College Football Coach Hire Grades: New Mexico State

New Mexico State Aggies: Tony Sanchez

Why the job was open: New Mexico State is a challenging job, and for a long time was known as perhaps the most challenging job in the country, especially given it’s status as a forced independent. Jerry Kill came in and changed everything almost overnight. A 17-11 record, 2 Bowl appearances, 1 bowl win, a 31-10 win at Auburn and a conference championship appearance later, New Mexico State’s image is completely revamped. Let this be a lesson that things do change fast in this sport. Sadly Jerry Kill’s health doesn’t allow him to continue with the demands of being a head coach so he stepped down from the position.

Coach Profile: Tony Sanchez is a former New Mexico State Wide receiver and he really got his start coaching at the high school level. He eventually took over and dominated at high school power Bishop Gorman. His success there led to UNLV, a program in a desperate place at the time to hire him in hopes of finding success. His teams at UNLV always seemed so tantalizingly close to breaking through to a bowl game but they just couldn’t do it. His best record in 5 seasons there was 5-7 and he had a 20-40 record overall. Since then he’s followed Jerry Kill around, first as support at TCU and then as a WR coach at New Mexico State when Kill became the head coach.

Why he will succeed: The foundation for New Mexico State’s program has never been better, they’re in a conference now, made the championship game of that conference and captured the attention of the entire nation with that 31-10 drubbing of Auburn. Tony Sanchez is an alum who understands this program, and he’s gotten the time to learn under Jerry Kill. It’s going to be important to utilize the transfer portal and JUCO’s to fill holes on the roster, early returns suggests that Sanchez understands that.

What obstacles are in the way of success: Tony Sanchez’s first attempt as a head coach at UNLV didn’t go well with that 20-40 record with 0 bowl appearances, the challenge will be on to hit bowl eligibility in year 1. Jerry Kill made things look easy for a couple years but it can’t be forgotten that before he got here this was one of the toughest jobs in the entire country.

Grade: B- – This grade takes a hit by simply not being Jerry Kill, there was always a good chance that this hire would be a downgrade from him. That being said, I’m higher on the Sanchez hire than most. In hindsight him jumping straight into college football right to FBS at UNLV was absolutely wild, and his teams never broke through so his record also weighs down the grade. I’m thinking what he’s learned since then will get a different result this time.