Jun. 22—In conversation, Spence Nowinsky will occasionally refer to himself as a mutt.

“I (haven’t) coached at Florida State, I (haven’t) coached at USC, I (haven’t) coached at Ohio State,” he told the Journal in February. “I haven’t coached at the blue bloods. I’m a mutt. I don’t have a pedigree.”

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Pedigree (or lack thereof) aside, Nowinsky does have a track record: the 53-year-old Hatley, Wisconsin native coordinated defenses at or near the top of each team’s respective leagues at Miami (Ohio), Ohio and Memphis.

Fixing a New Mexico defense that’s been at or near the bottom of the country is his next challenge — one the Lobos’ first-year defensive coordinator and linebackers coach feels he’s well-suited for.

“It’s a gritty place,” he said in February. “The people of the community are gritty, blue collar, hardworking people. Albuquerque’s a big city, but it’s a gritty place.

“And that’s what I am.”

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A recent Q&A with Nowinsky:

Responses have been edited for clarity.

Journal: What were your final takeaways from spring practice?

Nowinsky: Very pleased with the progress we made. It was unbelievable growing, maturing, learning. And just (as) a relationship builder, you know? Let’s face it, you get there in January and you don’t know where to park your car, much less know people and what they’re about. That’s something that’s gonna continue to go as we progress here.

But pleased. Far from a finished product, but I like where we are today. We’re going through OTA workouts right now — much different. Guys have some background, guys have some understanding of what we’re trying to do. And the biggest thing is solidifying the right pieces and putting the right people in the right spots. That’s part of any team sport — what piece of the puzzle goes in the proper place?

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That’s where we are right now. And from January to the end of June, (we’re in a) much better place. Now the trick, the secret is, we have to continue to grow. We have to continue to work, continue to improve, continue to mentor our guys and teach. And just continue to build on what we wanna be.

So, good spot now, but we don’t want to be in this spot August 1, you know? And you really don’t wanna be in it on September 1. So that’s where we’re heading right now and, you know, the guys, (Idaho transfer linebacker Jaxton Eck), (Idaho transfer defensive end Keyshawn James-Newby), those guys were hurt in spring. Those guys are full-go right now. That greatly helps. And we’ve had some additions, so that’s been very positive.

J: I imagine installs get more intense during fall camp, but how much of the defense did you guys put in this spring?

N: Probably 50%. There’s a lot of other wrinkles and nuances that we’ve already added this summer, and that’s what helps. But you gotta be able to get aligned. You have to be able to establish and run your techniques and, you know, tackle people. Those are the skills of football that are the basics of winning football.

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After that, what defense you run, what blitz you run, what coverage you run, that’s all good and great. But we gotta be good at the little things. And that’s where we’re building and that’s where we really hung our hats in the springtime, doing those things the right way.

This summer we’ve added more defense, and we’ll continue to do that into fall camp. And again, I’m not gonna cut off my nose to spite my face and say, ‘ah, we gotta get all this stuff in.’ Nah. What are we gonna be good at, and what can we handle? What personnel do we have that can run these defenses? That’s where we are currently, and in a positive way I think.

J: Without giving up maybe too much of the game: when you’re working with this defense, what do you look at and think, ‘hey, we could be good at this?’

N: I think we could play some man coverage. And that results in different pressure packages (and) it allows us to load the box, and be very formidable versus the run. There’s a lot of things where you could play man, (but) you can disguise things many different ways. And I think that’s something that, coming out of the spring into the summer, we have some people that can cover and play tight coverage — and man.

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So that’s something that’s definitely a benefit. There are things with that — you get to a third-down scenario and when you play man, people are going to reduce their formations. They’re gonna bunch and cluster and snug us, and that creates picks and (rub routes). And we’re not gonna be foolish — we’re gonna play zone and we’re gonna match routes, and we’re gonna get stops at the end of the day.

The biggest thing is with our philosophy — and I say that we’re always simple — it’s about doing what we do well. I’m not sure if that’s simplicity or if it’s just knowing your trade and executing your craft. But that’s what we’re gonna do. And we’re gonna be good at it and function at a high level of not allowing (teams) to have explosive (plays) on us, not giving up (quick) touchdowns and, you know, one-snap series.

If people are gonna score against us, they gotta earn it. They gotta chunk it down the field. They’ve gotta run plays, and they’ve gotta be patient. Because that’s what we are in a nutshell, that’s what we are in so many ways — we’re gonna be patient, and then we’re gonna attack when we have the chance.

