The Wildcats spoiled Texas A&M University Kingsville’s (TAMUK) homecoming celebration this past Saturday, beating the Javelinas on their home field 31-0, their second shutout win of the season. Following the win, sophomore quarterback Kennedy McGill and sophomore defensive lineman Daniel Matagi both won Lone Star Conference (LSC) Offensive Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week respectively. 

The Wildcat’s now sit at 5-2 on the season and 4-1 in the LSC, and look to win again this weekend at CWU’s homecoming celebration as the team welcomes Midwestern State University to Steve Hertling Field at Tomlinson Stadium on Saturday. McGill took pride in his award, but made sure to shout out his teammates. 

“It’s a good feeling,” McGill said. “But, we’re moving on onto the next week. Hats off to the O-line. They dominated all night, and hats off to our defense … It’s nice when they can get you the ball back.”

The team’s defense has been notable all season. The Wildcats are beating their opponents by an average margin of 17.3 points, and the Wildcats have been converting on third downs at a 56.8% rate, while holding their opponents to a 34.1% rate. Their opponents have also only reached the red-zone 11 times the entire season. Conversely, the Wildcats have gotten to the red-zone 29 times and converted 19 times.

McGill, who has been a dual-threat quarterback this season being able to rush and pass, had his best passing game of the year so far. He threw for a season-high 193 yards and a career-high four passing touchdowns, attributing the heavy air-time to offensive coordinator Mike Ferriter.

“Coach Ferriter does an excellent job of game-planning for us week-to-week,” McGill said. “The game-plan going into the game was to air it out a little more because the defense we went against played low safeties. They were very good at stopping the run.” 

The game started scoreless in the first quarter. McGill pointed to the weather conditions, but as the offense got into its rhythm and used to the conditions, the game began to expand for the offense. 

“The weather played a little bit of a role at the beginning of the game, because it was a monsoon out there,” McGill said. “So that made it difficult to throw the ball. But our offensive line, our running backs, receivers, blocking, they did an excellent job continuing to run the football. They got those safeties low, and it really opened up the passing game, which was awesome.” 

Matagi won Player of the Week for his dominant performance against TAMUK’s quarterback, sacking him three times and also registering three tackles for loss. Matagi now has four sacks on the season. 

Matagi’s success can be attributed to his incredible work ethic. While some people might take time off over summer and winter break, Matagi is in the gym working hard on his athleticism. He understands that good performances take more than just showing up on gameday. 

As he puts it, “I know that if I wanna perform on Saturday, I need to perform on Monday, then again on Tuesday, all the way up to Saturdays, so I have those perfect practices to rely on in game, and that gives me confidence to play fast and physically,” Matagi said.

With performing in-game every weekend comes a lot of pressure, and every athlete has a different strategy that they use to calm and overcome their pregame nerves. A lot of his teammates have very high energy in the locker room before games, but Matagi would rather find somewhere quiet to relax his mind. 

What keeps him grounded is thinking about, “What my family sacrificed for me to play college football,” Matagi said. “Especially the sacrifices my dad has made for me my whole life, and try to make them all worth it.” Grounding himself in his “why” is a key pregame strategy for Matagi.

While Matagi’s mindset is in the right place, it takes a combination of individual efforts from the entire team and coaching staff to see success. 

The culture of the CWU football team is one where each player takes it into their own hands to be the best that they can be, as just about every individual player is self motivated. As Matagi puts it, “Our whole team wants to be better without coaches pushing us,” Matagi said. “The coaching staff tells us the standard and we hold it or raise it– nothing less.” 

However, the football team’s motivation goes far deeper than wanting results on the football field every Saturday. Much of CWU’s current roster has played either with or against each other having grown up in the state of Washington. 

These deep relationships translate into wins. “When we get in tough situations it’s the relationships and bonds with each other that we rely on to win the tough ones,” Matagi said. This is proven true as CWU has now gone 4-1 in conference play so far this year. 

CWU Football’s only loss this year was a score of 13-14 against the conference’s current No. 1 University of Texas Permian Basin the Saturday before last. However, they were able to turn such a difficult moment into a positive, and came out with the shutout win this weekend. 

This was Matagi’s favorite moment of the season so far, “We bounced back from a pretty rough loss and it just showed how resilient we are together,” Matagi said. “We aren’t gonna dwell on the past, but instead take it to the chin and keep moving and keep giving our best.”

Looking ahead to next week, the team isn’t looking to do anything differently before their game this weekend. Associate Head Coach and Defensive Line Coach Grant Torgerson said that the team maintains the same mentality no matter the opponent. 

“We are not changing anything,” Torgerson said. “We talk about it all the time, no matter who we’re playing, it’s a nameless, faceless opponent. Homecoming is not really for the football team, they are the show that will be happening on Saturday night. So we’re approaching this game similarly to every other week that we’ve had. We’ve had success when we just trust the process and our process is to be prepared for a game on saturday, and the process to be good, both on offense, defense and on special teams … Nothing will change with our week of preparation outside of being able to sleep in our own bed on Friday night, as opposed to in a hotel somewhere in Texas.” 

CWU is tied with Angelo State University (ASU) and Western Oregon University (WOU) with overall records of 5-2, but ASU and WOU are both undefeated in the LSC. Along with the next game being the homecoming game, the season is also coming to a close quickly. Counting Saturday’s game, there are four games left in the regular season. Three of them are at home, and every game counts.

“There’s a little bit more at stake, and we’re not afraid to shy away from that,” Torgerson said. “But we are not an end goal program or defense or offense or special teams. We’re a process oriented football team, and that process to win is having a great week of practice and preparing the right way, and whoever shows up to play on Saturday, they’re a nameless, faceless opponent. We respect everybody, but we fear no one.”