UNM ‘targeting’ Bronco Mendenhall as next head football coach. Here’s what we know.

Dec. 5—Per a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, New Mexico is targeting Bronco Mendenhall to be their next head coach.

Mendenhall, 57, compiled a 135-81 record over 17 seasons as a head coach at BYU and Virginia. The Alpine, Utah native and Oregon State graduate also served as UNM’s defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach under former head coach Rocky Long from 1998-2001 before taking the same role at BYU.

Mendenhall had previously been linked to the job in a report by The Athletic’s Chris Vannini, who wrote that Mendenhall, Long and former Utah State head coach Matt Wells were “finalists” for the UNM vacancy according to industry sources.

UNM Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez did not respond when reached by the Journal for comment. Mendenhall would presumably replace former head coach Danny Gonzales, who was fired Nov. 25 after a 4-8 season.

Gonzales was paid $700,000 in 2023. With new Nevada head coach Jeff Choate set to make up to $1.05 million a year, Gonzales’ pay rate would’ve ranked second-to-last among the 12 Mountain West coaches.

Mendenhall abruptly resigned from Virginia in 2021 and has been out of coaching since. Thamel’s report and previous work by ESPN’s David Hale indicated Mendenhall — BYU’s second-winningest coach — might be interested in taking on another rebuild. UNM, which hasn’t had a winning season since 2016 and has historically struggled, fits that bill.

“He’s always been someone who wants to take a challenge and excel at it,” a source told Thamel. “He’s a great person and always done it the right way. In the industry, people see him as someone with high character and high integrity.”

A defensive back at Oregon State from 1986-87, Mendenhall started his coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Beavers and worked his way up as a position coach or coordinator at Snow College (Utah),…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/report-unm-targeting-bronco-mendenhall-040100378.html

Author : Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

Publish date : 2023-12-06 04:01:00

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