Jim Hess

Head coach, New Mexico State, 1990 to 1996

College career22-55

Program liftNo. 640tied · of 1,290 tenures since 1937

Now

Career arc

Stats

Big games

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.

1-6 against his rivals. Just 1-4 against Dennis Franchione.

Rivalry record

1-6

14.3% · 1 rival

One-score games

10-12

45.5% · margin ≤8

Rivalry ledger

New Mexico1-614%

The toughest matchupNemesis

vs. Dennis Franchione1-4

5 meetings, 1992–1996

’92 W’93 L’94 L’95 L’96 L

Performance by opponent class

Power Program

0-6 0.0%

National Program

1-8 11.1%

Regional Program

13-35 27.1%

Building the roster

Two numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.

1Roster ownership
2The NFL pipeline

Roster ownership

This coach's entire tenure (1990-1996) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.

“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.

The NFL pipeline

at least2Drafted

players drafted into the NFL off his teams here (a floor — see the note below). None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here.

At least 2 — the draft class following his 1995 season is missing from this table entirely; and his 1990, 1991, 1992 seasons predate the modern 7-round draft, so this table’s pre-1994 pick counts are a floor, not a full count, for those seasons.

0 roster-verified · 2 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
1995	R6.06	Troy Sienkiewicz	Offensive Guard	San Diego Chargers	Estimated
1994	R5.06	Aaron Laing	Tight End	San Diego Chargers	Estimated

A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.