Aug. 19, 2008
Head Coach Rocky Long
“I feel very fortunate to get an extension of my contract. I think that in every football program there are points where the program has to make a move. I think we’ve had a lot more success in our program than we’ve had negatives – over the last seven years at least. We’re increasing the difficulty of our scheduling to try to enhance our fan support as well as enhance our program, and it feels good to be the coach to lead us into learning how to play those kind of schedules that I think will move us to the point that we’re going to win some conference championships.”
“It’s not going to make me coach any harder because I’ve been coaching as hard as I could for the last 10 years. I think it’s more of an indication of the emphasis that (University of New Mexico) President (David) Schmidly and (Vice-President of Athletics) Paul (Krebs) have put on improving our entire athletic department. Every coach that comes in here gets an enhanced budget and gets a better salary. Paul has done some really good things for the football program the last year and a half or so with increasing the recruiting budget and increasing assistant coaches salaries. With that means that we’re going to play tougher people and we have to win more games.”
“I feel very fortunate, but I think it’s more of an indication of the success of our entire program and of the university than it is of me.”
“This was really the only head coaching job I wanted. I turned down two head coaching jobs down before this one was offered to me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a head coach and I know I don’t want to be a head coach any place else.”
“I think we’re moving into a new era of (Lobo) football. It’s a great opportunity to play the kind of schedule we’re playing, but we have to learn how to play those kinds of people before we get on the national scene and you’ll never get on the national scene unless you learn how to play those people. The new contract gives me a chance to get that done before I leave.”
Vice-President for Athletics Paul Krebs
“This is a great day for Lobo football and recognition of an outstanding job that coach Long has done. When I look at the football program and the job coach Long has done over the last 10 seasons there are a number things that stand out for me that certainly show that he is an outstanding football coach and he has done an outstanding job here. This is a recognition of the work that he has done and the work he and I will continue to do to move this football program.”
“By any account that you want to measure growth and success of a football program since the time coach Long has been here you have seen continued, sustained improvement and success. I think coach would be the first to tell you we aren’t done. We want to hang championship banners and that is the goal of every team. There has been a lot of progress made and I think this is a recognition of all that has been accomplished.”
“While it is a great recognition of his accomplishments it also speaks to the University’s commitment to our football program. I think Rocky and I have national aspirations for this program and I think with any athletic program it takes resources.”
“The other piece that cannot be ignored is our fans. If we want to continue to move this program forward we need our fans to continue to rally around this program and support the program. We are excited we are over 15,000 season tickets. We’ve sold more tickets than we have last year, but I think coach will tell you we want more. We want to see more people and we want to continue to grow and evolve.”