Dec. 20, 2007
Growing up I can remember the anxious feelings while waiting for the arrival of the college football bowl season and as a player I felt proud to be one of the elite teams that earned the opportunity to be a part of the postseason festivities. The 2007 New Mexico football team has earned the right to feel proud and elite as they prepare to play Nevada with a national ESPN television audience watching in Saturday’s New Mexico Bowl.
As a participant in both the 2002 and 2003 Las Vegas Bowl games with the University of New Mexico I can relate to the many of the emotions and feelings the 2007 squad is going through.
The initial feeling I had was one of being thankful for the opportunity to be part of the postseason. Many quality teams, unfortunately, are left at home watching the bowl game coverage on TV. The goal of every Division I college football player in the country is to be a part of a bowl eligible team and the 2007 Lobos have reached that goal.
In 2002 I was part of a team that was playing in a bowl game for the first time in five years. The word “thankful” could not describe the feelings my teammates and I had when we qualified for that game.
Once you’re through celebrating that a great goal has been reached the fact of the matter is that there will be a lot of work needed to prepare for the bowl game. After a long 12-game season, with many emotional and physical highs and lows, the thought of three additional weeks of practice is not the first thing on any of the guys’ Christmas lists. However, once the first couple practices are completed and the bowl preparation and game week schedules are ironed out things begin to fly by rather quickly. Before you know it the game week festivities have begun and the game is days away.
The week leading up to the game is to this day one of the best times I have experienced in life. The fact that I was able to share the experience with guys that I had sweated and bled next to day in and day out made it that much better.
One of the most important things about playing in a bowl game was the feeling the sense of game being a reward. When I mention reward I don’t mean the watches, sweatshirts, hats, t-shirts and endless amounts of gifts. I’m talking about the feeling of knowing all the blood, sweat and tears involved in reaching postseason play were in every way worth it.
Many believe that all the excitement of participating in a bowl game is about getting to travel to a different city and all the other new experiences. If this was the first bowl game the Lobos were taking part in, then yes, the new city and events would be a great experience. However, this is the fifth bowl game for New Mexico since 2002. The fifth-year seniors on this year’s team have already been to three different cities and been a part of four bowl game experiences. While the travel and bowl week events are always fun, this program has enough postseason experience to know the game itself and opportunity to spend additional time with your teammates is what the bowl experience is about.
I for one think it would have been nice to play in the New Mexico Bowl when I was a player. There’s definitely some advantages to keeping a similar routine, practicing in a familiar place and being able to use your locker room. As a player, I think keeping my daily activities fairly normal would be a good thing during bowl preparation.
It’s an overwhelming hope of mine is that these advantages will help bring the University of New Mexico a long awaited bowl game victory over the Nevada Wolf Pack on Saturday. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in two attempts to win a bowl game, but can only imagine the extreme joy this year’s team will enjoy if they are victorious.
I’ll be there cheering them on and I hope you will be too. Go Lobos!
-D.J.
David J. Renteria was a four-year letterman (1999-2003) and two-year starter on the defensive line at New Mexico. Renteria was a first team all-Mountain West Conference selection in 2003, when he helped lead the nation’s fifth-ranked run defense, and a second team pick in ’02. The Roswell, N.M. native finished his career tied for ninth all-time at UNM with 34.5 tackles for loss. He also had 14 sacks and 111 tackles in 49 games (29 starts). Renteria played professionally for three years with the Houston Texans, St. Louis Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos organizations. He is currently working as a student assistant in the UNM Athletics Media Relations office while he finishes his degree in Communications.