West Texas A&M opens 2023 fall football camp

West Texas A&M opened fall football workouts under new energy and new leadership with first-year head coach Josh Lynn on Monday morning at the WTAMU practice facility.

Coming off a rough 5-6 season that included a 3-6 mark in the Lone Star Conference, WT athletic director Michael McBroom parted ways with six-year head coach Hunter Hughes for Lynn in December. After eight months of recruiting, spring football and going through the summer, Lynn is just glad that football workouts are finally here, and the season is less than a month away.

‘It’s great to be out here,” said Lynn, who was 65-50 in previous head coaching stints at Eastern New Mexico and Nebraska-Kearney. “It’s good to have all these players report and we all just love football season.”

The Buffs had a total of 155 players report to fall camp. Not only does Lynn bring back plenty of veteran starters, but he also brought a plethora of new talent.

The Buffs return 12 starters from a year ago that include wide receiver and leader Noah Bogardus. Bogardus had a tremendous junior season snagging 51 passes for 837 yards with five touchdowns. On the defensive side of the ball WT returns third year linebacker JT Cavender who missed most of last season with an arm injury.

“I think the offensive skill positions are the oldest and deepest on the team,” Lynn said. “We got some guys that make plays and defensively we have an older group of linebackers. We added pieces on the defensive line that will help the linebackers make tackles.”

While the Buffs look to be set at most positions on the field, the most important one is still a question mark. Nick Gerber locked up the quarterback spot the past four years before graduating making 37 career starts. So, who is the next guy? Right now, sophomore Kyle Brown, who took most of the reps in the spring, and New Mexico State transfer Weston Eget are the likely candidates.

“Kyle and Weston have done a great job over the summer of putting in the work especially in the weight room,” Lynn said. “They are both leaders and natural quarterbacks, so we’ll see how this plays out. We also brought in some really good local talent. Landyn Hack from Panhandle is really good looking for us and five other freshmen. We’ll just have these guys compete and see what happens.”

WT was picked fifth in the LSC preseason football poll with defending champion, Angelo State, taking the top spot.

The Buffs will have a total of 21 practices over fall camp in August with the season opener at Western Colorado at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2.