UNM football: Why some Lobos entered -- and withdrew -- from transfer portal

Mar. 27—It was stressful, to say the least. Tavian Combs admitted as much.

Andrew Henry said he took some time to himself, burrowing in for what lay ahead.

Christian Ellis remembered "major sit downs" with his dad and little sisters, seeking guidance to make the right choice at the right time.

"Because, you know, it's a tough decision," he told the Journal on Tuesday. "But in life, tough decisions have to be made."

In the days and weeks after former head coach Danny Gonzales' dismissal on Nov. 25, every player on New Mexico's roster was confronted with that same decision in some way, shape or form:

Stay and put their trust in a new coaching staff they didn't know, didn't pick and weren't recruited by.Or go and enter the transfer portal, taking advantage of a process that's never been more player-friendly and rarely been more beneficial to those who choose to make a change.

In total, 22 Lobos entered the transfer portal after last season, the bulk of them shortly after Gonzales and the rest of the previous coaching staff were fired. Some found new homes. Some didn't.

But a handful — Combs, Ellis and Henry among them — quietly withdrew, removing their names from the portal after head coach Bronco Mendenhall was hired in early December.

Why?

For Combs, a redshirt senior safety, entering the portal wasn't a decision made just to see what might be out there. He had been with the Lobos for four long, arduous seasons, his most recent cut short due to nagging foot and ankle injuries. At a certain point, he didn't feel like he was getting better.

"And if I don't feel like I'm putting myself in that position, that's kinda what made me enter the portal," Combs said on Tuesday.

On Nov. 26, Combs announced he was portal bound. There wasn't a lack of options — coaches from Power 4 programs and Mountain West rivals alike expressed interest — for a player that's shined when he's been healthy.

But Combs found himself uneasy, by both the process and the message he felt he was sending.

One conversation helped clear that up.

"I had a really good talk with coach Mendenhall about, honestly, leaving a legacy," he said. "I have two little brothers back at home that really look up to me. And I didn't want to be that face that when adversity strikes, even in the biggest cases, that your first option is to quit on whatever you're working with ... just having that mindset of, you have people that are watching you from all aspects of life."

Ellis, a junior safety, said his portal entry was motivated by a desire to "get out there." But right before returning home for Christmas break, he had a scheduled sit-down with Mendenhall.

Like Combs, that conversation helped turn the tide.

"It was like, I'd be foolish to not be a part of that, you know?" he said. "He has a winning mindset, like winning culture — you know, he wins. So it's like, man, that's what I like to do. I like to win and I'm a leader. (Defensive coordinator Nick Howell), too — it feels like we all on the same page and I feel like I've really fit in here."

Henry, a redshirt senior running back, is entering his last season of college football. Over three seasons at the FBS level with Louisiana-Monroe and UNM, he's gone 4-8 every year. Being part of a program led by Mendenhall, a coach with a 135-81 overall record in 17 seasons had an appeal in and of itself.

"Sixteen out of 17 times, coach has been in a bowl game," Henry said. "I want to win. I'm a super senior, so my goal is to play football and win. I want to have a career — I'm gonna have a career after that and the best chance (of) doing that is being somewhere where I can win."

But the way those games were won? That ended up being the selling point.

"It's hard," Henry said of Mendenhall's program. "And that's the only way you can be good. And I want to be good, and I want to be part of a good team. And I don't want to go nowhere where it's nonchalant and we just do what we wanna do. I wanted someone with discipline and standards.

"And that's why me coming back and staying here was the best thing I could do."