I think I’ve told you before: We’ve got to play unbelievable first- and second-down defense and earn that right to defend third down. And that doesn’t mean third and 1, third and 2, third and 3 — that means third and 6-plus. And when we get to that, we can do a lot of different things with our personnel and create confusion with the quarterback, allowing the offensive coordinator to push the envelope a little bit and get out of his comfort zone — and not be patient.

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That’s what we’re trying to do: eliminate explosives, create takeaways, create pressure on the quarterback. That’s what we’re all about.

J: You added five guys in the spring transfer window, three of whom were true defensive backs: Auburn transfer C.J. Johnson, Texas State transfer Caleb Coleman and North Texas transfer Chris Gant Jr. What are they bringing to the table?

N: I’ve been very, very pleased with all of them. You know, Caleb Coleman and C.J., they look the part. And I’ll tell you, Gant is not as long as those guys, not as tall as those guys, but he’s very stout and he’s very strong. They all have experience, they’ve all played. They’ve created probably the greatest thing ever for us — they’ve created competition.

And that alone ups the urgency for everybody. So, those guys, all three of them, I’ve been really pleased. They have great personalities, they’re really good people and they like football. And they’re here, again, their role is their role. But they’re all here to be starters, and that’s what they’re fighting for everyday. And with that, they’re pushing our other guys. So, really, truly pleased and happy they’re here.

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And they’re going to definitely help us (because) they’re all safeties. Being a 4-2-5 (base defense), we have to be good at the safety position, good at the corner position. I was talking about playing man — those guys can play man also. They can cover a slot, they’re formidable size and strength-wise, so they can cover a tight end. And they’re good tacklers. They can function in the box: with our defense and what we do, being a boundary safety, being a star — our nickel safety — you’re in the box and you’re a linebacker in run fits. Those guys are all built that way.

J: Jacksonville State transfer Ky’Won McCray is listed as a linebacker, but I know he’s played some safety in the past. How are you planning to use him?

N: He’s gonna be a Will linebacker. We’re gonna create some different scenarios for him on third down. He’s long, boy, he’s long. He can run. He’s another guy who really likes football (laughs). And he has created unbelievable competition at the linebacker spot.

In our defense — in a perfect world — our (nickel star safety), our Will linebacker and our boundary safety are all the same person. You know, spread offenses (force) the Will linebacker out of the box, so (there’s) different things you can do for pressures, coverages and disguises when you have a Will linebacker that can run and cover, and has unbelievable courage in blitz schemes and tackling and hitting. That’s extremely important to what we’re trying to accomplish.

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(McCray) definitely has those traits. (He’s) another really good addition.

J: Memphis transfer defensive end Brett Karhu is a guy you worked with when you were the Tigers’ co-defensive coordinator last season. What’s the plan for him?

N: He’ll be playing (at the) Jack, our field defensive end (position). He’s a high-motor guy, he’s an excellent pass-rush guy. He’s from Texas originally (and) loves, loves, loves football. He’s physical. He’s not gonna wow you with his size — he’s 6-foot-1, 230-pounds. But he’s gonna hit you with all of his 230 pounds.

He’s a guy who’s a tireless worker, incredibly smart. He’s doing a great job pushing guys and he’s doing a great job of being a leader on our defense. He very much walks the walk. He’s full of substance — there’s no fluff with him. He’s built in a true, you know, throwback football form, or whatever you want to say.

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Really glad he’s here … He’s a guy who’s going to play a lot of football for us, and he’s going to help us immensely in a lot of ways.

J: Head coach Jason Eck said multiple times this spring he expected to add a few defensive lineman via the portal. You guys added one: Jalen McIver, a Jones (Mississippi) College transfer. Where is he in the room right now?

N: He’s in a backup role, just because he wasn’t here for spring practice. He’s here to start. He’s really a hard worker. He’s doing an unbelievable job learning the system, he’s doing an unbelievable job in the weight room. You always wonder sometimes, when you get a junior college transfer, what are they really built of? And you wonder, when things get hard, will they push through? Will they lock their jaw, will they fight?

And Jalen’s done that. Even the very first workout, (strength and conditioning coach Caleb Heim) ran them and challenged the team at a pretty high level. And Jalen probably showed up (not) in the greatest shape and I thought maybe he’d pull himself out — he was cramping. And you know what, he fought through. He battled. He didn’t miss a single conditioning segment of the (day).

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And I was very happy about that. He continues to get better — he’s tough. He doesn’t flinch when things get hard and again, that’s what we’re built on. That’s why we’re called the Mutts. So, I’m very excited about McIver. He’s gonna play a formidable role for us. He’s athletic, he’s twitchy, he’s strong, he’s good size. So he’ll be a big part of what we do.

