It wasn’t too long ago that the New Mexico State Aggies represented college football’s wasteland. Between 2018 and 2021, they lost 30 of 38 games while never entering a contest with a winning record.
Jerry Kill resurrected the program with a 7-6 season in 2022, making the Aggies one of the best stories in the sport. In their first season in the conference, they won eight straight to reach the Conference USA Championship Game. It was their first 10-win season since going 11-0 in 1960.
After Kill resigned following the season, NMSU graduate Tony Sanchez takes over as his successor. Who else is on the New Mexico State Aggies’ coaching staff in 2024?
New Mexico State Aggies’ Coaching Staff 2024
Head Coach: Tony Sanchez
Sanchez was named the 36th head coach of the NM State program in December 2023 after serving as the Aggies wide receivers coach for two seasons.
Under Sanchez, Aggies wideouts compiled over 4,000 receiving yards and grabbed 31 of the team’s 46 receiving touchdowns during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
This is Sanchez’s second head coaching job in college. He went 20-40 across five seasons (2015-19) for UNLV and became the first Rebels head coach to increase the team’s win totals in each of its first three seasons at the school.
Before he arrived in Las Cruces, Sanchez spent the 2021 football season at TCU as an offensive analyst in what was ultimately the Horned Frogs’ final year under Gary Patterson.
Sanchez’s successful run at the prep level in Nevada turned heads at the collegiate level and allowed him to secure an FBS head coaching job. As the head coach at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Sanchez and his team won 85 of their 90 games played over a six-year period (2009-14).
Ranked as the top prep football program in the nation by USA Today during that time, Bishop Gorman never failed to capture the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) 4A state title in each of Sanchez’s six seasons at the helm of the program. In 2014, Sanchez was named the USA Today High School Football Coach of the Year.
Sanchez is the first NMSU graduate to lead the football program since Jim Bradley (1973-77).
Assistant Head Coach/Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach: Andrew Mitchell
Mitchell is set to begin his third season with New Mexico State, and in 2024, he will add the titles of Assistant Head Coach and Run Game Coordinator. He has served the previous two seasons at NMSU as the offensive line coach, a responsibility he will continue to uphold under Sanchez.
Mitchell came to Las Cruces from TCU where he was an offensive analyst for two seasons under Gary Patterson.
Mitchell’s stint with the Horned Frogs was preceded by four seasons at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah — one of the premier junior college programs in the nation and his alma mater. Mitchell served as the team’s head coach in 2019 and 2020 in addition to his title of Associate AD for Advancement. In that capacity, he helped spearhead the private sector and state-level fundraising efforts, which resulted in the creation of a $7 million football facility and an updated locker room.
Before returning to the site where he started his collegiate career, Mitchell was an offensive line coach at Indiana State (2016).
Defensive Coordinator: Joe Morris
Morris joins the Aggies staff as the defensive coordinator for his first season at the school. He spent the previous three seasons with Sam Houston, where he served as the defensive coordinator and defensive ends coach for the Bearkats.
In 2023, Morris helped lead a Bearkat defense that finished in the top five among Conference USA teams in scoring defense, pass defense, turnover margin, and opponent third-down conversion rate.
Prior to joining the staff at Sam Houston, Morris spent the previous two seasons as the defensive coordinator at West Texas A&M. In two seasons as the leader of the defense, Morris helped the Buffaloes to an 11-6 record, including going 8-3 in 2019.
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach: Tyler Wright
Wright enters his first season as the Aggies’ offensive play caller after serving on NM State’s staff as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach for the previous two seasons. He will also take over the duties of quarterbacks coach for the team.
Prior to his time with the Aggies, Wright was an offensive graduate assistant at TCU from 2019 through 2021. Through Wright’s three-year run on staff with the Horned Frogs, they amassed 16 victories — three of which came against AP top-15 opponents.
Running Backs Coach, David Cobb
Cobb enters his second year on staff and his first as the running backs coach under Sanchez after he spent the 2023 season as the Director of Scouting/NFL Liaison for NM State.
