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Jason Eck Nearly Left Football.Now He’s Filling the Lobo Bandwagon: We play really hard, we we have fun what we're doing, we play with great energy, and I I think our team kinda reflects this city and this state. You know, we're tough, we're gritty, we'll fight through adversity, and we're prideful. And I think that's that's that's what a New Mexican is. That's what someone from Albuquerque is. We're a fun team and the bandwagon's open if you want to hop on the the logo train. Yeah, yeah, fire, up the grill, crank the speak. Loud Saturdays feel holy in this college crowd. Sethin' James on the mic, preaching gospel true, talking rivalries, legends, red, black, old, and blue. From dead valley lights to the camp, Randall Cold. They're telling stories. They never get old. Ain't no bench warm hearts on the show tonight. They're walking on proud on the stadium lies. Little preferred walk on. No scholarship still putting it on from the church until gate hands in the air. Welcome to the Preferred Walk-on Show, the People's College Football Show. I am your host, Seth Saunders, and our guest today is a builder who ain't afraid of work. And over the last two seasons, he's engineered one of the coolest stories in all of college football. A former walk-on at Wisconsin, over the last two plus decades, he's worked his way through the coaching ranks with stops at multiple levels. He got his first head coaching opportunity at Idaho, where he led a remarkable turnaround, leading the Vandals to three straight FCS playoff appearances. Now in just his second season at New Mexico, he's got the Lobos sitting at eight and one in pole position in the Mountain West and jockeying for a CFP berth. An enthusiastic, preferred walk-on welcome for the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos, Jason. Coach, welcome to the show, brother. Hey, good to be on Seth. Thanks for having me. Well, I want to start with your journey. you s you were a walk-on at Wisconsin under Coach Alvarez, and then you've spent more than two decades climbing, man, trying to get to this spot. And I'm just curious. How being a walk-on influenced your journey and has served you. Well, I I I I'm very proud of being a walk-on and I've I've always had a soft spot for those guys because the the effort they put in, how you have to bust your bust your butt, you kind of beat the odds. And I I'd still say probably one of my best accomplishments of my life was when Coach Alvarez called me into his office and gave me a scholarship for for my hard work and and what I accomplished there. So you definitely had a great brotherhood, and Wisconsin had a great walk-on tradition. You I I played with guys like Mark Toucher who ended up playing ten years in the NFL as a walk-on. Don L. Thompson was, first team All Big Ten as a walk-on. So we had a great tradition and culture of that. And I I think the the the hard work, the grit and determination you learn as a walk-on has certainly helped me in my coaching career. Coach, I read that there was a point in your career where, if a year earlier you had gotten a yes from a turf company, the world might have been robbed of Coach Eck at New Mexico. Can you talk on that a little bit? Yeah. I you know, my my years as an assistant coach, you know, were kind of crazy. I had five years as a GA and then, you know, my first, you know, like twelve years I was a position coach, usually coaching the offensive line, like six of those years, the head coach I worked for didn't come back for another year. So that led to a lot of moving around and I was at Western Illinois for one season. I was there for the two thousand twelve season. And I had been, two thousand ten at Ball State, two thousand eleven at Hampton, two thousand twelve at Western Illinois, and the coach gets fired at Western Illinois. I don't get retained by the new coach. So I'm staring down, taking another coaching job and it'd be my fourth j job in four years and I got three young kids. I'm not making a lot of money. I was I was just trying to say, Is this the right thing for my family? And I ended up looking because, I didn't coach spring ball that year. I was still getting paid by Western Illinois through June, but you know, no right opportunities I thought were good came up early. And then by the time you get to like, you know, March and April, everyone's in spring practice. No one, you know, no jobs are open. So I started exploring other things because I I was like, hey, if I don't find anything, I gotta have some way to feed my family. And I was trying to find something that had some tie-in to athletics and coaching. And there was an opportunity at field turf where you'd be you selling turf, dealing with athletic directors and coaches in in high schools and colleges and I you know, I thought it had some carryover to to my background. Did the the national sales vice president liked me. He kinda liked my profile and thought I could transition well. my dad actually did that, he was a college basketball coach and then transitioned to sales. But they had a job that was like Kansas and Missouri and I interviewed with that guy