Mike Sheppard now concedes that he left some homework undone when he accepted the New Mexico head coaching job on Christmas Eve 1986.
Fired Monday with a fifth straight losing season assured, Sheppard said he had underestimated the magnitude of the job he faced when he took over a program that has had only one winning season in 13 years."I was a little naive about what it would take to get the program to a consistently competitive level," said Sheppard, whose team is 2-8 this season and 1-5 in the Western Athletic Conference.
Athletic director Gary Ness said the university would buy out the final two years of Sheppard's contract at an estimated cost of $155,000.
New Mexico is 8-49 overall under Sheppard with two games remaining this season - at Utah Saturday and at Colorado State Nov. 16. Sheppard and his staff will finish out the season.
The Lobos, whose last winning season was 10-1 under the late Joe Morrison in 1982, never came close under Sheppard. His first team in 1987 went 0-11 and New Mexico finished 2-10 each of the past three seasons.
The firing of Sheppard came two days after one of his program's biggest wins, a 34-32 upset of bowl contender Air Force.