LAS VEGAS – Sin City became a place of redemption for both UCLA
and New Mexico. Both teams played in the Las Vegas Bowl on
Wednesday to feel good about themselves after failing to win
conference championships. Every player on down to the backup kicker
needed a second chance to prove himself. Well, herself, in New
Mexico’s case. No, the Lobos didn’t exactly have their
masculinity stripped after losing to the Bruins 27-13. They had a
woman on their team. And she played. Katie Hnida became the first
woman in history to play in a Division I-A football game with her
first quarter appearance. The junior kicker had transferred from
Colorado, where she had a negative experience and said she would
have never gotten to play. Still, Hnida just wouldn’t give
up. Fittingly wearing No. 2, she got her second chance with New
Mexico after walking on the team and becoming its third-string
kicker. After Desmar Black scored on a 55-yard interception return
in the first quarter to tie the score at six, New Mexico sent in
Hnida, a blonde ponytail dangling out of her helmet, to take the
lead with the extra point. “We made the decision to let Katie
kick the first extra point,” New Mexico head coach Rocky Long
said. “She has been a vital part of this team all year, and
we felt that she deserved the opportunity to make a play.”
Hnida might have been a woman, but she wasn’t Lady Luck. The
kick was low and Brandon Chillar blocked enough of it to have it
sail under the crossbar. Rodney Leisle, who provided the key push
up the middle, did not realize a woman was trying to score on him.
“Wow, I’m just glad we stopped her,” he said with
a smile, adding that a girl played kicker on his high school team.
“She’s a great kicker,” said UCLA kicker Nate
Fikse, who knows Hnida through a mutual friend. “I’ve
seen film of her. It just sucks that she didn’t make
it.” Fikse’s other friend did make it. UCLA kicker
Chris Griffith, who had been benched for his inefficiency for the
last five games of the regular season, got his own second chance.
After Jarrad Page’s fourth-quarter interception return for a
touchdown, Griffith returned to the field to kick one final extra
point. Unlike Hnida, he had experience. Griffith had been sitting
tied with John Lee for a school-record 135 career extra points. And
unlike Hnida, his kick was good. “It was important for me to
get the record,” Griffith, a senior, said. “I needed to
get that off my shoulders. It was important to have my last game
mean something.” “That was surreal for him,”
Fikse said. “He hasn’t had his best of seasons. That
was just a great way to end it for him.”