Freshman kicker Drzewiecki’s performance a silver lining for Lobos

Nobody has to tell Danny Gonzales, a former special-teams coach, how important it is for a football team to have a reliable kicker.

Nor did anyone need to tell Gonzales that his kickers were 22-of-38 on field-goal attempts, a horrid 57.8%, through his first 25 games as head coach at the University of New Mexico.

Through the first six games of the 2022 season, the numbers were 4-of-10.

Then, last Saturday night in Las Cruces, when nothing else was going right for the Lobos, up stepped Luke Drzewiecki. The true freshman from suburban Detroit was a perfect 3-of-3, providing UNM with its only points in a 21-9 loss to arch-rival New Mexico State.

Through the Lobos’ first six games, Drzewiecki had…