It is a lateral move.
Utah State and New Mexico are essentially the same program. They are both in the Mountain West Conference, UNM beat USU in Logan this season and finished the year with a better record.
New Mexico holds a special place in his heart. He came out of retirement — leaving behind his beloved Montana ranch — to coach the Lobos. He wouldn’t leave after only a year.
He loves a rebuild, just look at his stints at BYU and Virginia. It’s not over in Albuquerque. Not even close.
He said — when directly asked by The Albuquerque Journal — that he hadn’t “been approached or interviewed,” by Utah State.
That is just a smattering of the responses, primarily from those in shock, to Bronco Mendenhall being named the new head football coach at Utah State.
Reports of Mendenhall’s interest in the USU job surfaced earlier in the week and many — maybe even most — found those reports lacking in believability.
Dick Harmon, long-time sports columnist at the Deseret News, opined on X that there was no way Mendenhall would leave New Mexico for Utah State. It just wasn’t in the cards.
“Bronco isn’t leaving UNM for USU,” Harmon wrote. “His work isn’t finished with Lobos, a program he has deep ties with over time.”
And yet, Mendenhall is now the head coach of the Aggies.
He hasn’t been introduced yet and thus has not had much of an opportunity to explain his reasons for taking the USU job, outside of a statement made through Utah State.
“My passion is developing young people and transforming football programs to reach their full potential,” Mendenhall said. “Utah State provides a great opportunity to do both and allows a family focus that is essential to me and Holly. We look forward to adding to Utah State’s rich tradition and striving for football excellence.”
But as many have noted, it could be viewed as something of a surprise that Mendenhall is now the coach at Utah State.
So why’d he do it? Why did Mendenhall decide to leave New Mexico a year into his tenure there and head north to Cache Valley? Why leave the rebuild that he had started with the Lobos only to have to start a new one with the Aggies?
Only Mendenhall knows his motivations, some of which will surely come to light when he is officially introduced, but there are clear reasons why the Utah State football job is preferable to the New Mexico one. To anyone really and for Mendenhall specifically.
Pac-12 vs. Mountain West
The most obvious argument for the Utah State job over the New Mexico job is conference affiliation. Future conference affiliation to be specific.
Currently both teams are in the MWC, peers in every sense of the word.
In 2026, though, USU will make the move to the Pac-12 — the newest version of it.
Current announced membership in that league is:
- Boise State
- Colorado State
- Fresno State
- Gonzaga (all sports except football)
- Oregon State
- San Diego State
- Utah State
- Washington State
The Pac-12 still needs to add another football-playing member by 2026 to be a viable FBS conference, but the bones are in place for the league.
The Mountain West, meanwhile, will be made up of the following teams:
- Air Force
- Grand Canyon (all sports except football)
- Hawaii (currently only football, will be all sports)
- Nevada
- UNLV
- UTEP
- New Mexico
- San Jose State
- Wyoming
Ask a casual college football fan which conference is better and they’ll tell you the Pac-12. Boise State is a recognizable brand and is currently on track to make it to the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. Oregon State and Washington State have been longtime power conference members. San Diego State has had its moments. Fresno State and Utah State as well. And Colorado State has potential, albeit consistently untapped potential.
Go beyond just the casual, though, and the Pac-12 is comprised of clearly superior football programs.
Over the last decade, Pac-12 schools have won a combined 55% of their games played and taken home 10 conference championships. During that same timeframe, Mountain West schools have won 44% games and one conference title.
Put another way, Pac-12 teams have combined to win over 100 more games (105) than MW teams over the last 10 years. And that is with Oregon State and Washington State playing in the former version of the Pac-12.
Is the new version of the Pac-12 a power conference? Probably not, but it will be a high level Group of Five conference whereas the MW projects as one of the worst G5 conferences, maybe only ahead of Conference USA in the overall pecking order.
Does Mendenhall care about top of the line G5 membership compared to low-end G5 membership?
Maybe not. He retired from Virginia (an ACC program) and then took over New Mexico (a MW program).
But money comes into play here.
Current projections for annual media distribution for the Pac-12 range from $10 million to $13 million per school. The Mountain West currently — with the schools departing for the Pac-12 — has a media distribution of between $5 to $7 million. An extra $5 million per season is significant. It is the difference between being able to retain a good deal of coaches and players in the NIL era and extreme roster turnover. It is the difference between near state-of-the art facilities and seriously aging facilities in need of an upgrade.
