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Zone Read: Connor Ackerley Unplugged

Arizona Sports News online

This week “Zone Read” takes a quick trip across the Arizona-New Mexico border to Silver City to catch up Connor Ackerley.

The former Corona del Sol standout quarterback is now starting at Western New Mexico University.

We discuss the redshirt freshman’s success on the field this season for the Mustangs, adjusting to life in a small town, his desire to pursue a career in sports broadcasting, his golf game, and getting ready to face rival Eastern New Mexico in the Green Chile Bowl this weekend.

Describe Silver City to someone who’s never been. “It’s just a small town here in western New Mexico. It’s a nice little town. Very beautiful. There’s a lot of national forests around here. That’s the main attraction. The school pretty much is the center of the town it feels like. It’s a pretty true college town.

“It’s a different experience than Tempe, where I’m from, but it’s a pretty nice place to be.”

When you say “small,” how small is small? “I’d say around 9,000 or 10,000 people.”

Do you have a favorite local restaurant there in Silver City? “There’s a place called Los Victors that has pretty good Mexican food. I know a lot of guys on the team love the breakfast burrito there. That’s a good place. Chaos Sandwiches is another good spot. Wrangler Bar and Grill is also good. They do a “Wing Wednesday” deal where they do dollar wings on Wednesdays.”

Why was WNMU the best fit for you, both academically, and for football? “They reached out to me my senior year and, after talking to the coaches and seeing the direction they were going in, I felt like it would be a good spot for me to get an opportunity to play – which is most important. 

“The system that we run here is a system that I ran before in high school. There’s some RPO in there, there’s some drop back pass. It’s a system I was pretty familiar with and the coaches do a great job of making sure, week in and week out as an offense, we’re prepared and we’re getting put in really good situations. Having a coaching staff who can do that for you is obviously a great fit. That was kind of the main reason why I came here.”

Has the transition been a little easier for you playing with so many former AZHS players? I know they’ve always recruited the state very hard. “For sure. When I first met all the guys, it gave me something to talk about. It was an icebreaker, I guess. I’ve had a lot of great relationships develop from, ‘What high school did you go to?’ We can just talk about something we both know a lot about and, having known some of these guys from high school, it’s a big deal. There’s a few guys from Corona who go here that I already knew. Some guys that I played against that I knew. That definitely helps, for sure.”

You’ve had a great first half of the season. I believe you have 28 total touchdowns and close to 2,400 yards. Has it been a fairly seamless transition going from playing high-level Arizona high school to playing Division II college ball? “There’s been some growing pains. I think what really helped me was last year getting to play in three games and keep the redshirt. I got to dip my toes in and see what it’s all about. 

“I think, while the [offensive] system is fairly similar, there are some differences. I think the biggest one is just the game is a lot faster. You said it’s high-level football in Arizona, and that is true, but the Lonestar Conference that we play in, we play some very good teams and the game just speeds up on you. I definitely felt that last year in my first action. Making that adjustment in the off-season was a big deal and that really helped. It’s been a big part of my success. Just being able to see it last year and being able to adjust to it now…I still think there’s things that I need to work on and get better at, obviously.

“It’s just been steady progress with every game I play and getting more experience. Figuring out what works at this level and what doesn’t.”

I know you want to be a sports reporter whenever football ends. Have you narrowed your focus as far as, do you want do sidelines? Do you want to do TV anchoring? Play-by-play? Have you drilled down on that at all? “Not anything specific. Obviously, the career goal has been watching my mom (long-time Arizona sports reporter Jody Jackson) do the job she does. She’s been a sideline reporter and she’s done Diamondbacks and all that stuff. I haven’t drilled home what exactly I want to do yet, but I definitely think I want do more reporter stuff, like the pre and post-game stuff like my mom does, as opposed to play-by-play.”

Do you spend more time talking to your mom about sports or talking to your dad (former ASU offensive lineman Chad Ackerley) about football? “Oh, that’s tough [laughing]. I know it’s kind of a non-answer, but it’s almost like a tie.

“So, I have a group chat with my mom and my dad. Like [Sunday] we were watching the Cardinals’ game and I’ll be like, ‘Great catch there on third down by Michael Wilson.’ So, we’ll talk in the group chat. During baseball season, I’ll send, ‘That was a great hit by Corbin Carroll there.’

“Gosh, it’s tough. Right now I probably talk more to my dad about football just because we’re in-season. If I have something I want to talk about, I’ll got him. But when it’s baseball season, I’m probably to the point where I’m bothering my mom with baseball stuff.

When you deep dive with mom about the sports media landscape, what’s the most re-occurring topic of conversation? “The big one that she’s really hammered home has been preparation. She’s made sure I know the amount of preparation she’s put into her job every day, and I see her putting in the work. She does the research. Sometimes she even asks me to look something up and get a double confirmation for her. She’ll bounce ideas off me.

“It’s definitely helped outside of the sports reporting world. Everything I do, it’s just been drilled into me to prepare.”

Back to on the field, where do you feel your game has grown the most from time at Corona, now into your redshirt freshman season at WNMU? “I would say anticipation on throws. At Corona, and I think it’s a thing most high school quarterbacks need to grow and develop through, I was throwing to a guy when he was open.

“Now, I understand that it’s a big deal to throw a guy open. If you throw it to him when he’s open, he might not be open when the ball gets to him. Really just hammering home throwing the ball early before they get out of their breaks and seeing the coverage and knowing where I’m going with the ball.”

Explain to us what the “Great Race” is at school. “The Great Race is a school-wide thing…that lasts a week. I don’t know the exact rules but you form teams among students and I think there were five or six teams in the Great Race. It’s like teams of 30 or 40 people and there were events that we do. There was volleyball (guys only), there was powder puff football, and you gets points for first, second or third place. The team that has the most points at the end wins the Great Race.

“The team that I was on won the “Great Race” so that was pretty cool.”

Last questions – how’s your golf game? “Uhhh, improving but still not great. There’s a golf course here that I play a lot in my free time. But, [my game] is not great. When I first got here, it was horrendous and now it’s just below average. So, there’s been improvement.”

 

 

 

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