Tony Sanchez, New Mexico State: Meet The 2024 New Head Coaches

2024 New College Football Head Coaches

Tony Sanchez, New Mexico State

Previous Life: He transferred from the JUCO ranks to New Mexico State in 1994, catching 54 passes in his two seasons. … It took him a while working at several different jobs before getting the head coaching job at Cal High in 2004. … In 2009, he came to Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas and turned it into a powerhouse over his six seasons. … Named the UNLV head coach in 2015, he went 20-40 in five seasons. … A wide receiver assistant at New Mexico State over the last two seasons, now he steps into the head coaching job after the retirement of Jerry Kill.

Top Line of the Resumé: He went 85-5 - and was unbeaten in conference play - in his six seasons at Bishop Gorman from 2009 to 2014 with six Nevada state championships.

Realistic Year One Expectations: At least four wins. Jerry Kill set the bar WAY high with the program’s best two-year run wince 1959-1960, but that’s going to be a problem to sustain. The transfer portal and a much, much tougher Conference USA schedule are too rough to make it three bowl seasons in a row.

Realistic Expectations Over The Next Five Years: Two bowl seasons in the next five, and keeping the program from falling back into the abyss. Being in the Conference USA title hunt - at least right away - is asking for too much, but there can’t be a fall back into the disaster it was before Kill.

What Will Happen? It’s not going to be easy. It’s not quite fair to blame Sanchez for not being able to get UNLV to turn the corner in his five seasons - no one was able to do that until Barry Odom showed up last year - but he needs a good season right away.

That won’t happen, but he knows the program, will get enough talent in place to be okay after this year, and NMSU will be more like 5-to-6-win okay without going back to being an annual 2-to-3-win team.