"He loves challenges": How UNM's coaching search ended with Bronco Mendenhall

Dec. 11—The way Eddie Nuñez tells it, there was a moment he knew exactly who his next head coach would be. Bronco Mendenhall was driving with his wife, Holly, to pick up one of their sons a little under two weeks ago when New Mexico's athletic director gave them a call.

The purpose? In so many ways, to talk about trust.

"I asked him point blank: 'Coach, if I asked you for this opportunity, would you come?'" Nuñez said during Mendenhall's introductory press conference on Thursday. "He said, 'absolutely.' And I knew then that he would be our coach."

And yet, there was more than that. As media outlets across the country have rushed to grade hires in this iteration of the coaching carousel, few have garnered more praise than Nuñez tabbing of Mendenhall to be UNM's next head coach.

The notables: CBS Sports' Barrett Sallee graded the hire as an A+ and cited his "hard-nosed approach, discipline and ability to get the most out of his players." USA Today's Paul Myerberg rated it the best hire of the offseason, pronouncing Mendenhall as "an absolute coup for the Lobos."

So, how did this happen?

With former head coach Danny Gonzales' dismissal on Nov. 25, Nuñez said in a separate interview after Mendenhall's press conference that they started the process with 15-20 potential candidates. UNM didn't use a formal search committee and only retained Atlanta-based search firm Parker Associates to assist with background checks; UNM paid the firm $60,000 for its services.

As UNM gauged interest among that group, the list steadily dwindled to around "five or six" names. There were conversations with the likes of Terance Mathis, UNM's all-time receptions leader; Holmon Wiggins, Alabama's assistant head coach of offense and a running back for the Lobos from 1998-2001; and another unnamed coach that's "currently coaching, so I don't want to put them in a bad position," UNM's AD said.

"(I'm) saying, 'okay, these are the guys that I really feel like give us a chance,'" Nuñez said. "But ultimately, at the end of the day, we had three individuals that we sat down with in (Las Vegas for formal interviews) and then we just had an opportunity to do what we felt was right."

Among the three, Rocky Long. Nuñez had conversations with New Mexico's all-time winningest coach from the "the day (we) started the process" all the way up to a sit-down interview in Las Vegas last week.

"We interviewed some really talented coaches, and some really talented coaches had ties to this place," Nuñez said. "I wanted to make sure I did my due diligence. And Rocky was definitely somebody — he wants the best for this program. And he's willing to do whatever he could to help this program."

Then, Matt Wells. After spending the last two seasons as an offensive analyst with Oklahoma, the former Utah State and Texas Tech head coach had been linked to the UNM opening early and often. It didn't hurt that he'd spent three seasons as the Lobos' wide receivers coach under both Long and former head coach Mike Locksley.

As a candidate, Wells "did an unbelievable job. I think the world of him, I really do. I think he's a superb coach and unbelievable person. He deserves to be a head coach in this league," Nuñez said.

And finally, Mendenhall. Nuñez had admired the former BYU and Virginia coach from afar, but admitted he thought Mendenhall might be looking for a new start in the Power 4 ranks.

He did, however, reach out to a former co-worker. As Vanderbilt's director of game and event management from 2001-03, Nuñez had worked on the same staff as Carla Williams — Virginia's athletic director for Mendenhall's final five seasons with the Cavaliers.

"When I started talking to her about him as a person, you could tell very quickly (he) was somebody I wanted to hear from — if he was interested," Nuñez said. "When I got word that he would be interested, those conversations started really kind of forming towards the direction I wanted it."

Not including Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl's plans to step down after the Arizona Bowl, UNM was one of four Mountain West schools hiring a new head coach in this cycle. In particular, Boise State was one of the schools linked to Mendenhall before they promoted interim head coach Spencer Danielson to the full-time job on Dec. 3.

"I knew he was in the mix with a couple other jobs, maybe one or two in our league," Nuñez said. "But it goes back to, he loves challenges, but he also loves alignment.

"And it's about trust."