New Mexico Football: How a 7-1 Start Ended a 17-Year Drought

New Mexico football has gone 7-1 this season, a record that places the Lobos in the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history. The program was unbeaten in Mountain West Conference play before the season ended. This performance stands in sharp contrast to the previous 17 years, during which the team produced only one winning season.

Head coach Jason Eck is 49 years old and has compiled a 16-5 record in his two seasons in Albuquerque. His overall head coaching record is 42-18. These numbers have made him a prominent target for other schools. Before arriving at New Mexico, Eck spent 23 years working as an assistant coach under 12 different head coaches.

Eck’s path to the head coaching position was marked by frequent job changes and financial strain. He was out of work approximately four times during his career. In December 2010, he was fired by Ball State coach Pete Lembo. His wife, Kimberly Eck, went into labor that same night and delivered their son Palmer on Christmas Eve. Kimberly Eck described the delivery as two hours long and attributed the speed to stress.

After leaving Ball State, Eck accepted a job at FCS Hampton for a salary of $44,000, a drop from his previous $75,000 income. The family had 30 days to move out of university housing. Kimberly Eck recalled packing their belongings with three small children into a Kia Sorento. At Western Illinois in 2012, Eck was reassigned to maintain golf mowers and carts after the head coach was fired.

In 2013, Eck nearly left the profession entirely. He passed on jobs at a Mississippi junior college and Valparaiso University to interview with FieldTurf for a sales role in Kansas and Missouri. He later emailed Aaron Keen, the coach at Minnesota State-Mankato, about an opening that did not yet exist. Keen hired him. Eck said he would have taken the sales job if it had been offered.

The Mavericks went 11-1 under Keen, who promoted Eck to offensive coordinator. Eck’s offense reached the Division II national championship game the following year. He later served as offensive coordinator at South Dakota State, where he won the AFCA’s FCS assistant coach of the year award in 2019. In December 2021, he became the head coach at Idaho at age 44. He took the Vandals to the FCS playoffs three consecutive years and finished with a 26-13 record.

Eck accepted the New Mexico job on December 14, 2024. He cited the basketball crowds at The Pit, the rebuilding of the Mountain West Conference, and athletic director Fernando Lovo as primary reasons for the move. The family had previously funded summer vacations with annual tax refunds. Eck stated that his first year at Idaho was focused on getting out of debt.

Eck’s son Palmer, born during the chaos of the Ball State firing, is now a sophomore quarterback at La Cueva High School in Albuquerque. Another son, Jaxton, played linebacker for Idaho and made 14 tackles in a 24-14 loss to Oregon in 2024. Eck said he handles the current transfer portal and name, image, and likeness landscape with the same approach he uses for his own market.