Photo: UNM Athletics
WELCOME HOME, COACH GONZALES You Can Unpack Your Suitcase Now By Glen Rosales
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haos and organization were the themes football coach Danny Gonzales (’99 BBA, ’02 MS) kept coming back to as he completed a rookie season completely upended by the COVID pandemic. As he embarks on a second season, hoping quarantines and monthslong hotel stays in Nevada are behind him, Gonzales can see the benefit of his team bonding through the dark days of 2020. Gonzales’ debut with the Lobos — the feel-good story of hometown boy returning to his alma mater — was derailed almost immediately as restrictive public health orders all but curtailed the team’s ability to be competitive. While other Mountain West schools —and football teams around the country —were going through standard practices under their local public health directives, UNM was permitted only small group settings of five for non-contact instruction and was forced to cancel its season opener at Colorado State and play its “home” game against San José State in California.
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“You have to give the kids credit. We kept dangling these carrots in front of them and it was like Lucy from Peanuts — she kept yanking that ball out,” Gonzales said, referencing Charles Schulz’s famous cartoon story line that always ended with Charlie Brown flat on his back after whiffing at the open space where a football used to be. Unable to practice or play at home, the Lobos headed to the bedroom community of Henderson, Nev., a town they would call home until the season ended with a 2-5 record and not a single game played at home. “The chaos and organization,” Gonzales said of those uncertain months of August, September, October and November. “You couldn’t have any organization because day to day things seemed to change. At some point those kids had to think, ‘This guy is a liar. Screw this,’ and do something stupid, have a party, because we’re not playing anyway. And they never did. They kept down the path, kept down the path.”
Hotel living certainly was no vacation as players were limited to their rooms except during practices, position meetings and meals. For 42 days. “Sitting in a hotel room with one roommate was very challenging for (six) weeks,” Gonzales said. “It was a lovely hotel. We had a ballroom for our meeting room, so it was a big ballroom. So, they'd come down and hang out with the coaches. And I mean, I missed my family dearly. That was the hardest part of this whole deal was being away from my wife and kids. But the opportunity to be around the guys and figure out who loves football and who really wants to be good — and the ones that don't really care about football, and it’s not that important — was very telling.” New Mexico went on to lose its first five games, but Gonzales remained undiscouraged. “We’re 0-5, losing to Utah State and me telling them how terrible we were, which I won’t take back because we were. We were coaching them terrible. We were playing terrible,” he said.
