By Frank Mercogliano
There are a lot of numbers that represent Dakota Cox.
There is the number 49, his uniform number, which is sort of obvious. It also makes sense when one looks at the number of Lobo greats who wore numbers in the 40s. There is the number three, as in Dakota Cox was the only three-time captain in the 118-year history of Lobo football. There is 403, the number of tackles Cox had in his career, one of just three Mountain West players to ever hit the 400-tackle mark in a career.
But there are two numbers that are little better. That are a little more amazing. That are a little more … ridiculous. Those numbers are 125,000 … and 14. To put those in numbers in perspective though, let’s delve into the history of FBS football.
Division I football split into FBS and FCS in 1978 (well into I-A and I-AA), meaning there have been 39 seasons of FBS football. With an average of 125 teams a year, and an average of 100 players per team, which rolls over basically every four seasons, that means that 125,000 is a pretty good estimate for the number of FBS football players over the last 39 seasons. And of those 125,000, how many have led their teams in tackles four straight seasons? That’s where the 14 comes in.
Dakota Cox is now just the 14th player in FBS history to have led his team in tackles for four straight seasons. Here is the complete list:
| PLAYER | SCHOOL | YEARS |
| Dan Bass | Michigan State | 1976-79 |
| Mark Blosch | Utah | 1982-85 |
| Pete Najarian | Minnesota | 1982-85 |
| Larry Station | Iowa | 1982-85 |
| Greg Garnica | Ball State | 1986-89 |
| Dana Howard | Illinois | 1991-94 |
| Mike Staid | Tulane | 1991-94 |
| Mike Parker | Houston | 1994-97 |
| Dat Nguyen | Texas A&M | 1995-98 |
| Greg Jones | Michigan State | 2007-10 |
| Jerry Franklin | Arkansas | 2008-11 |
| Marcus McGraw | Houston | 2008-11 |
| Tyler Matakevich | Temple | 2012-15 |
| Dakota Cox | New Mexico | 2013-16 |
Just five players have accomplished the feat in the 2000s. So how did Cox get to this point of leading the team in four straight years? It wasn’t easy.
2013
In 2013, Cox was a true freshman who played in all 12 games and registered 99 tackles, leading the team by just five, as fellow linebacker Dallas Bollema finished the season with 94. However, it certainly never looked like Cox would lead the team, as he never took over the team lead until the 11th game of the season, when Cox registered nine tackles and Bollema just five to take an 86-85 lead. At one point Cox trailed by 15 tackles after the third game and by 13 after the eighth week.
Cox certainly had a late season surge, as after recording just six tackles in his first three games, he recorded 62 in the last five games. In the final game against Boise State, Cox clinched the team tackle lead with 13 tackles, his fourth double-digit tackle game of the season.
2014
Cox’s sophomore season was nothing short of insane, leading the Lobos with 116 tackles, topping second-place David Guthrie by 29 tackles. The gap would’ve been even greater if not for Dakota’s season-ending ACL injury suffered on the final drive of the ninth game of the season against Boise State. In his nine games, the Lobo middle linebacker had double-figure tackles in seven of his nine games, including each of the first four games.
Cox recorded 17 in the season opener, 18 against New Mexico State and then 19 against Fresno State. His lead over Guthrie was actually 56 at the time of his injury.
2015
In an amazing achievement, Dakota Cox’s junior season consisted of no missed games, despite suffering a torn ACL in November and not participating in spring football. Not only did he not miss any games, but Cox started all 13 games and led the team, easily finishing ahead of Daniel Henry, 97-72.
Cox didn’t play a lot in the opener against Mississippi Valley State, recording just three tackles, but he was back to his old self, recording 12 against Tulsa in the second game of the season. Cox took over the team lead for good after week seven when he recorded 11 tackles against Hawai’i.
2016
It took a while during his senior season, but after a slow start that saw Cox miss half of the New Mexico State game and all of the Rutgers game, Cox led the team in tackles by a large margin – again over Daniel Henry, 91-65, becoming the first Lobo to lead the team in tackles four straight years.
Cox recorded 20 tackles in the first game and a half before missing the next game and a half. Those 20 tackles had him one behind Kimmie Carson and tied with Daniel Henry and Nik D’Avanzo. Cox then had just one tackle against San José State. After the seventh game of the season, Cox was still one tackle behind the leader Nik D’Avanzo. However, Cox retook the lead after an eight-tackle game at Hawai’i, and then, as all greats do, he kept getting better and better.
He had double-digit tackle games in three of the last four games, all Lobo wins including 14 against Wyoming and then 10 against UTSA, earning defensive MVP honors in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.