Hometown hero coming back to coach at UNM
Gonzales of Arizona State to lead Lobos football program
ALBUQUERQUE — It’s a match made in heaven for Lobo fans.
Hometown hero Danny Gonzales is coming home.
The kid who grew up in Albuquerque, attended Valley High School and earned a spot as a walk-on with the University of New Mexico’s football team has been named the new head football coach at his alma mater. The 43-year-old, who has served as Arizona State’s defensive coordinator since 2018, was officially introduced to fans during a halftime ceremony at Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game in The Pit.
A formal press conference is scheduled Wednesday afternoon at Dreamstyle Stadium.
Terms of his contract have not been announced, but various reports have identified a five-year deal for an undisclosed amount. UNM athletic director Eddie Nuñez has said the new coach’s salary would be comparable to that of former coach Bob Davie, who earned
approximately $850,000 annually after incentives.
Gonzales was making $575,000 annually as a Sun Devils assistant. Arizona State will play in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve against Florida State in El Paso. It’s not immediately clear if Gonzales will remain with ASU for the game.
Gonzales was hired prior to the 2018 season by ASU head coach Herm Edwards, who coached in the NFL with the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs, after Gonzales served as an assistant coach at San Diego State from 2011-17. He spent his last year with the Aztecs as the defensive coordinator.
Those who know Gonzales said his football acumen was unrivaled.
Roy White was a tight end on the Lobo football team from 1994-97. Gonzales walked onto the team as an unrecruited punter and defensive back in 1996.
Even in those early stages, White said, it was apparent that Gonzales was destined for bigger and better things.
“Just a great guy, an amazing student of the game who played hard and got along with everyone on the team,” White said. “We’d be sitting in film study even though he was mostly just a punter, but he knew everyone’s assignments and knew more about our positions than we did. I could tell he had something special in him.”
Gonzales played four years for the Lobos and was a part of the 1997 team that won the Western Athletic Conference Mountain Division and reached the Insight.com Bowl against Arizona — the first bowl game for the program in 36 years.
His time as a player started under Dennis Franchione and ended after Long was named head coach. He served as a graduate assistant on Long’s sta≠ from 1999-2002. He was promoted to video coordinator in 2003 and in 2005 was installed as an assistant for special teams and defense.
He was reunited with Long at San Diego State in 2011, serving as a defensive assistant before moving up to defensive coordinator.
Gonzales is credited with turning around an ASU defense that struggled badly in the years before he arrived. The Sun Devils had the 65th-rated defense in major-college football this season.
The Lobos ranked second to last in in the country in total defense last season, including dead last at defending the pass.
What Gonzales inherits is a UNM program in disarray. Attendance at home games is at its lowest point in a generation, and nearly one-third of the roster will not return next season. The program also has been hit by numerous o≠-field incidents, like probation, budget cuts, player suspensions, a suicide and even a monthlong suspension issued to former head coach Bob Davie in February 2018.
The current signing period for prospective high school and junior college recruits begins Wednesday, and sources have said Gonzales is already working the phones, contacting players who’ve offered commitments to UNM.
“It’s an exciting thing to have Danny here, but it’s a hire that should have been made a long time ago,” said Ralph Arellanes, the executive director of New Mexico LULAC and the chairman of the Hispano Round Table of New Mexico. “It’s pretty shocking in a city like ours, in a state like ours where the majority of the people are Hispanic, that a school as big as UNM has never hired a single Hispanic as a head coach for football or basketball. It’s long overdue, but maybe it will bring some of the people back to Lobo football.”
UNM did hire Yvonne Sanchez as its head women’s basketball coach from 2011-16 and has employed a number of Hispanics as assistant coaches in men’s basketball and football over the years, but none has served as a head coach until now.
Gonzales’ entrance ends a chapter in which Davie and his predecessor, Mike Locksley, produced nine losing seasons in the last 11 years. The Lobos won more than four games in just two of those years.
Davie was fired by the school Nov. 26 with two years remaining on a contract that had him at UNM through the 2021 season. The school agreed to a six-figure buyout that will pay him $825,000 over 30 monthly installments, a sum the athletic department must begin paying down Jan. 31.
Gonzales being a candidate at UNM is nothing new. It was around this time one year ago his name surfaced when Davie’s job status was in question following back-to-back 3-9 seasons. He led the Lobos to a 2-10 record this fall, a season that ended with a nine-game losing streak and winless record in the Mountain West Conference.