Kirkland takes over as football coach
Josh Kirkland was officially named New Mexico Highlands University’s newest football coach Monday, although word of his hire leaked out last week on the website footballscoop.com.
He had been serving as assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator at Incarnate Word, an FCS program in San Antonio, Texas.
Kirkland inherits a Cowboys program that hasn’t had a winning record since 2012, going a combined 15-62 under three head coaches the past seven seasons.
He takes over after a three-year run for Marty Fine, who stepped down in December after going 8-25 with NMHU, including a 2-9 mark last season.
Kirkland was a high school coach in El Paso and Kyle, Texas, before joining Incarnate Word’s staff as running backs coach in 2018. The Cardinals had their best season in program history in his first year as they won six games and tied for the Southland Conference title. Their first game that season was a 62-30 loss at UNM.
Incarnate Word followed that with two wins over FCS ranked opponents last season, Kirkland’s first as the program’s recruiting coordinator.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have Josh, his wife and three boys join us at NMHU and the Las Vegas community,” said Highlands athletic director Andrew Ehling in a statement. “His energy, compassion and family minded values will serve really well as we look to build a successful football program.”
NMHU has not had any measurable success since former coach Eric Young led the Cowboys to an 8-3 record in 2012, a year in which they were in contention for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title until the final few weeks of the season. That team was built on nearly two dozen Division I transfers, some of whom hailed from programs like UCLA and USC.
It’s the only winning record the team has since 2006.
The Cowboys have been above .500 just twice this century, posting three winless seasons and going 53-164 since the start of the 2000 season.