Forward progress

As the microphone moved around from one Arizona Western College official to the next during the school’s press conference to announce its football team’s bowl destination, a central character emerged through their words of praise and jubilation.
 
And even when he snuck out of the lights into a dark corner of the room to deliver his message and acknowledge others around him, the focus did not leave Tom Minnick.
 
The reasons for how and why the Matador football program transformed from obscurity to national prominence in less than two year’s time vary some, but they all point back to the man at the helm.

“We knew from the very beginning coach Minnick was the guy we wanted,” AWC athletic director Jerry Smith said. “Now as I’m in town on a daily basis I never fail to hear people say man, there’s a lot of excitement about Arizona Western College Matador football, and it makes me feel so good. My head just starts swelling when I hear that.”
 
The inheritor of a program clouded by three straight years of losing records  - the most recent a 2-8 season - and sexual harassment allegations targeted at former coaches, Minnick was the picture of confidence and optimism when he was introduced as AWC’s new head coach in June of 2008.
 
"It's going to get turned around this year, and maybe I'll be eating my words, but it's going to get turned around right away," Minnick said his first day on the job. "We're going to win seven, eight games this year and that's my goal right off the bat."
 
It may have taken Minnick a year longer than he preferred, but the coach has lived up to his projection.
 
Now with a 9-1 record, a No. 6 national ranking and the team’s first bowl appearance of the decade, the Matadors are reaping the rewards of having a disciplined environment, assistant coaches that have stuck around, talented freshmen recruits mixed with savvy sophomores and a marquee win that made believers out of everyone.
 
“I could have seen us finishing maybe second in the conference or third, but I didn’t see us being in the running for a national championship for a while,” said AWC sophomore receiver Jerell Ramos, a redshirt freshman in 2007 prior to Minnick’s arrival. “It was kind of shocking, but exciting at the same time.”
 
Progress and frustration were evident in Year One under Minnick as the Matadors bounced in and out of the win column on their way to a 5-5 record. The season ended on a low note when the final game of the year against Eastern Arizona was called early in the fourth quarter after a fight broke out on the field.
 
“We were close last year, but the kids hadn’t bought into it yet.” Minnick said. “They didn’t know me, but most of this group was brought in by me or was here in the spring to get to know me, and they’ve accepted the discipline more than anything else. They want to do things right.”
 
The lessons learned by all parties involved from that first go-round were put right to work at the start of the 2009 schedule. Matched against defending conference champion and No. 4 ranked Snow College, AWC convincingly handed the Badgers their first home loss in five years with a 35-17 win.
 
“After we lost a couple games (last season) morale went down, and you go out to practice and stuff doesn’t feel right, and you’re unsure about certain things when you step on the field,” AWC sophomore quarterback Brandon Gorsuch said. “This year we come out with the play they call at a certain time against a certain defense, and we step up to the line fully confident. When it comes down to it you know you can do it now, and you expect to do it every Saturday.”
 
Led by freshman running back Reggie Bullock and assistant coach Jerry Dominguez’s blitzing defensive packages, the Matadors pulled off another top-5 upset against Eastern for a 5-0 start and moved to No. 5 in the polls, the team’s highest ranking in nearly 40 years. AWC suffered its only hiccup two weeks later at New Mexico Military, but won their next four games to claim their first-ever Western States Football League championship among a number of other history-making accomplishments.
 
“We recruited good kids, and we’ve got a great staff,” Minnick said. “Getting (offensive coordinator) coach (Michael) Orthmann was a big plus for the program this year, and having coach Dominguez come back and coach (Josh) Brewer and coach (Aaron) Cheatwood and coach (Tony) Mitchell. If you can keep them together for a long period of time in [junior college] football you’re going to win nine games every year.”
 
The Matadors will have to face the challenge of keeping coaches around and trying to defend their conference title with another winning season next year, but for now their only worry putting the finishing touches on 2009 with a win in the Mississippi Bowl.
 
“You can look at all the talent on your team, but it never translates to your mind until you go out in a game and do something, Gorsuch said. “Last year we struggled, so a bowl game never came into my mind. This year we took all that talent we had and went out and won that first big game at Snow, and it really clicks that holy cow, we got a good team and we can do something special.”