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New Mexico head coach Bronco Mendenhall reacts after a play during the first half of an NCAA college football game, against Auburn, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Auburn, Ala. | Butch Dill
Bronco Mendenhall is doing it again.
In Mendenhall’s first season as head coach of the New Mexico Lobos football team following a two-year retirement, he already has a perennially bad team on the doorstep of a bowl game.
Following an 0-4 start to the season, which included a loss to FCS Montana State, the Lobos have won five of their last seven games, including a dramatic 38-35 victory last Saturday over the then-No. 18 Washington State Cougars that saw the field at University Stadium get stormed.
If the Lobos win their final game of the regular season Nov. 30 at Hawaii (New Mexico has a bye this week), they will be bowl eligible for the first time since 2016, when they went 9-4.
With the win over Washington State, New Mexico has already won more games than it had in a season since then. This follows Mendenhall having had similar success at Brigham Young University and Virginia.
Following the game, which saw standout Lobos quarterback Devon Dampier score the game-winning touchdown with 21 seconds left, the team chanted “We want Bronco!” as Mendenhall made his way to the locker room, and then just “Bronco!” as he entered the room.
Mendenhall then gave an emotional speech in the locker room.
“I’m not gonna say much. A coach is nothing without the people and the players that do the work,” he said.
The win came on a night when New Mexico struck first with a touchdown only to give up the game’s next three, and the Lobos trailed 28-14 at halftime.
New Mexico scored the only two touchdowns of the third quarter to tie things up heading into the fourth and then took a 31-28 lead on a field goal with 4:40 to play.
The Cougars…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/did-see-bronco-mendenhall-emotional-030915093.html
Author : Deseret News
Publish date : 2024-11-19 03:09:15
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