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New Mexico closed its sixth spring practice on Monday evening, just a handful of days away from the midpoint of the Lobos’ second spring under head coach Jason Eck. 

Three standouts from Monday’s practice: 

WR Massiah Mingo

The winner of Monday’s hammer, given to whoever Eck deems the player of the practice? None other than Mingo, an early enrollee receiver and one of this spring’s true standouts. 

The 5-10, 175-pound freshman earned the honor after he caught a few passes in traffic, one of which saw him nearly get leveled immediately after. In a lot of ways, it seemed like an encapsulation of what the Bishop Gorman (Nevada) High School product brings to the table. 

“He’s quick — he’s got lateral, reactionary quickness, he’s got some long speed, he’s got some good ball skills,” wide receivers coach Carson Walch said. “But what I’ve been most impressed about with Massiah is his willingness to compete in the run game. Like he’s not afraid of anyone. 

“He’ll square up with anyone and he’s just got a warrior’s mentality.” 

Reading anything into UNM’s receiver room is tricky — expected contributors Zhaiel Smith, Kader Diop, Troy Omeire and Miles Williams all missed Monday’s practice with injuries, and that’s muddled the picture. But even as that room gets back to full health, Mingo seems like a sure bet to keep logging reps with the first-team offense. 

TE Tripp Walsh 

Outside of known quantities like Cade Keith and Simon Mapa, it was perhaps the biggest question facing UNM’s tight ends this spring: With Dorian Thomas out, who might emerge as another effective pass-catching option? 

The Lobos have had a few tight ends miss time, so there’s plenty more evaluation to be done. But Walsh, an Iowa State transfer, has had a good start to his first spring as a Lobo and continued that Monday, showcasing why he was drawn to this offense in particular. 

“There’s gonna be a lot of opportunities for the tight ends here and not just in the run game, but the pass game as well,” he said. “And I think it's gonna create a lot of problems for defenses.” 

RB Kiefer Sibley 

It didn’t quite turn out this way during the season, to be clear, but last spring, the running back rotation was easy to piece together: Scottre Humphrey looked poised to work as UNM’s de facto feature back, Damon Bankston was right behind him and D.J. McKinney battled with Deshaun Buchanan for the third spot. 

Outside of Humphrey returning to essentially that exact same spot, I’m not sure the pecking order among UNM’s backs is as clear as it was last year. But I do think Sibley, the North Texas transfer, could be in contention for a spot in the rotation, and that’s a credit to the work he’s done over the last few practices. 

The 5-9, 179-pound back had some nice moments Monday in what might’ve been his finest day as a Lobo (he also played well in Friday’s scrimmage). He’s got a spurtability that’s starting to catch some eyes and despite playing in a much different, up-tempo offense with the Mean Green last year, it looks like he’s getting the hang of things within UNM’s scheme relatively quickly. 

Injury report

UNM got some good injury news Monday: Defensive end Darren Agu participated in Monday’s practice (albeit with a slight limp) after missing Friday entirely. Two of his fellow ends, Victor Villafuerte and John Sierra, also returned Monday; both missed at least one practice each last week. 

The rest of Monday’s inactive list: 

• DE Cody Thumlert 

• OL Ken Meir 

• WR D.J. Darling 

• S Austin Brawley 

• WR Zhaiel Smith 

• WR J.T. Jeter 

• WR Miles Williams

• WR Kader Diop

• TE Joey Olsen 

• TE Bear Tenney 

• TE Aldin Bilalbegovic

• WR Troy Omeire 

• DE Elijah Brody 

Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at .