J: Are you guys done adding via the portal?

N: … (Portal-wise), there’s guys (on the interior defensive line) like Gabe Lopez, (Okiki Olorunfunmi), (Brian Booker), (Sa’Kylee Woodard), I feel much, much better about that position. Darren Agu and Keyshawn, you brought up Karhu, Xavier Slayton, there’s a lot of different things that we can do. Everybody thinks that we’re gonna roll (NFL Hall of Fame defensive end) Reggie White or (former All-American defensive tackle) Jerome Brown out here.

That ain’t happening here (chuckles). We have to be creative. Obviously the guys that we have on our roster are our brass tacks, our nuts and bolts of the organization. We’re gonna keep dumping gas on them, we’re gonna keep getting them better. And we can’t sit there and just be ducks on the pond and let Michigan run through our facemasks for 500 yards on the ground like they’re a military academy.

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We’ve gotta move. We’ve gotta give them different looks. We hang our hat on technique and fundamentals. Well, guess what? We got a 255-pound inside defensive tackle, we can’t have him sit there and stand up tall and get sandblasted on a double team by a guard and tackle from the Big Ten, you know? We have to do different things and not let those offensive linemen roll off the ball hard.

And when you’re moving, you’re slanting, you’re stemming, you’re running different games that we run, that’s why offensive linemen come off a little more tentative on their combinations. Because when they come off hard and their heads down a little lower — and they miss — it’s a TFL for us. It’s a hit on the quarterback for us. People that we (play), people aren’t gonna come rolling off the ball on us and they aren’t gonna think, ‘hey, I’m gonna run through this guy’s face and come out his back pocket.’ The way we play, that doesn’t happen, because people are worried about moving targets. We don’t sit like a bullseye on the side of a railroad box car, you know, big as a billboard.

We’re gonna be a bullet. We’re not gonna be a bullseye. We’re gonna be moving, we’re gonna use our personnel and we’re gonna be smart about it.

J: I always wondered what it would be like to cover Reggie White, so I certainly wouldn’t be upset if you did roll him out.

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N: Well, I’ll tell you what. With the state of NIL and what college football is right now, in the last two years, the defensive linemen I coached, Missouri paid one of them a million dollars. SMU paid another one $650,000, Maryland paid another one $550,000 and Rutgers paid another one $500,000. Now those guys aren’t 80-snaps-a-game guys. They’re 25-30-snaps-a-game guys.

That’s kind of what the market is right now. It’s different, it’s unique, but that’s what we’re up against, and we’re ready for that challenge.

J: You guys had a pretty strong top two cornerbacks with Idaho transfer Abraham Williams and Montana State transfer Jon Johnson. What did that pair show you, and how is the rest of that room?

N: I talked about the safeties. But the corners can play man. And that’s big. I look back at other places over the years that I’ve coordinated, and there’s been a number of occasions that (we) had (an) extreme weakness in the back end. And then you have to play more zone, you have to protect those guys and you can’t play press coverage. You have to play off and (do) a lot of different things.

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Again, to be successful, what are you capable of doing? And those guys that you mentioned, they can cover people. They have size and they have speed. They have length. The biggest thing with corners is they have to tackle. We put a lot on those guys. They aren’t out of the pit. They’re in the fire. And they’ve got to be special in this regard, that they gotta cover their tail off and tackle running backs also, and people that they probably don’t truly want to.

… Corners that can cover and corners that can tackle, that’s big time, and I feel pretty good about that situation right now. And then (Weber State transfer cornerback Frankie Edwards III) and (Utah Tech transfer cornerback Jayden Sheridan), those guys are really outstanding corners as well. What I like about those two is that they have a big time amount of courage. You know, Frankie puts his face on you — he’ll whack you. So will Sheridan.

The corner position, I think, is on a very good, stable footing right now. (It’s) something that I currently feel good about.

J: The season maybe isn’t super close — but it certainly isn’t far out. How does that feel for you and this defense?

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N: Right now, I think it’s kinda standard procedure where we are. Again, we’re in a good spot right now, but we can’t be in that spot August 1, and surely can’t be in that spot September 1. We’re getting ready to go on vacation, getting ready to enjoy some before, you know, it’s full metal jacket and it’s on.

That’s where we are right now — really enjoying the time that we get to spend with our players, and every day is one where we grow with each other. This is a tough-guy organization, but it’s a family organization and really, we’re filled with good people. It’s a good group of people to be around.

We’re gonna keep on going that way, we’re gonna keep our head down and keep our nose to the grindstone. We’re gonna fight (and) we’re gonna work, because that’s the only thing that makes us different.