and he was like a lifelong turf guy, been in the turf business thirty years and I think he didn't like that profile of somebody who had moved from a different area. He wanted a guy who was a career sales guy in that industry. And so it they didn't hire me. And I ended up getting on at Minnesota State Mankato, which was a great move. I got hired by a great coach, Aaron Keene. And we had a great year that year. We were eleven and one, my first year there, it's a division two school, and then right after the season he promoted me to be the offensive coordinator. Well, Field Surf calls back and they had a job in a different region and they Now they offer me the job. And I I definitely would have taken that job the year before when I didn't get the offer. Then they offered me the job, but I was like, hey, I I I had such a fun year. I got promoted to
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coordinator. I gotta see this out in coaching. So timing was everything on that. And I'm I'm thankful I did not get that job offer back in after that 2012 season. Well, as college football fans, we we are certainly delighted about that. We we had the honor, Coach, last year of talking to Coach Jackson at South Dakota State, which was one of your stops. If you want to use this time to tell any stories on Coach Jackson, I wouldn't hate that, but I would love to hear about y'all's time together and and what it meant to coach with him and and how that friendship has has been valuable and served you. Co Coach Jackson is such a a great person. He's energetic, he's positive, he's fun. He used to he used to wear this jacket around the office, he'd call it his cloak of positivity. And if if we were coming back after a tough loss or something, he'd put on the cloak of positivity and bring it up. But I I loved his energy. we coached together as assistants for four years. I I ended up staying at his place. they you didn't have a big budget at South Dakota State. now I'm fortunate in FBS. if I have a new assistant, I can put him up in a hotel for two weeks and, cover it. they didn't have that at South Dakota State. So I'm like rolling into town to start and I got nowhere to go. I might I I don't know what I'm gonna gonna do. And and if they sent me to Dan's house. That was before he married his wife, Missy. So he had a spare bedroom and that's where I stayed. And So we're we're great friends. I ended up hiring him. he came to Idaho with me my last year. That was his first opportunity to be a defensive coordinator, did a tremendous job. You know, his first game as a coordinator ever. He holds Oregon at twenty four points on the road. We lose twenty four fourteen. and then he was gonna come with me to New Mexico, but then he had that opportunity to be the head coach at South Dakota State, you know, his alma mater and everything. So I was very happy for him to take that and he's done a great job there. But a great coach, great man, great family. We still Yeah, we're gonna go to the Kentucky Derby this spring together. We still our wives are great friends. She's a a dear friend of this profession. Coach, you've had the opportunity at Idaho and and now at New Mexico and you've done an incredible job with both of those programs, building culture and and building belief. I'm just interested when you walk into to jobs, what is the thing that Coach Eck is trying to do to establish, to to make sure that the tide turns and get things going the right way? Yeah, I I think it's it's it's one, it's it's getting the right people in the in the door, both coaches you hire and players you bring in, good good people who are high character, who like to work and can get along with people. And then we really work hard on relationships, getting to know each other. I think college football, the rosters have so much turnover from year to year. You really have to build that team every
year and get to know each other and build those relationships. And then it's it's really consistent messaging. You know, my strength coach, Coach Haim, has been with me since Idaho. He does a great job of hitting on the same things that we're talking about. And it's it's simple, consistent messaging, getting on on the same page and then, you know, really having very clear goals that we're working towards. And, you know, right away from when I first got to like New Mexico, you know, in almost every team meeting, we talked about we're going to a bowl game this year. We're going to a bowl game. And when I got hired, we hadn't gone to a bowl game since twenty sixteen. And i ironically, the team we play this week, UNLV, that was the game where we clinched bowl eligibility last year and players celebrated their tails off what we did because that that was what we had been shooting for. So it's really building belief. Gotta build the belief within your team, within your players, within your coaches. And I think that even can transfer over to our fan base. And we're we're enjoying some great crowds that that New Mexico hadn't seen in a long time. And our fan base has really rallied around us. Coach, I'm interested to hear about that fan base. What has it been like being in New Mexico