rivals have found, they are excellent.
"They are both going to be really good," says Lobos coach Rocky Long. "If they get to the point where they are two of our best DBs, then one of them probably moves to a different position.
"Right now, I'm not sure either one of them is ready, physically or mentally, to play a full game at that position. If the two of them combine to make 10 tackles, that's a lot easier on their bodies then if one of them was in there making 10 tackles. It's not like we have a 245-pound Brian Urlacher back there who can take all that pounding."
Their play may prove vital for the Lobos on Saturday when they travel to Fort Worth to play TCU in a game that may prove pivotal to the last third of New Mexico's season.
The Horned Frogs have zoomed to leads of 24-0 and 28-0 in their last two victories over the Lobos, using superior quickness to overwhelm the Lobos' defense. Staunching the TCU offense requires help from everywhere, perhaps, but speed at the Lobo position - especially early - is a must.
Clark and McPeek, both Albuquerque kids, aren't exactly sprinters, but they have been known to hurdle. That's where they re-established a connection after the military-camp thing.
Both ran the high and intermediate hurdles, and both still talk about the 2005 Class 5A state track meet where Clark, a Highland High product, finished second in the 110s. McPeek, of La Cueva, was a whisper behind in third. (Damian Robinson of Clovis won).
"I wasn't sure I got second place," Clark says. "I thought he may have gotten third and he got second. We always joke about that."
The connection, funny or not, is real. They have become close friends, despite competing for playing time at the same position. But even that has its charms, because in splitting time each player has found a taste of success: McPeek, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound sophomore, leads New Mexico in tackles.
"I'd rather be the one hitting," he says. "The hits don't really hurt when you're hitting someone."
The 6-0, 210-pound Clark, also a sophomore, has done plenty to contribute. He's made 25 tackles in the past four games and returned a fumble for a touchdown in a victory at Wyoming.
If there is a difference between them, it was after their senior seasons. Clark was a recruited scholarship player; McPeek had to walk on. It's an oversight Long recalls with a touch of sheepishness.
"In the case of guys who walk in and play early, it means there was a misevaluation, by us and everyone else," he says. "If I remember right about Clint, he was a very good high school football player who didn't play a lot because of injuries."
Though Clark is the one who's been more banged up this year, neither say they worry much about who's starting (it's McPeek).
"We have good depth, that's how we're able to rotate so much," McPeek says. "Everyone's able to get so many tackles because we have so much depth at every position."
That kind of depth, Clark says, breeds a hunger, more than an arrogance. New Mexico is off to its best start in a decade, but the Lobos seem determined to keep the hullabaloo on a down-low.
"We never look at ourselves as being a good team, as far as already being a good team," Clark says. "We look at it as becoming a good team. When things work out the way they do, then sometimes, we're a pretty good team. We're always trying to stay level-headed."
Given their backgrounds, such thoughts are a must. Both grew up in military families - Clark, Air National Guard; McPeek, the Marine Corps. When it comes to doing things right, semper fi is the word. Well, words.
"We're always talking - good things at practice, bad things at practice, good and bad," said Clark. "We hang out each other's houses. It's a pretty good friendship."
To which McPeek replies, with a smile: "I never thought I'd like a Highland kid."
