Home at last, Gonzales gets first Abq. win
My Albuquerque Journal colleague Bob Christ once wondered aloud if any veteran rodeo contestant, whether in interviews or perhaps while doing a reverse-mortgage commercial, had ever said, “This isn’t my first football game.”
Certainly, Thursday’s University of New Mexico football game against Houston Baptist wasn’t Danny Gonzales’ first football rodeo. It was, though, and forever will be, his home debut as the Lobos’ head coach — improbably, almost 22 months after he took the job.
So, how did it go?
Could have been better, a lot better. The Lobos, outscored over the final 51 minutes, 44 seconds, had to hold on for a 27-17 victory over a team from a lower level of NCAA football.
Also, could have been worse. UNM did in fact hold on, adding a third victory to the two the Lobos achieved at the end of their truncated 2020 season.
The same — could have been better, could have been worse — applies to the crowd announced at 15,908 for the first UNM home game since November 2019.
It likely was a legitimate 15,908, at least, a figure not padded by season-ticket no-shows. Still, it appears Missouri is on the Lobos’ schedule; the fans want to be shown, and it’s not a guarantee game.
Thursday’s performance likely won’t be enough to convince many.
Gonzales, an Albuquerque native and a Valley High and UNM graduate, is keeping the faith.
“It’s gonna take some time,” he said, speaking both of building a winning program and building a fan base. “… I’m OK with that.
“We’re gonna build something so that (the
fans) are proud, so that they come to University Stadium and expect to win.”
Opening games, of course, are historically an unreliable indicator of such things.
A sample:
Sept. 17, 1960, coach Bill Weeks: UNM 77, the University of Mexico 6. The Lobos would proceed to lose their next four games, including a 34-0 whitewashing at the hands of the best New Mexico State team in history, before winning their last four to finish 5-5.
Sept. 5, 1992, coach Dennis Franchione: UNM 24, TCU 7. Any thoughts of a miraculous Mike Sheppardto-Franchione turnaround vanished when the Lobos dropped their next five games, including a 42-39 loss to New Mexico State the very next week, and finished 3-8 on the season.
Sept. 5, 1998, coach Rocky Long: UNM 38, Idaho State 9. After a 39-36 overtime victory over Utah State the following week, the Lobos would lose five in a row, nine of their last 10 and finish 3-9.
Sept. 1, 2012, coach Bob Davie: UNM
66, Southern 21. After winning four of their first seven games, the Lobos would lose their last six and finish 4-9.
The key word here, though, is patience. All four aforementioned head coaches,
despite the fool’s gold represented by their home debuts, went on to varied degrees of success at New Mexico.
From 1961-64, Weeks’ UNM teams went 29-12-1 and shared or won outright the first-ever three Western Athletic Conference championships.
Franchione coached the Lobos to a 9-4 record, a WAC division title and a bowl game in 1997 before departing for TCU, the team he’d beaten in his Lobo debut.
Long took the Lobos to five bowl games in seven seasons from 2002-07. Now he’s returned to UNM, his alma mater, as Gonzales’ defensive coordinator.
And from the how-quickly-they-forget department, Davie coached UNM to 16 wins and back-to-back bowl games in 2015-16 before things went south.
And now?
Sept. 2, 2021, coach Danny Gonzales: UNM 27, Houston Baptist 17.
“I’m a firm believer that you make your most improvement between game one and game two,” he said.
That’s not always the case, of course, and sometimes it just depends on whom you play. Still, those Lobo coaches of the past persevered.
Gonzales, with no room for doubt, will do the same.