Jerry Kill stepping down as NMSU head football coach; Tony Sanchez to take over

Dec. 23—Jerry Kill is stepping down as head coach of the New Mexico State football program.

New Mexico State University Athletics Director Mario Moccia confirmed the news Saturday, adding that Kill had approached him late in the season about an increased salary. Kill said money was not the deciding factor.

Wide receivers coach Tony Sanchez, an NMSU graduate and former head coach at UNLV who also worked recently with Kill at TCU, has been named the new head coach.

"Firstly, I want to extend my sincere thanks to the New Mexico State administration — President Jay Gogue, Mario Moccia, and Braun Cartwright," Kill said in a statement released by the school. "They've been invaluable in our achievements over the last two years. I also want to express my deep gratitude to the people of Las Cruces. Aggie Nation has been incredibly supportive, and I will always be thankful for the opportunity I was given to lead their team.

"This year has been tremendously difficult for me, and I gave it everything I had physically, mentally and emotionally. New Mexico State holds a special place in my heart as it marks the end of my journey as a head coach. While I'll remain involved with the Aggies, I recognize the need for a head coach with a lot of energy. Good luck to Coach Sanchez, the student-athletes and New Mexico State University."

Kill, 62. led the Aggies to back-to-back bowl game appearances, which had not been done in more than 60 years.

Moccia said the talk of finances first came up during the week of NMSU's historic win over Auburn, the program's first-ever victory over an SEC school.

After talking with donors and raising money, Moccia said that during the week of the Dec. 16 New Mexico Bowl played in Albuquerque he offered Kill a contract that would include a guaranteed salary and compensation of $1.1 million — the largest athletics contract ever offered by the school.

Kill turned the offer down.

"Obviously, Coach Kill has exceeded my wildest dreams in the 24 months since he came on board," Moccia said. "Heck, it's still fresh in my mind when we introduced him to the team (two years ago) and he got a standing ovation, and in short order, he won 17 games."

Moccia said Kill informed him earlier in the week and the team when he talked with players on Saturday afternoon that money was not the ultimate reason for his decision, though Moccia would not go into details about the reasons.

The decision to promote Sanchez as opposed to conducting a national search, Moccia said, had to do with the NCAA transfer portal being open and the hope to avoid any player movement that might have been caused by instability.

"We wanted to make an internal decision before any outside forces poisoned the well," Moccia said.

A look back

Kill led NMSU to bowl games in his first and only two years at the helm, including a 10-5 record and an appearance in the Isleta New Mexico Bowl this season.

Fresno State beat NMSU 38-10 in last Saturday's New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque.

Despite the loss, the Aggies attained a number of program records this year, including winning at least 10 games and appearing in back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 1960; beating an Southeastern Conference team (a 31-10 victory at Auburn) for the first time ever; and playing in a conference title game (a 49-35 loss to Liberty in the Conference USA championship) for the first time ever.

Kill made headlines last weekend after he accused New Mexico Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez of trying to prevent the Aggies from practicing in the Lobos' indoor practice facility ahead of the New Mexico Bowl. Nuñez disputed the claim. Earlier this week, Kill and Nuñez talked on the phone — as did Nuñez and Moccia — and agreed it was in everyone's best interest to move on.

But during last Saturday's postgame rant, Kill alluded to not caring about the consequences of what he was saying in part, "Because I can go down and I can go to Mexico tomorrow. Drink margaritas, let you all enjoy your life. Because I'll be enjoying mine."

Kill has battled through health issues in the past decade. In 2014, as head coach of Minnesota and the reigning Big 10 Coach of the year, he said he was suffering through 12 to 14 epileptic seizures every two weeks. After a 4-3 start with Minnesota in 2015, Kill retired for the first time.

In 2017, Kill joined Rutgers as the Scarlet Knights' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. One day after a 16-13 loss to Eastern Michigan, he had a seizure in the Rutgers football office he later wished wasn't made public.

Kill retired again on Dec. 19, 2017, then saying he "just ran out of juice."

Starting in 2019, Kill would take on jobs within the athletic departments and football programs at Southern Illinois, Virginia Tech and TCU before accepting the NMSU job in November 2021.

Sanchez, an NMSU graduate, was a successful high school coach at Las Vegas' Bishop Gorman before being named UNLV head coach in 2014. He amassed a 20-40 record in five seasons with the Rebels before being fired in 2019.

He joined NMSU along with Kill in 2021.