Feb. 19—A former NFL linebacker has joined New Mexico’s staff.
Nate Palmer was announced as UNM football’s assistant linebackers coach Wednesday, bringing the Lobos’ total on-field coaching staff to 13.
The six-year NFL veteran joins UNM after spending last season in the same role at Northern Illinois and five years outside of football. He is the fifth coach on the Lobos’ staff with playing experience at the next level; offensive line coach Cody Booth, defensive line coach Hebron Fangupo and wide receivers coach Colin Lockett all spent time in the NFL, while cornerbacks coach Stanley Franks Jr. played in the CFL.
A two-time All-Missouri Valley Conference honoree at Illinois State, Palmer was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He appeared in 26 games over the next three seasons and made 85 total tackles with one sack and four tackles for loss before he was released in 2016.
Palmer was subsequently claimed off waivers by the Tennessee Titans, making 23 tackles in 24 games over the next two seasons. Following his retirement, the Chicago native held a variety of roles outside football before joining Northern Illinois’ staff.
In his lone season with the Huskies, Palmer helped coach a pair of linebackers — Jaden Dolphin and Christian Fuhrman — that led the team in tackles as Northern Illinois allowed 18.5 points per game, the second-best mark in the MAC.
By joining UNM, Palmer is reunited with one of his college coaches in Spence Nowinsky, who was announced as UNM’s defensive coordinator in January. Nowinsky served as Illinois State’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach from 2009-17.
In addition to Palmer, general manager Beau Davidson and nine other staffers were named to UNM’s staff via posts on social media: — David Harris was named director of football operations after spending the last eight years at UConn. He previously overlapped with head coach Jason Eck as a football operations assistant at South Dakota State in 2016 before serving as the Huskies’ assistant director of football operations and director of football operations. — Steven Koch joins the program as a special teams assistant after serving in the same role at Texas State the past two seasons. A former linebacker at Dickinson State (North Dakota), he previously held a variety of positions at South Florida, Chadron State (Nebraska) and his alma mater. — Adam Behrends and Luke Nardo were named to the Lobos’ staff as offensive and defensive analysts, respectively. Behrends served as the head coach at Staples High School (Connecticut) for the past six seasons; Nardo spent last season as a defensive assistant at West Virginia. — Dakota Winchell was named director of video technology after serving in the same role at Idaho for the past two seasons. Before, he worked as a gameday video assistant with the XFL’s Houston Leathernecks and as a video intern with the University of Houston. — Four graduate assistants — Connor Berry (offense), Mac Austin (defense), Charles Crawford (offensive recruiting) and Danny Urquhart (defensive recruiting) — round out UNM’s staff.