Financial trends for Utah State and New Mexico
Speaking of money — yes, money comes into play a lot in college football — Utah State and New Mexico athletics have been trending in different directions when it comes to athletics revenues and expenditures. Especially in the last five years, per the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics database.
In 2018, New Mexico had $42 million in total athletics revenue ($41,936,043) and spent all of that.
In 2023, New Mexico had nearly $48 million in athletics revenue ($47,763,222), a 14% increase from five prior and spent $47,048,657.
By way of comparison, in 2018 Utah State had just under $39 million in total athletics revenue ($38,712,397) and spent more than it brought in ($39,075,114).
Five years later, though, Utah State had almost $52 million in total athletics revenue, a 32% jump. The Aggies spent most of it, but the point of this exercise is that Utah State has shown demonstrable growth in generating more money from athletics than New Mexico has over the same period.
And that is before you throw in the five-year $125 million fundraiser for USU athletics that kicked off this summer.
USU also raised the funds needed to move to the Pac-12. The fees associated with that move have been estimated at around $17 million. And USU found it.
“We have had tremendous support, regionally, locally, and from around the state,” USU athletic director Diana Sabau said. “Which I am just really thankful for. There are individuals, constituents, from all around the state that were really excited about the possibility and prospect of Utah State, joining such a legacy conference.”
Speaking of financial resources, Mendenhall was making approximately $1.2 million per season at New Mexico, prior to contractual incentives. The financial details of Mendenhall’s six-year deal with USU were released Friday and the coach will have a base salary of $2 million, increasing up to $2.4 million in the final year of the contract. Moreover, USU has committed $3.5 million to his assistant coaches salary pool in Year 1, with that number going up by $500,000 every year.
Simply put, Utah State has — despite being on fairly even footing with New Mexico — proven significantly better at generating money. And successful football programs need money, and lots of it.
A new athletic director
A significant factor in Mendenhall’s move to Utah State that shouldn’t be overlooked is who he answered to at New Mexico.
When Mendenhall was hired last December as the Lobos’ head coach, the athletic director at UNM was Eddie Nuñez.
In Mendenhall’s introductory press conference, Nuñez wasn’t particularly shy about how thrilled he was to have landed Mendenhall.
“As soon as Dave (Williams) and I met with him in Vegas, when he (Mendenhall) walked out I knew he was our coach,” Nuñez said. “I knew it then. I knew it the week before. And I’m even more proud now to see him as our coach.”
Nuñez, however, is no longer New Mexico’s athletic director. In August, Nuñez took the athletic director position at Houston. And it took until this past Wednesday for the school to announce his replacement.
Fernando Lovo may end up being a star in the business — prior to taking the New Mexico job he was at the University of Texas — and he wasn’t caught unawares as to Mendenhall leaving. By all accounts, New Mexico is going to do its best to move on.
“Last night, head football coach Bronco Mendenhall informed me that he was stepping down to accept a similar position at another institution,” Lovo said in a statement Friday. “I shared with Bronco my disappointment, as for several weeks, President Stokes, the athletic administration and then I have engaged with Bronco and his representatives in discussions and presented him with an aggressive offer to significantly invest even more in our football program, our coaching staff and in Bronco. We thank him for his one year of service to the University of New Mexico.
“We were aware of his intention to interview elsewhere and therefore had already begun laying the groundwork for what comes next and our focus will remain on the success of our student-athletes and their well-being.
“Our search for a new head coach is already underway, and there is already significant interest from elite coaches who want to be a part of the Lobo Family. Our football program, athletics department and university are on the rise, and with our additional investments, incredible fanbase, and strong overall athletics program, I am confident that we will have a tremendous pool of candidates.
“I want to thank Lobo Nation for your continued support and patience and I cannot wait to introduce our next head football coach.”
But Lovo didn’t hire Mendenhall and in college football who hired you often ends up mattering a great deal. Especially if you don’t win at an elite level. Athletic directors usually want their guy in place. And they usually get what they want eventually.
Mendenhall now once again works for an athletic director who picked him in Sabau. And while she has plenty of detractors — most of whom take issue with Blake Anderson’s firing in July — Sabau has proven adept at getting the coaches she wants.
She landed Jerrod Calhoun to coach USU men’s basketball and he has the Aggies undefeated and thriving after Danny Sprinkle came and went. And she hired a budding star in Wesley Brooks to lead USU’s women’s basketball program.
