‘We finally won a football game’

Lobos 17, Cowboys 16

An hour after they’d doused their head coach with ice water and danced across the turf inside an empty Las Vegas, Nevada, stadium, the University of New Mexico football players who’d just delivered the school’s first win in 14 months celebrated by taking their boxed dinners and retreating to the solitude of their hotel rooms. No cab rides to the Strip. No parties. No all-night gab sessions.

And that’s just fine with the Lobos.

Winners of a nail-biting 17-16 victory over Wyoming on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium, the Lobos ended college football’s longest active losing streak at 14 and snapped a 20-game skid in the Mountain West. They also handed Danny Gonzales the first win as a head coach, doing so with a roster that has now played 20 freshmen in what has become a monumental rebuilding project.

With just one game left in a wild and weird 2020 season, the 1-5 Lobos can finally breathe after a number of close calls and second half implosions kept them win-less for far too long.

“I’m happy for them so they can stop feeling bad for me,” Gonzales said. “This whole feeling sorry for people, it’s just not my way and so we can get over that. Now I don’t have to listen to people say, you know, we’re proud of you, you’re competitive now. We finally won football game.”

Down to their fifth-string quarterback after Saturday’s starter, fourth-stringer Connor Genal, broke his wrist while falling backward to the turf in the first half, UNM’s offense looked a lot like the Denver Broncos did when they played New Orleans after their three QBs were placed on the COVID-19 list and ruled ineligible.

Cast into playing time for the first time in his college career, true freshman Isaiah Chavez came up with the biggest play of the season when he found a wide-open Bobby Cole running free in the Wyoming secondary for the game-winning score, a 44-yard touchdown with 6:22 remaining.

“Going into that play I felt confidence, I knew what I was doing,” Chavez said. “Once I saw my man open, all I gotta do is get him the ball. It was the ugliest ball I’ve ever thrown in my life, but it got there and it was a touchdown.”

At that point it was just the fourth completed pass of the game for Chavez, a local kid who led Río Rancho High School to the Class 5A championship game just 12 months ago.

Cole was so wide open that Chavez said he could hardly believe it. The score touched off a wild celebration on the sidelines, perhaps disproportionately so considering it was only a onepoint lead with more than six minutes left. But when you’ve lost 35 straight when trailing entering the fourth quarter, a celebration was perhaps justified.

What actually won the game from that point was a pair of stellar defensive stands, one that found linebacker Brandon Shook front and center each time. Wyoming drove to the UNM 4-yard line on the ensuing possession and looked to control the outcome.

Up came Shook, forcing a fumble with three minutes left.

“I definitely got lucky on that,” he said. “I didn’t even know I hit it out until I saw one of the other players jump on it. I’ll take credit for it, but it wasn’t intentional.”

A short punt set up the Cowboys for one last shot at UNM’s 44 yard line in the final two minutes. But three straight incompletions were followed by Shook picking off a pass to clinch it.

Streak(s) over, win-less season no more.

“It brings you hope,” Gonzales said. “They way they celebrated tonight, honestly it’s a little embarrassing, but you’ve got to give it to them for all they’ve been through and all we’re doing.”

What’s more, now there’s reason to believe. With nothing but losses to lean on before, something new is now pushing the Lobos forward.

“If you don’t get results sooner or later you’re going to have a few of them doubt what we’re talking about,” Gonzales said.

Now with his first win, Gonzales is 64 behind his mentor, his friend and his defensive coordinator Rocky Long, UNM’s all-time winningest head coach during an 11-year tenure in which Gonzales was a player for Long’s first win in 1998.

With the locker room still buzzing as he visited with the local media after Saturday’s game, Gonzales said he’d give his players Sunday off to savor the win and finally feel good about themselves.

On Monday, it was back to work.

NOTES:

Cole made a strong case for MWC offensive player of the week after rushing for 134 yards and finishing with 178 yards total offense and a touchdown. Shook’s two crucial fourth quarter plays should earn him consideration on defense ... The Lobos were 18-point underdogs Saturday ... Akron owned the country’s longest active losing streak but the Zips snapped it with a 31-3 win over Bowling Green earlier Saturday afternoon. Gonzales said he reminded his team that they were now the nation’s leader in consecutive L’s during the pregame meal ... The 14-game skid tied for second-longest in school history.