Do yourself a favor and try not to use the words “new normal” around the Lobo football team.
Tucked away into their own self-sealed bubble in Henderson, Nev., the University of New Mexico’s home-away-from-home boys are getting used to a perpetual life on the road. Forced into the Vegas suburbs by rising COVID-19 cases back home, the Lobos have made the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa their temporary headquarters while trying to navigate a weird and unforgettable 2020 college football season.
The Lobos are scheduled to travel to Honolulu on Friday morning and play a game at Hawaii the following night. After that, it’s either a return to the Hilton or back home to Albuquerque in preparation for a Nov. 14 home game against Nevada.
Either way, head coach Danny Gonzales — an organized timekeeper who plans out his daily activities weeks in advance — has learned to fly by the seat of his pants thanks to the coronavirus.
“Back in July, I had every week planned out until the end of the season, so I threw that book up in the air and we just start it over every night,” Gonzales said. “When I get into the bedroom at night, I have two or three schedules of what we’re going to do and I can pull one out of a hat and say, ‘OK, here we go.’ “
It is — and here’s that phrase the Lobos detest so much — the team’s new normal.
Toss in the other daily routines like being around one another 24 hours a day, of regular full-contact practices for the first time in nearly three weeks, of living out of suitcases and getting tested for COVID-19 three times a week, and the new normal is taking some getting used to.
Quarterback Tevaka Tuioti said one of the biggest differences is the lack of downtime when players can retreat to their own residences and decompress after the team’s activities (and one another), if only for a few hours.
“It’s pretty busy because we still keep the same schedule as we would if we were in Albuquerque, but the thing is now that we just get extra meeting times with the coaches,” he said. “We’re seeing them 24/7. It’s not like every day seeing them half the day.”
The Lobos are using UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium to practice, although Gonzales said the team doesn’t use the facility’s locker rooms to dress or shower. They take care of that during a 25-minute bus ride between their hotel and the stadium, cleaning themselves using water bottles and wet wipes.
The Lobos left home Monday, using a caravan of five busses to transport 74 players and an extended support staff to Nevada. Gonzales said he took 64 players to the game last weekend at San Jose State and plans to take no more than 70 to the game in Hawaii.
“I’m a firm believer that … there ain’t any reason to take anybody if they’re going to stand on the sideline and watch the football game because, in my honest opinion, they just get in the way if they’re not actually involved,” Gonzales said. “If they don’t think they’re going to play, then they’re a distraction to other people.”
Ideally, Gonzales would like to do what UNM traditionally did with road games to Hawaii during his first go-round with UNM as an assistant coach, and that’s fly to Los Angeles the night before the game and then leave for Honolulu the morning of the game. The team would then immediately fly home afterward.
Because Mountain West Conference rules require visiting teams to now be on-site for a road contest at least 24 hours in advance to complete a round of COVID-19 testing, the Lobos will be on the islands by Friday night.
“Traveling to Hawaii’s not hard and it’s not fun, either,” Gonzales said. “The kids won’t even see the beach. They won’t seen any of the wonderful things in Hawaii. I mean, we’re going to be there for less than 24 hours.”
Actually, the Lobos will be on the island for a little more than a day. The game kicks off at 6 p.m. Honolulu time, but the team will head back to the mainland long before midnight.
After that, the only thing Gonzales and the Lobos know for sure are two things: Jet lag is a nightmare considering there’s another game the following weekend, and a round of COVID-19 testing awaits, whether it’s in Henderson or back in Albuquerque.
Webber writes for the Santa Fe New Mexican