Feb. 19—A former NFL linebacker has joined New Mexico’s employees.
Nate Palmer was introduced as UNM soccer’s assistant linebackers coach Wednesday, bringing the Lobos’ whole on-field teaching employees to 13.
The six-year NFL veteran joins UNM after spending final season in the identical position at Northern Illinois and 5 years outdoors of soccer. He’s the fifth coach on the Lobos’ employees with taking part in expertise on the subsequent degree; offensive line coach Cody Sales space, defensive position coach Hebron Fangupo and vast receivers coach Colin Lockett all hung out within the NFL, whereas cornerbacks coach Stanley Franks Jr. performed within the CFL.
A two-time All-Missouri Valley Convention honoree at Illinois State, Palmer was chosen by the Inexperienced Bay Packers within the sixth spherical of the 2013 NFL Draft. He appeared in 26 video games over the following three seasons and made 85 whole tackles with one sack and 4 tackles for loss earlier than he was launched in 2016.
Palmer was subsequently claimed off waivers by the Tennessee Titans, making 23 tackles in 24 video games over the following two seasons. Following his retirement, the Chicago native held a wide range of roles outdoors soccer earlier than becoming a member of Northern Illinois’ employees.
In his lone season with the Huskies, Palmer helped coach a pair of linebackers — Jaden Dolphin and Christian Fuhrman — that led the staff in tackles as Northern Illinois allowed 18.5 factors per sport, the second-best mark within the MAC.
By becoming a member of UNM, Palmer is reunited with one in every of his faculty coaches in Spence Nowinsky, who was introduced as UNM’s defensive coordinator in January. Nowinsky served as Illinois State’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach from 2009-17.
Along with Palmer, normal supervisor Beau Davidson and 9 different staffers had been named to UNM’s employees by way of posts on social media: — David Harris was named director of soccer operations after spending the final eight years at UConn. He beforehand overlapped with head coach Jason Eck as a soccer operations assistant at South Dakota State in 2016 earlier than serving because the Huskies’ assistant director of soccer operations and director of soccer operations. — Steven Koch joins this system as a particular groups assistant after serving in the identical position at Texas State the previous two seasons. A former linebacker at Dickinson State (North Dakota), he beforehand held a wide range of positions at South Florida, Chadron State (Nebraska) and his alma mater. — Adam Behrends and Luke Nardo had been named to the Lobos’ employees as offensive and defensive analysts, respectively. Behrends served as the pinnacle coach at Staples Excessive College (Connecticut) for the previous six seasons; Nardo spent final season as a defensive assistant at West Virginia. — Dakota Winchell was named director of video expertise after serving in the identical position at Idaho for the previous two seasons. Earlier than, he labored as a gameday video assistant with the XFL’s Houston Leathernecks and as a video intern with the College of Houston. — 4 graduate assistants — Connor Berry (offense), Mac Austin (protection), Charles Crawford (offensive recruiting) and Danny Urquhart (defensive recruiting) — spherical out UNM’s employees.
