Recruiting New Mexico: New coach, new approach at NMHU

After attending high school for a time in Albuquerque and serving on the New Mexico staff during one stop in nearly three decades as a football coach, first-year New Mexico Highlands head coach Ron Hudson returned to the Land of Enchantment last year as the Cowboys’ associate head coach, special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. But if there was one thing that took him aback, it was his predecessor’s lack of interest in recruiting the state of New Mexico. In fact, when Hudson took over as head coach shortly after the conclusion of the 2021 season, there was only a handful of players from this state on the roster. Hudson vowed to change that dynamic, and his relentless efforts on the recruiting trail bore fruit in the 2022 class. Per sources, NMHU expects to sign between six and eight prospects as part of the Cowboys’ latest class. “The state of New Mexico gets a bad rap as far as high school football because people compare it to Texas and California and they say it’s not as good,” Hudson told Prep Redzone New Mexico. “There’s some really good high school football and some really good coaches in this state. “When I got this job, we had about three New Mexico players on the team, which is insane. The last head coach signed a bunch of kids from out of state. But when I started as head coach, I noticed the bottom end of our roster was really no different than the kids we would get in New Mexico.” While NMHU has yet to officially announce its signing class (they plan to announce the group shortly before the start of spring practice later this month), several in-state signees have already announced their commitments to the Cowboys. The impressive group features two of the top running backs in the state – <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="198250" first="Dominic" last="Esquibel"] </strong>(Pojoaque Valley) and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134903" first="Joey" last="Reza"]</strong> (Deming), talented wide receiver <strong>D’Sean Martinez</strong> (Pojoaque Valley) and former Ruidoso QB <strong>Gage Guardiola</strong>, who spent two years at NMMI. “There’s a lot of great character, really tough kids in New Mexico that we will benefit from,” Hudson said. “Our locker room would benefit, our toughness would benefit and it would create a great culture on our team. We’ve offered a bunch of kids in-state. “If we can lay a good foundation with New Mexico players in the locker room, the players we bring in from out of state will blend in and that will make our locker room a lot more cohesive and it will help our culture get more solid. That’s why I believe in recruiting this state.” https://twitter.com/DomEsqui30/status/1497044140042989568 https://twitter.com/josephreza6/status/1499777185577504769 https://twitter.com/_djzmtz_/status/1497665639384768526 https://twitter.com/TwelveGage_12/status/1483586502483333123 &nbsp;