Twitty finds a home in New Mexico

Minnesota to New Mexico can be a long, strange trip, especially for a guy from New Jersey.

Dom Twitty says that's not the half of it.

Twitty, a 6-foot-2, 274-pound defensive lineman from Rancocas Valley, is thrilled that he will be signing a letter of intent Wednesday to play football for the University of New Mexico.

He'll play for the Lobos' new coach, former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie, in the Mountain West Conference at a postcard-pretty university on old Route 66 in the heart of Albuquerque.

But to say Twitty took a winding road to that campus in the shadow of the Sandia mountains would be the understatement of the recruiting season.

"It really worked out for the best," said Twitty, who projects as a defensive end for New Mexico. "Sometimes I wasn't sure it was going to. But I'm happy with the way it turned out."

Twitty had committed to the University of Minnesota in July. All during the football season, he followed Minnesota's progress, figuring he was a future Gopher.

But in December, Minnesota officials informed Rancocas Valley coach Dan Haussman that they were rescinding their offer.

"I couldn't believe it," Haussman said. "I said, 'This is the way you guys do business?' "

Twitty said he took the news in stride.

"They weren't that good anyway," Twitty said. "But I was going to be loyal to them, even if they weren't loyal to me."

Twitty, who lives in Lumberton, said he was determined to go away to college.

He likes New Jersey. He just wanted to try something different.

New Mexico, that's different.

"It's really different," said Twitty, who took an official visit to New Mexico during the weekend of Jan. 20. "As soon as I stepped off the plane, I was like, 'Hey, this isn't the desert. There's all these mountains.' "

New Mexico isn't exactly a likely landing spot for top area players. In fact, the Lobos' current roster doesn't include any athletes from New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

That might change under Davie, a prominent veteran of the college game who has connections with many college and high school coaches in this area.

"Bob Davie is going to turn that program around," Haussman said of the Lobos, who were 1-11 last season.

Twitty had 36 tackles with four sacks and three forced fumbles last season as Rancocas Valley went 7-3 and reached the South Jersey Group 4 playoffs.

Twitty said he's excited about playing in the Mountain West Conference with teams such as Boise State and Air Force and UNLV. He plans to major in finance.

"Albuquerque is a great city," Twitty said. "It's not a city like New York. It's a small city. It's calm, which is more my style.

"That place is really different from New Jersey. But it's a good different."