And now, she reeled in Mendenhall, who is maybe the most proven football coach USU has ever hired.
Fertile and familiar recruiting ground
In its early signing class for 2025, New Mexico added 10 players. Of those, five are from Utah.
Here’s the list:
- Abe Jager (cornerback from Lehi High)
- Tydon Jones (linebacker from Bear River High)
- Solo Langi (defensive lineman from Snow College and Timpview High before that)
- Titan Saxton (safety from Snow College, and before that Utah State and Sky View High)
- Ryan-Jalen Tillman (safety from Viewmont High)
Why is that significant?
Well, Mendenhall has made a habit of recruiting the state of Utah since he was the head coach at BYU. While at Virginia, he regularly went into Utah and took recruits out, outrecruiting BYU and sometimes Utah.
With the state of Utah generally considered one of the most talent rich states in the country, per capita, it made sense for Mendenhall to keep recruiting the state.
He had ties with high school coaches, connections that got him into the homes of talented Utahns.
The thing is, it is a lot easier to sign Utah kids when coaching a Utah university. Utah State, with an interim head coach and a cloud of uncertainty hovering over just about everything with the program, landed more than a dozen signees from instate.
In order to have success at New Mexico, Mendenhall was going to go into Utah and steal players away. And he did.
Per 247 Sports, New Mexico actually brought in a collection of higher ranked players than Utah State this early signing period, but the Aggies have the No. 9 class in the MW while the Lobos came in at No. 11.
Getting talent to New Mexico has always been a challenge and that wasn’t going to change any time soon.
There is plenty of talent to be had in Utah State’s backyard, however, even with BYU and Utah regularly getting the cream of the crop. It is talent that Mendenhall has already proven capable of getting and that was when he was coaching thousands of miles away.
Proximity to home and family
For the foreseeable future, there are only three FBS head coaching jobs in the state of Utah.
At BYU, where Kalani Sitake is firmly entrenched after leading the Cougars to a 10-2 record in the second season in the Big 12.
At Utah, where Kyle Whittingham is a legend and Morgan Scalley is the declared successor.
And at Utah State, which had an opening.
If Mendenhall ever wanted to get back into the state of Utah as a head football coach, Utah State offered the quickest and most likely path.
And Mendenhall had plenty of reasons to want to be back in Utah.
Mendendall’s mother — Lenore Mendenhall — is 93 years old and lives in Alpine, where Bronco grew up.
Logan isn’t super close to Alpine and Utahns living on the Wasatch Front wouldn’t want to make the two-hour (one way) drive. But it is a lot closer than Albuquerque. And in its official announcement of Mendenhall’s hiring, USU noted that proximity to his mother was important to Mendenhall.
There’s also the famous ranch in Bigfork, Montana.
That is where Mendenhall and his wife Holly retired to after he stepped down as Virginia’s head coach three years ago.
An eight-hour drive from Logan, the ranch wouldn’t be more than an hour-and-a-half flight away from the Mendenhalls on a private jet.
The ranch means the world them. Holly is from Montana originally. And outside of coaching at Montana or Montana State (both of which are good to great FCS programs with sitting coaches), Utah State was maybe the closest option that allows for Mendenhall to coach college football and enjoy his ranch.
Why Utah State over New Mexico?
While Lobo fans won’t appreciate it right now, Mendenhall had — no doubt still has — real and genuine care for the New Mexico program.
After the Lobos defeated Utah State in Logan during the season he cried on camera. The emotion of the last-minute win proving overwhelming.
“I wanted to win,” Mendenhall said. “I wanted our players to have a chance to come back and actually seal a game like this, on the road, from that kind of deficit, and see what that felt like. That we made a play to win the game, relief, but then the flood of all the other emotions that had more substance, that’s something I’ll remember forever.”
There are surely plentiful reasons for why Mendenhall elected to leave New Mexico and take the Utah State job.
Some listed, others not.
And he will surely reveal some of his motivations soon, while others he may take to his grave.
But the reality is that New Mexico was more than a rebuild. It was a program in need of a complete transformation. Utah State isn’t a shiny new car or anything, but the potential is much higher at USU than it is at New Mexico. And it is a lot more convenient for Mendenhall. And Utah State hopes the move pays off swimmingly for both Bronco and the Aggies.
