New Mexico State: New Head Coach Tony Sanchez Hopes To Keep Jerry Kill's Momentum

Following the retirement of Jerry Kill, the New Mexico State football program introduced NMSU assistant and former UNLV head coach Tony Sanchez as his

© Meg Potter/Sun-News / USA TODAY NETWORK

Following the retirement of Jerry Kill, the New Mexico State football program introduced NMSU assistant and former UNLV head coach Tony Sanchez as his successor. 

Sanchez was formally introduced this week in a press conference that lasted roughly half an hour.

"We had an unbelievable season," Sanchez said of his team's 2023 campaign."It's our job now, as the custodian of the program, to make sure that we continue to work hard, to live up to the standard that we set here the last two years."

Kill amassed a record of 17-11 with one bowl win in two years as head coach - arguably the most productive two-year stretch the program has seen since the mid-twentieth century. 

RELATED: New Mexico State Head Football Coach Jerry Kill Will Step Down

Sanchez made a point early in his press conference that the last thing he wants to do is anything to halt the blue-collar mentality that Kill instilled in the program. 

"It's in our DNA. It's what we're about, waking up, grinding away, and representing this community. We're going to continue to do that."

Sanchez also noted the stark change in the program from when he arrived as a member of Kill's staff prior to 2022.

"This is an entirely different program than when we got here. When we got here, we wanted to do a lot of things. We wanted to move the program forward...Now, we've done it. Now, there's a new standard here. We don't want to win any more, we expect to win. That's going to be our attitude every single day moving forward."

Leading his alma mater will be Sanchez's second crack at being an FBS head coach. Sanchez was the head coach at UNLV for five seasons, amassing a 20-40 record. Now, Sanchez is reveling in his second chance at this type of role.

"We strive as coaches to be the best we possibly can, to create opportunities in our lives, and that's what we've done. My whole life, I haven't been afraid to push the envelope, take a lot of risks, and I think getting the opportunity to come back here in a place where I've been the last two years, I was a part of this building process, intimately saw it first-hand...I think we're just going to be more ready and more prepared, and just grateful every day."

Sanchez also noted that he's taking a fairly calm approach to the transfer portal and recruiting. At the end of the day, Sanchez simply wants to have his program playing meaningful football late in the season again in 2024.

"You always remember what you do in November. For a long time around here, November hasn't mattered. We want to make sure that we get to the end of November and we're playing games that matter."

A bowl appearance in 2024 would be the first time ever that New Mexico State reached the postseason three years in a row.