Danny Gonzales
Defensive coordinator across 3 programs, 3 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.
Danny Gonzales
Followed Bob Davie. Danny Gonzales held New Mexico at Regional Program V for 4 seasons.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
1–2 against his rivals. Winless in 3 tries against Blake Anderson.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
20th-best New Mexico tenure of 22 by the numbers.
Underperforms his recruiting talent on offense and performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Bob Davie (2012–2019) · succeeded by Bronco Mendenhall (2024–2024).
| Season | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 2–5 | 3–9 | 2–10 | 4–8 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #106 | #93 | #98 | #127 | |
| Style — pass rate | |||||
| Pass rate | 42.7 | 35.9 | 36.9 | 44.5 | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | Derek Warehime | Derek Warehime | Derek Warehime | Bryant Vincent | |
| DC | Rocky Long | Rocky Long | Rocky Long | Troy Reffett | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | 27 | 0 | 0 | 71 | |
| Defense | 19 | 40 | 60 | 3 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | 39.1 | 40.6 | 34.8 | 44.7 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 26.3 | 35.7 | 22.1 | 38.4 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 12.5 | 39.4 | 12.5 | 21.4 | |
Barely touches the portal — recruits and develops his own.
Typical size for position, once adjusted for position mix.
Recruits younger transfers than most — more of a development bet.
1 NFL Draft pick: Jerrick Reed II (2023)