COWBOYS LOOK TO ROUND UP SOME CONSISTENCY
Coach Fine is confident the NMHU team is already fitter and faster
It’s fair to say that the New Mexico Highlands University football team is coming off a rough season, both on the field and, well, with the field. The Cowboys struggled to a second straight 2-9 season in coach Marty Fine’s second season at the helm.
And the team was forced to play its home games at West Las Vegas High School because the installation of its new turf was delayed by weatherrelated issues.
Now that Highlands has its home field back with a glitteringly new turf surface, it is looking to start making some advances in terms of wins and losses.
“I think it’s safe to say we’re clearly better,” Fine said. “Our behavior is better, our players are better, we’re going to class and we’re doing what we need to do. How that translates to the fall, that’s unknown. It’s always interesting because in our particular sport, you can be better and not win more games because you never what other teams have done.”
It certainly won’t be an easy task for the Cowboys, however, as five of the team’s first seven games are on the road.
For Fine, what he’s looking for is some consistency from a squad that led the country in turnovers last season, with 28, which helped run up an opponents scoring average of almost 44 points a game.
“We turned it over so damn much, the defense was put in a bad spot,” he said. “Our kicking game gave up touchdowns and didn’t give up very good field position. I thought defensively we played better and better as the year went on, I thought defensively our effort was better. Defense is an amalgamation of a lot of different factors — wind and weather, field position.”
Sophomore linebacker Eli Schoettmer, in his second season after transferring from Indiana State, said the defense needs to build on the improvements it made as last season went on.
“It’s quite the process,” he said.
“It was rough at first. As the season progressed, I felt like we came together and everybody started taking care of their jobs, because that’s what defense is. So, by the end of the season, I think we had a pretty solid defense, honestly.”
Senior wide receiver D.J. McFadden said the offense has vowed to do better on its end.
“It was tough last year,” said McFadden, who returned to football last season after a two-year break. “A lot of guys haven’t played in a while.
Sitting out two years and playing again was tough, and there are a lot of new faces here. We have a big chip on our shoulders, but the freshmen and the transfers are definitely buying in. We have a new offensive coordinator, Matt Clark, and everybody is buying in on both sides of the football. We’re definitely excited for Aug. 21.”
McFadden is one of those players that Fine points to as helping change the team’s culture. An academic washout at his previous stop, Bloomsburg University, McFadden now carries a 3.3 grade-point average and co-owns a clothing line, N.O.W. Brand clothes, which stands for No Opportunities Wasted.
“I wasted a lot of opportunities in life, but I got a second chance to play football,” he said. “I’ve turned things around. Things are going good.”
Now he and the rest of the Cowboys want to help turn things around on the field.
“All the guys that were here last season, we’re a tight bond,” Schoettmer said. “I don’t really think of being a leader. We just want to get everybody together and play some good football.”
And that’s all well and good, Fine said, but the ultimate goal is not to simply produce a winning season, but create a winning atmosphere for the program that becomes sustainable year after year.
“I was hoping it would be faster than it is,” he said of the turnaround. “But me and my family like living in Las Vegas so much that we’re going to see it through. When you build something, you want to build something that will stand the test of time. We’re trying to build something that will be representative of the kids and the struggle that they have put in so that we build it for a lifetime.” The signs are there, Fine added. “I think we’re more fit and I think we’re faster than we were,” he said. “I think the things within our control, we have taken care of. We’re just going to recruit good kids from good families. We want to get as many New Mexico kids as we can that can play at this level. We want good players and good people, and eventually things will turn our way.”