Prior to his time with the Aggies, Cobb spent the 2022 season as a full-time scout for the Carolina Panthers and the 2020 season as a scouting intern for the Tennessee Titans.
Cobb played eight seasons of professional football, selected in the 5th round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the Titans. Cobb ultimately spent two seasons in the NFL, playing for the Titans, Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears before joining the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League in 2018.
Linebackers Coach: Jared Hensley
Hensley comes to Las Cruces for his first season with New Mexico State as the linebackers coach after spending eight seasons at Sam Houston State, including the final five as the Bearkats’ linebackers coach.
With Hensley at the helm, the Sam Houston defensive unit led the nation in rush defense, yards per play allowed, tackles for loss, and third-down defense in 2019. One year later, the Bearkats led the nation in total takeaways, fumble recoveries, tackles for loss, and sacks en route to a perfect 10-0 season and the FCS title.
Prior to his time at Sam Houston State, Hensley was a graduate assistant at Divison II’s Midwestern State, where he worked with the nickelbacks and deep snappers.
Safeties Coach: Henry Fernandez
Fernandez enters his first season at NMSU after spending the previous three years as a senior defensive analyst at Texas under Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian. The Longhorns reached the College Football Playoff in 2023 for the first time.
Prior to his time in Austin, Fernandez spent two seasons (2019-20) as a graduate assistant at Washington, where the Huskies had six players earn All-Pac 12 honors.
Before his time with Washington, Fernandez spent four seasons as a defensive assistant at his alma mater, Sacramento State. The former Hornet standout and All-Big Sky linebacker joined the school in 2015 and assisted in coaching the linebackers, defensive backs, and defensive line during his tenure.
Cornerbacks Coach: Steve Irvin
Irvin enters his first season as the Aggies’ cornerbacks coach after serving in the same capacity with Hawaii in 2023.
Irvin has 25 years of collegiate coaching experience, during which time he has tutored nearly every position on the defensive side of the ball. In addition to NSMU and Hawaii, that includes stops at UNLV, San Diego, Texas State, Montana State, and San Diego State.
Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends Coach: Nelson Fishback
Fishback assumes the role of Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends Coach at NSMU after coaching at Missouri State for the previous four seasons. With the Bears, he served as the tight end coach his first three seasons before adding co-special teams coordinator to his job duties in 2023 under new head coach Ryan Beard.
Fishback spent the 2019 season as the wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator at Snow College (JUCO) before he held offensive assistant coaching roles at Louisville and his alma mater, Western Kentucky.
Fishback played quarterback for the Hilltoppers from 2013 to 2016, and as a senior, they ranked in the top five of FBS scoring offenses.
Defensive Line Coach: Eti Ena
Ena joins the Aggies staff for his first season in Las Cruces after serving as the Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Tackles coach at the University of Hawai’i in 2023 and the Defensive Line coach in 2022.
Ena’s full college football coaching résumé can be found below.
- Eastern Washington, student assistant (2003-05)
- Eastern Oregon, defensive coordinator/linebackers (2006-08)
- Idaho, defensive line (2009-12)
- Cal Poly, defensive line (2013-15)
- Eastern Washington, defensive end (2016-21), associate head coach (2017-21), defensive coordinator (2019-21)
- Hawaii, defensive line (2022), co-defensive coordinator/defensive tackles (2023)
Passing Game Coordinator/Wide Receivers Coach, Cedric Cormier
Cormier enters his first season with the Aggies as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
He most recently was a receivers coach at Ball State (2023), with three prior seasons spent at FCS Houston Christian as the inside receivers coach (2020) and the offensive coordinator/receivers coach (2021-22).
Cormier reunites with Tony Sanchez as he served as his receivers coach for his entire tenure with UNLV.
Ahead of his time in Las Vegas, Cormier spent a season with the Miami (OH)as the receivers coach, getting his start in the collegiate ranks in the same position at FCS Montana.