FAMILIAR FACES WHEN SDSU MEETS UNM
Gonzales, Lobos head coach, was on Long’s Aztecs staff for 7 years
New Mexico is on San Diego State’s schedule this week, which means former SDSU head coach Rocky Long will be seen on the sidelines for the first time since he “retired” nearly two years ago as Aztecs head coach.
Long’s retirement in January 2020 lasted less than a month before New Mexico head coach Danny Gonzales hired his mentor to be the Lobos’ defensive coordinator.
Gonzales played for Long at New Mexico, coached with him there for a decade and spent another seven years on Long’s SDSU coaching staff.
Long has a significant streak at stake in this matchup — he has been on the winning sideline in 15 straight games (eight wins from
2001-08 with New Mexico and seven victories from 2009-18 at SDSU).
“Coach Long has been on the right side of that game for years,” Gonzales said. “I’ll blame him if we lose. It’s his fault we couldn’t keep it going. And he can blame me because
I’m the one in charge, not him.
“It will be fun.” Gonzales did not use the word
“fun” to describe the New MexicoSDSU matchups during his time as an Aztecs assistant.
“When we played this game I
was miserable,” said Gonzales, who recalled “having a terrible feeling after we won.
“I’m glad we won because that’s
the reason we do this, but it wasn’t any fun to watch the guys with the Lobo helmets on not win. Because I rooted for them all the time.”
Gonzales appreciates his time in San Diego — “We did some really good things. We loved living in San Diego,” he said — but nothing means as much as being back in New Mexico.
“I’m home,” said Gonzales, who was born and raised in Albuquerque. He was hired as New Mexico’s head coach two years ago after spending two years as defensive coordinator at Arizona State, where he went after leaving SDSU.
Long was born in Provo, Utah (his parents attended BYU), and raised in Southern California, but
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Alabama getting thin at the outside linebacker position.