UNM Football Coach Jason Eck: “I Could See Myself Being Here a Long Time”

UNM Head Football Coach Jason Eck carried a Lobo bowling pin after the program clinched their first bowl game since 2016 after defeating UNLV in Las Vegas on Nov.1, 2025. Photo: Chris Rodarte/GamePassMedia

Forgive the small but fierce group of loyal University of New Mexico football fans for experiencing some PTSD about right now because of the immediate success first-year coach Jason Eck has sparked.

Last year around this time, first-year coach Bronco Mendenhall gave a program with a, um, “delicate” reputation among Football Bowl Subdivision schools some national notoriety with a 38-35 victory over nationally ranked Washington State.

A few weeks later, he bolted for Utah State – by most accounts, a lateral move within the Mountain West (Mendenhall did say the move was all about being closer to family).

Fast forward to November, 2025. Eck gave the Lobos national notoriety with a September 35-10 victory over unranked but big-name UCLA. He followed that up by making UNM bowl eligible on Nov. 1 with a 40-35 win at UNLV and a 6-3 record.

The Lobos haven’t been bowl-eligible since 2016, and Eck managed to do it with three games still left in the season.

Thanks to Hawaii’s 38-6 victory over San Diego State late Saturday night, UNM suddenly has a more realistic shot of at least a share of the MW title. It trails SDSU and Boise State by one game in the loss column and the Broncos visit the Aztecs next Saturday.

An SDSU win against the Broncos would mean the Lobos control their own destiny for a share of the conference crown if they win out, including a win in the season finale at home against the Aztecs.

All this to say that Eck is one of the hottest names in the coaching ranks right about now as well. If Mendenhall could abandon New Mexico after a year, why not Eck, who unlike Mendenhall had no ties to UNM (Mendenhall served as the Lobos defensive coordinator from 1998-2002)?

Let's Ask the Big Question

The Pit Press talked to Eck during the bye week and asked him about the possibility of another one-and-done.

“Bottom line, we love it here,” Eck said. “I have not talked to anybody. I have an agent who handles that, and we’re not looking at all. We want to keep building this thing to make it as good as it can be.

“There’ll be time after the season for our players and our coaches to evaluate where things are at in their career, but it’s good to be at a place where you feel comfortable, your family loves it and I could certainly see myself being here a long time.”

To be clear, Eck isn’t guaranteeing that he’ll be a Lobo in 2026. But he reiterated that it would take something pretty amazing to take him away from the Land that he is busy Enchanting.

“I think you evaluate things for your family when they come along,” said Eck, who has a 32-16 career coaching record, including his previous stop at Idaho. “But to me, you look at the Pac-12 conference (in which five current MW schools are leaving to join in 2026), that doesn’t excite me at all. I don’t think that’s a better conference. If Alabama or Ohio State calls you, you probably pick up the phone and listen to those people. Now, they haven’t been calling because they’ve got great coaches.

UNM got great news last week when Wisconsin, Eck’s alma mater, announced that its struggling coach, Luke Fickell, will return in 2026, so that takes the Badgers out of the equation – at least for a year.

UNM Head Coach Jason Eck coaches on the sidelines at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, NV. The Lobos defeated UNLV to clinch the programs first bowl game since 2016. Photo: Chris Rodarte/Game Pass Media

Let's Stay Focused

For now, Eck has his sights on win No. 7. His staff used the bye week to recruit in Texas, Arizona, California and Illinois. And next week, the focus will be on Colorado State (2-7, 1-4 MW), which is coming off a 42-10 loss to UNLV.

“I think we have an edge in this game, the fact we can be the fresher team,” Eck said, “but we have to come back (from the bye week) and prepare our tails off. This late in the year, it’s about us. We can control how hard we play, focus and effort we play with.”

But he also has his sights set on the long haul for the Lobos. Eck says UNM should expect to compete for the MW championship on an annual basis and then try to position itself for a run at the College Football Playoff as the Group of Five representative.

There is much work to be done to slide into that position. The school must continue to increase its resources for player retention in the age of the portal and the NIL.

“Certainly, the more resources you have, the better you should perform,” Eck said. “I’m not afraid to say that. I had more resources for this year’s team than coach Mendenhall had for last year’s team. We should do better than what he had. We’ve got to keep growing that.

Upgrading 65-year-old University Stadium also is among the priorities.

“Our stadium currently is not a long-term solution,” Eck said “I think we have to figure out a good plan. I know we’re actively working on that on campus. I think a lot of it is the fan experience.

“There’s things that have changed. You think of all the things that have changed since University Stadium was built. That was before cell phones, before internet access. There’s a lot of things people expect and kind of like to have on a football Saturday that maybe you can get at home watching games but you can’t get coming to a stadium that was built in the late ’50s, early ’60s.”

Let's Not Fan the Flames

Still, Eck has repeatedly asked for a crowd of 25,000-30,000 for Saturday’s 1 p.m. matinee vs. Colorado State.

Dennis Franchione, who coached UNM to a Western Athletic Conference Mountain Division title in 1997, was said to be disappointed with the University Stadium crowd for the regular-season finale against Brigham Young in which the Lobos clinched the division crown.

The next season, Franchione was coaching TCU.

In 2008, Rocky Long, the winningest coach in Lobo history with a 65-69 record, said for UNM to take the next step, it needed more commitment from “the damn fans.” The next year, he was defensive coordinator at San Diego State before becoming head coach of the Aztecs and recording an 81-38 record there.

If Eck is asking for a bit more fan support, the community should listen if it also wants to see him here for a long time.