Davie hires cornerbacks, special teams coach

Former Lobo assistant McDaniel may return

Perry Eliano, most recently the defensive coordinator and associate head coach at Bowling Green, has been hired as the University of New Mexico’s cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator.

Eliano has confirmed his hiring, as first reported by FootballScoop. com, on his Twitter feed.

Football Scoop also reported that former UNM assistant Archie McDaniel is returning to Albuquerque after three seasons at SMU. Neither McDaniel nor UNM has confirmed his return, but he no longer is listed as a Mustangs assistant on the SMU athletics website.

According to Football Scoop, McDaniel will coach outside linebackers at UNM. That was his position in 2014 after two previous years as defensive line coach on head coach Bob Davie’s New Mexico staff.

Defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove has coached both inside and outside linebackers the past three years.

Eliano replaces Al Simmons, who was fired by Davie after the 2017 season, as cornerbacks coach. Quarterbacks coach Apollo Wright has been UNM’s special teams coordinator the past three seasons.

The hirings of Eliano and McDaniel, assuming McDaniel’s is con-

firmed, raises questions about how Davie’s staff will be assembled.

Davie has not announced the hiring of an offensive coordinator to replace Bob DeBesse, who was fired at the same time Simmons was dismissed. If Wright is being relieved of his duties as special-teams coordinator, that might mean he’s an in-house candidate to replace DeBesse.

If McDaniel is relieving Cosgrove of his duties as outside linebackers coach, that could mean Davie intends to go with 10 assistant coaches this fall. A new NCAA rule permits the hiring of a 10th assistant, but Davie in the past has not said he planned to do so. If that’s the case, the 10th hire would be an offensive coordinator hired from outside the current staff.

Eliano was dismissed at Bowling Green in December. Before his two years there, Eliano was the safeties coach at special-teams coordinator at UT San Antonio for five seasons. Before his stint at UTSA, he coached defensive backs for five years and was associate head coach for one year at Central Arkansas.

Eliano, a native of Killeen, Texas, played linebacker and strong safety at Stephen F. Austin from 1996-99. He was a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2001-02.

McDaniel was the defensive tackles coach at Tulsa when Davie made him part of his original UNM staff in 2012. A native of Bay City, Texas, he played linebacker at Texas A&M from 2002-05.

He was not brought from SMU to Arkansas by former Mustangs coach Chad Morris and was not retained by new SMU coach Sonny Dykes.

KAI TO UTEP: Quarterback Kai Locksley, the son of former UNM head coach Mike Locksley, has committed to continue his football career at UTEP under new Miners coach Dana Dimel.

Kai Locksley, a fourstar recruit out of Gilman High School in Baltimore, enrolled at Texas but transferred to Iowa Western Community College, where he threw for 2,238 yards, rushed for 705 yards and accounted for 40 touchdowns last fall. He’ll be a junior with two years in which to play two seasons.

New Mexico and UTEP do not play each other this year or next.