and the support from the fan base and seeing everybody get so excited about the success and if if I'm somebody that hasn't been exposed to your program, what would you tell them if they were asking something about the Well I I I tell you, it's it's it's a fun read. I think we're a fun team to play. I think we we play really hard, we we have fun what we're doing, we play with great energy, and I I think the our our team kinda reflects this city and this state. You know, we're tough, we're gritty, we'll fight through adversity. And we're prideful. And I think that's that's that's what a New Mexican is. That's what someone from Albuquerque is. So and and I and I knew when I came here, I thought the one thing that intrigued me, they hadn't been drawing well for for football. I think the year before I got there, they averaged sixteen thousand fans a game. But I knew the basketball team drew very well, and the pit was, you know, well known as one of the harder places to play. And so I knew it wasn't an apathetic fan base. I just said, hey, we gotta give some good football. And I I really believe even though y you might say a school's a basketball school like they used to that about Indiana. this is a football country. America loves football. And if you give them good football, they'll rally around it and you know, our last home game, you know, we had thirty four thousand seven hundred people there against North Dakota State, so a long way from, you know, averaging sixteen thousand fans a couple of years ago. Coach I'll have Great success this year. Y'all been super fun to watch. It was there a moment this year or maybe in fall practice or maybe during summer workouts when you went,
Man, boys, I think this team's got a shot. I think we've got a real opportunity. I y'all went to Norman, gave that Oklahoma team all they wanted at the Palace on the Prairie. I'm just curious if there was a spot where you went, Hey man, we got a real shot at this thing. Yeah, I I think even going back to the spring I had a pretty good idea. we were able to retain all of our defensive players from last year. We didn't lose anybody in the portal who was a key returner. And we're really, really strong on defense. we lead the nation in total defense, lead the nation in a scoring defense. we've gotten really good at creating turnovers. We're number one in the country in turnover margin. And I you know, I I I saw it coming together and you know, we've continued to get better on the offensive line. I thought that was a big area that we've improved from last year. So we're we're really good on the O line and D line. and again, if you you play good defense, you run the ball, you don't turn it over and play really good special teams, you're tough to beat, you know. And you know, we had our chances in that that Oklahoma game, even though we played poorly on offense in that game. you know, we're we were breaking in you know, a new quarterback. We're actually playing two quarterbacks at that time. Now we've settled on one. But we're we're a tough team to beat. And you know, we we're gonna have great challenges down the stretch. We play three teams with winning records here to finish the year in conference. But as long as we as we play well, I think we're gonna be in good shape. All right, coach, last question today. I asked this question of all of our coaches, but hop in Dot Brown's DeLorean with me, and let's set the dashboard dial for January 1, 1999, head to Pasadena, California. If you get to grab number 55 as he's walking off the field at the Rose Bowl and gave him one piece of advice for the journey ahead, what would it be? I would definitely tell him I I know you're thinking hard about getting into coaching. you need to definitely do that. that that's gonna be a rewarding career for you and you're gonna have a lot of fun, gonna have a lot of great memories, deal with a lot of great people. And I think when I came back from that bowl game, that that's when I I came into my offensive line coach's Jim Huber's office and said, Coach, I I really want to coach. what what can I do? How can I get get started and become a graduate assistant. And you know, so I was leaning that way, but I I would have probably given that final push to make make sure you do that. I my mom was trying to talk me to go to law school or something, but I think this has worked out pretty well. Yeah, I think it worked out well, Coach. a as an attorney myself, I'll say you made the right choice, brother. Well, coach, I I so appreciate the time today. Before we let you go, please tell everybody how they can support y'all and support the Lobos program. Yeah, you know, get behind us. We got a big game this weekend, versus UNLV. It's on the CW. It's seven thirty Eastern, five thirty mountain time, out here. And you can follow along. You know, go lobos.com is our website. social media, UNM Lobo Football, co at Coach Eck, you know, follow along as well because we're a fun team and the bandwagon's open if you want to hop the the Lobo train. That's right, brother. I'm all for that. Well, coach we wish y'all nothing but health and success the rest of the way, man. Thanks, Seth. Bose up.