Sources: New Mexico targets Mendenhall for HC

New Mexico has agreed to a five-year contract with Bronco Mendenhall to be the school’s next football coach, sources told ESPN, adding that the deal was finalized Tuesday night.

Mendenhall has been an FBS head coach for 17 seasons, with successful stints at Virginia and BYU. The 57-year-old hasn’t coached since 2021, when he left Virginia to “reassess, renew, reframe and reinvent.”

He will take on one of the biggest challenges in college football, as New Mexico hasn’t won more than four games since 2016.

But Mendenhall, a former New Mexico assistant coach (1998 to 2002), knows the territory well. He did extensive work maximizing both BYU and Virginia.

“More than anything else, the success he’s had developing programs,” a source familiar with the search told ESPN. “He’s always been someone who wants to take a challenge and excel at it. He’s a great person and always done it the right way. In the industry, people see him as someone with high character and high integrity.”

Mendenhall led BYU to 11 consecutive bowl games and five seasons of 10 or more wins. At Virginia, he built the Cavaliers into a contender in the ACC, including a 9-5 Orange Bowl season in 2019.

Mendenhall has a 135-81 career record. He led BYU to AP Top 25 rankings in seven different seasons, including the top 10 in 2008 and 2009. He led Virginia to Top 25 rankings in two different campaigns.

In 16 of those 17 seasons, his teams have been bowl-eligible.

Mendenhall has always been considered one of the sport’s top thinkers who values building sound structure.

New Mexico looms as a vexing puzzle, as there is little local recruiting base and resources are limited. Part of what has been appealing to Mendenhall has been the scope of the rebuild, sources told ESPN.

He will succeed Danny Gonzales, a New Mexico alum who was fired Nov. 25 after going 11-32 in a four-year tenure.