LAS VEGAS, Nev. — There is a scene in the original 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure where, after overcoming obstacle over obstacle in a capsized luxury liner, right as the remaining survivors are about to go out a door to escape, a value opens shoot red hot burning steam into the survivors’ way. Gene Hackman, playing Reverend Frank Scott, screams out loud, lamenting at all the different obstacles being put into the path of the survivors. We don’t know if that is a movie that head coach Danny Gonzales enjoys, or has even seen, but he can be forgiven for acting like Reverend Scott, lamenting all of the different obstacles put into his path for success in 2020.
Gonzales’ New Mexico Lobos will take on Fresno State at Sam Boyd Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Pacific/8:30 pm Mountain Time on Saturday, December 12. The game will be broadcast on FS2 and also on the Lobo Radio Network and it will serve as the season finale for the team.
Gonzales, who was named head coach to much fanfare at halftime of a Lobo basketball game on December 17, 2019, has truly faced an uphill battle. Dealing, as everyone else has, with the COVID-19 crisis, UNM’s spring camp, essential to installing a new offense, defense and well, a new culture, was cut short (basically in half). There was no summer conditioning program as the team scattered home for the summer, working out with whatever was available (including as it turned out for Kyle Stapley, a tractor and some random dairy cows). Then when the team was to return for fall camp, practices were shut down, and when everything was allowed to continue, the new health order prohibited the team from practicing in anything other than a small group before the first game (and that was after a short pause).
From there, UNM had its opener canceled and its home opener moved to San Jose State. Then it really got fun as the team moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to live at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort while practicing and playing games in UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium. Then UNM lost it’s starting quarterback and backup, meaning UNM would have to start a walk-on redshirt freshman in Connor Genal at quarterback, the first time that’s happened in 20 years.
It should then come as no surprise that UNM will now not only start a different walk-on quarterback, this time a true freshman in Rio Rancho’s Isaiah Chavez, because that’s what the fates allowed. However, as bad as those last four paragraphs are, what you won’t hear, and what you won’t see, is any complaining from Gonzales, or anyone else associated with the program, because that’s not the culture of the program Gonzales wants.
Quite simply, it’s not the Lobo Way.
“He’s a very confident young man which is what you want at that position,” said Gonzales of Chavez, who threw the winning touchdown pass with 6:22 and quickly became a social media sensation with his celebratory finger-pistol shooting and his flying hip check and that knocked over graduate assistant coach Matt Clark making the rounds on Twitter from CBS Sports Network and the like. “At no point on Saturday was he scared,” said Gonzales with a wry smirk, showcasing that he liked what he saw. “He’s just like our team, a blue-collar, hard working young man.”
After living in a hotel for six weeks (since November 2), none of the players, coaches or support staff have seen families, friends, pets or anyone since, other than via ZOOM or Facetime, and Gonzales admitted that the sacrifices everyone has made haven’t been easy.
“It’s hard,” said Gonzales, who then talked about not his sacrifice, but the sacrifice of those back home in Albuquerque, including his wife. “She’s made this possible because for the last six week she’s been a single mom and that’s not what she signed up for.” Gonzales, who gets a nightly call right before bed time from his two youngest girls Chloe and Abby with the kids counting down the days, just get it. “Me trying to be a dad over Facetime … I’m just so blessed because (Sandra) is amazing, and that’s been the hardest part.”
What seemed the hardest part for the fan base was watching UNM get close only to somehow lose a halftime lead, which had happened in three of the five previous contests. Instead, UNM came back from a 13-10 deficit after three and a 16-10 fourth quarter deficit to win on Chavez’ touchdown pass with 6:22 left. Senior Brandon Shook was a big reason why that lead held up, forcing a fumble at the Lobo 5-yard line with just over three minutes left, and then sealing the game with an interception with 1:32 to go.
Now UNM takes on a Fresno State team with a quarterback coming off a 400-yard passing game against Nevada, a game that the shorthanded Bulldogs lost 37-26. That game saw Fresno State missing several key members of its special teams as the Bulldogs used a wide receiver as a kicker, another receiver as a long snapper and a third-string punter. All of the regulars are slated to be back for the Bulldogs, which have won seven straight over UNM.
Heading into the finale in mid December brings up one other obstacle that no Lobo coach would have ever dealt with … finals week as normally the season is over in November, and any bowl game is after finals week. For Gonzales, it’s meant moving some meeting times around to make sure the players can get their exams in, but that’s been par for the course anyways. “They can miss any meeting, football-wise, for an academic appointment, that’s academic tutoring, a meeting, a final, as long as we know about it.” It’s probably telling that while social media wondered if the Lobo team would stay up late and party into the night on Saturday after breaking a 20-game conference losing streak, several dozen players were in the study area of the hotel before 8 am on Sunday behind laptops doing homework as academic advisors roamed the area to help out and offer their expertise and advice. “Hopefully we will have a strong semester when all the grades are said and done.”
In a year that has been unlike any other in Lobo Football history, the groundwork certain has been laid by Gonzales and company, and that groundwork is exactly what Lobo fans want. Hard work, never give up and never say die, always fighting, and of course, having some homegrown talent do well in the Cherry and Silver. Basically, this team took the fight song to heart in Fighting Ever, Yielding Never. That’s something everyone in New Mexico can get behind as the band of players and coaches and staff have certainly done the state of New Mexico proud, and in a pandemic where folks are asked to stay inside and not go out, the pride the Lobos have brought to the Land of Enchantment through their determination is what you can build a program on. Gonzales certainly plans on that.