ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. --- Head Football Coach Jason Eck has announced new hires and additions to the 2026 coaching staff. Zach Lujan joins as Associate Head Coach/Receivers, and Erik Link will serve as Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator. Additionally, Darrius Smith will be the new running backs coach, and Zach Parrella will join the staff as Associate Athletic Performance Coach.
Zach Lujan takes over as receivers coach for Colin Lockett. He spent the previous two years at Northwestern, helping the Wildcats to the GameAbove Sports Bowl in 2025. He spent seven years at his alma mater, South Dakota State, taking over as the offensive coordinator in 2023 for Jason Eck, who left to become Idaho’s head coach. With the Jackrabbits, he won back-to-back FCS national championships, winning 29 straight games before moving to Northwestern.
Erik Link takes over as special teams coordinator, replacing Daniel Da Prato, after serving as the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach at Missouri for the past six seasons. While there, he coached kicker Harrison Mevis, known as the “Thicker Kicker”, whose overtime field goal sent the Los Angeles Rams to the NFC Championship game, one win from Super Bowl LX.
Link has also coached at App State, Louisiana Tech, Auburn, and Iowa State.
Smith takes over as running backs coach for John Johnson and brings vast collegiate experience as a running backs coach, an offensive coordinator, and a head coach. His most recent stop was at Southern Utah, where he coached running backs for the past four seasons and has also served as assistant head coach since 2023.
Smith was the head coach for two seasons at Fort Lewis College in Durango. He has also coached at Bryant, UMass, Villanova, Northeastern, James Madison, Idaho, and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Smith also has experience in the Land of Enchantment, starting his full-time coaching career at New Mexico Highlands, where he coached the Cowboys for five seasons, including one as co-Offensive Coordinator.
Zach Parrella joins as Associate Athletic Performance Coach after serving for the past three seasons as Assistant Director of Athletic Performance for Football at Louisiana, where he was with the Ragin’ Cajuns when they played in the 2024 Isleta New Mexico Bowl against TCU. He also spent a year and a half at both ULM and Louisiana Tech, working with football as an athletic performance coach.