ALBUQUERQUE — The University of New Mexico’s new football coach has been handed a five-year, $6 million contract that has incentives that could push his pay even higher.

Introduced at a packed news conference in The Pit that was lined with prominent boosters and several current players, Bronco Mendenhall fielded questions from the media for more than half an hour Thursday morning.

Taking the podium with tears in his eyes as he spoke about the chance to coach at a school he left 21 years ago, he was presented with a red No. 33 jersey — the number of Lobos coaches in team history — by UNM athletic director Eddie Nuñez. It was a moment, 57-year-old coaching veteran said, was something he hadn’t planned on until Nuñez reached out to him a little more than a week ago.

Mendenhall was flown to Las Vegas, Nev., for meetings with UNM leaders to discuss his vision for turning around a program that hasn’t won more than four games in a season since 2016.

“I like the process of transforming and I like the process of helping a program either become or re-become,” Mendenhall said. “It was one of the reasons I went to the University of Virginia.”

He spent 11 years as the head coach at BYU and six more at Virginia, stepping down in 2021 to regain his focus and spend time with his family. He also launched a podcast and put the finishing touches on the family’s retirement home in Montana.

His decision to come to UNM means he is now the highest paid public employee in the state. His contract pays him $1.2 million annually through the 2028 season.

It’s the first time in school history two coaches are simultaneously making over $1 million a year. Lobos men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino signed an extension in May that pays him $1.1 million this season and as much as $1.25 million in the 2027-28 campaign.

Nuñez said the funds come from a yearslong recovery from a financial crisis that rocked the athletics department just as he took over in 2017. In coping with a massive deficit after years of mismanagement from the previous administration, Nuñez was forced to eliminate several sports and cut corners where he could.

He has managed balance the athletics budget the last six years and steadily increase the bottom line the last half decade.

“Which is shocking to people, but we’ve had to do it and do it the right way,” Nuñez said.

“We’ve also grown our fundraising more than this program’s ever had since ever. So when you look at those two components, I’ve been preparing [us] for this opportunity.”

Had the recently fired Danny Gonzales had sustained success in his four years, Nuñez said he would have considered paying him the kind of money Mendenhall is getting.

“It’s not as much of a challenge because we’ve been preparing for it the last several years and we’ve aligned our donors as well as our university to make this possible,” Nuñez said.

Gonzales was paid approximately $700,000, which ranked 105th out of 119 head coaches polled by USA Today in Division I. He was the second-lowest paid coach in the Mountain West Conference. Mendenhall’s contract would put him in the top 80, but still rank near the bottom of the average MWC coach.

Nuñez said his initial candidate pool had 15 to 20 names on it. It was narrowed down to five or six, each of whom were vetted more thoroughly. From there, the list was whittled down to three finalists who met with Nuñez and deputy athletic director David Williams in Las Vegas; Mendenhall, Matt Wells and Rocky Long.

A fourth candidate was also discussed but Nuñez said he is employed at the FCS level and wasn’t willing to put his name out there.

“I had always admired Bronco from a distance,” Nuñez said. “I, like many others, thought he would be looking at something that was a little bit more powerful.”

Mendenhall’s name was attached to other vacancies, including MWC rival Boise State. It was his distant connection to New Mexico that opened the door for negotiations. His oldest son, a senior at BYU, was born in Albuquerque while he was on the Lobos’ staff from 1998 to 2002.

Nuñez’s connection to Virginia athletic director Carla Williams kickstarted the process. Williams was hired at Virginia the year after Mendenhall arrived in Charlottesville in 2016. She was his boss until he stepped down in 2021.

Williams and Nuñez worked together for two years at Vanderbilt in the early 2000s.

“When I started talking to her about him as a person, you could tell very quickly he was somebody I wanted to hear from if he was interested,” Nuñez said. “When I got word that he would be interested, those conversations started.”

Mendenhall said he has already assembled most of his staff. None of the names would be familiar to anyone looking for previous connections to UNM.

He said he met with players Wednesday and again Thursday, laying out the basic tenants for what he wants. Several times during the process of fielding questions from the media, he referenced the players attending the news conference.

“The identity and branding of the institution, of the state, is influenced by the University of New Mexico’s football program,” Mendenhall said, pointing in the direction of a few players that included All-American running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt. “I get all that and I’m passionate about that and there shouldn’t be any better ambassadors than the young men I’m looking at right now.”