From coaching vagabond to rising star, Jason Eck's journey is far from over. Now everyone wants to know what's next

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jason Eck likes to keep a few Wisconsin guys on his coaching staff at New Mexico, but not for the reason you might think.

Yes, there's familiarity for Eck, who spent his early years in Wisconsin, walked onto the Badgers' football team under Barry Alvarez and began his coaching career there as a graduate assistant. 

But there's a side benefit to having a young staffer or two from his home state. When they go back for the summer, they can bring the boss a couple cases of Spotted Cow, the highly prized local beer that is only sold within state borders. 

"I'm probably getting low," said Eck, who cracked one open at about 11 p.m. the night before this conversation as he celebrated his 49th birthday. "But we had a good, spirited practice, which was the best present you could ask for." 

Every year since 1995, Eck's birthday plans have revolved around the early days of fall camp, preparing for a new season. But this one is different. Because after years of grinding out a living for very little money at the lower levels of college football, Eck is no longer toiling in obscurity. 

Thanks to his out-of-nowhere success as a head coach, first at Idaho and then last season guiding New Mexico to a 9-4 record, there will be eyeballs on the Lobos over the next few months from all across college football — including, perhaps, from his home state. 

Spotted Cow may be one of Wisconsin's rarest exports, but it's not as in-demand as a football coach whose career seems to be on the fast track to stardom. 

"That's going to be the struggle," Eck told Yahoo Sports. "I think we're going to be good this year, and I've talked to the team already about one of the things that's going to be important as we have a good year is handling distractions. And distractions could be my name being linked for stuff, the agents reaching out to our players and trying to talk them into transferring. 

"My message is there will be a time to deal with that. But we've got to make sure our focus stays on doing what we have to do because that's what's going to create the value."

Jason Eck led New Mexico to a 9-4 record in his first season as head coach. What will the Lobos accomplish in Year 2? (Sam Wasson/Getty Images)Sam Wasson via Getty Images

First, the obvious. If Wisconsin gets off to another bad start, Eck might have to deal with those distractions sooner than he wants.

The coaching carousel is often unpredictable, but Luke Fickell occupying the hottest seat in America will bring attention to anyone with ties to Wisconsin — nobody more so than Eck, whose accent, physique (you can tell at first glance he's a former offensive lineman) and beer preferences all embody the football stereotypes of his home state. If New Mexico can repeat or exceed what it did last year, others will be interested as well. That's just the way the coaching business works.

"In some ways it's bittersweet because, my wife and I, we sincerely like it here," said Eck, who signed a five-year contract last November that upped his salary to $1.75 million. "But, you know, the better you do increases the chances you're not here. But it's a good problem to have because obviously if things don't go great, we like it here as well. And I really feel like we should be good unless we screw it up ourselves." 

Long, winding journey to New Mexico: 'We've been in bad debt'

If there's anyone equipped to keep these things in proper perspective, it's Eck. His entire career has been a testament in not looking too far around the bend. 

Because it wasn't so long ago that Eck found himself hopping from one small college job to another, catching on with coaching staffs that were doomed to be fired, unable to find stability or traction at schools that seemed miles away from power conference prestige. Between 2004 and 2018, Eck changed jobs eight times but couldn't catch a break and considered multiple times whether he needed to find a regular job just to keep his family afloat. 

"We've been in bad debt, bad financial shape," Eck said. "I've got five kids so it was nuts. I remember getting into fights when I was young with my wife about money stuff or going on a trip where I had to pay out of pocket to try and learn more or network with people and I remember saying, 'This is an investment. It's going to pay off.' There were a lot of years where, [expletive], we were negative month-to-month."

Even when Eck made a big career jump from Winona State to Ball State in 2009, it didn't last long. Head coach Stan Parrish got fired for winning just six games over two seasons and Eck took a low-paying job at Hampton to keep his coaching career going. That stung even worse when the linemen he recruited at Ball State blossomed into good players, which launched Eck's replacement there into a job at Penn State. 

After a year at Hampton, Eck wanted to move closer to his family in the Midwest so he took the offensive line job at Western Illinois. With the head coach having four years left on his contract, Eck figured it was a stable situation. Instead, the team went 3-9 and Eck got reassigned to work at the university golf course so the school wouldn't have to pay the buyout for his contract which went through June. 

"I'm not very handy with changing oil on lawnmowers and [expletive]," Eck said. "I got transferred to the guy who ran the bookstore and the campus bus system."

All the while, Eck was working every angle to find another coaching job, to the point where he sent a long email angling for an opening at Minnesota State Mankato that the head coach hadn't even been informed about yet. 

"At this point I'm getting desperate," Eck said. 

Eck lands the job, calls plays for teams that go 25-2 over two seasons but knows he has to get out when he can't convince the school to give him a $5,000 raise on a $60,000 salary. So he hops to Montana State under Rob Ash, the winningest coach in school history — and they end up getting fired one year later after going 5-6.

"It was a blessing in disguise because Bozeman was just starting to boom, and it was so expensive to live," Eck said. "I don't know how long I could have afforded to be an assistant there."

It was the next move to South Dakota State where Eck's career took a more stable turn. Promoted to offensive coordinator after three seasons, the Jackrabbits regularly made deep FCS playoff runs and posted impressive point totals over the next three years, putting Eck on a trajectory toward something bigger. 

In the fall of 2021, for the first time in his career, Eck got a phone call from a search firm. The call was about the Idaho State head coaching job, but Eck took it as a cue to inquire about the Idaho job, which had also just opened up and was a program he had familiarity with from three years as an assistant at the beginning of his career. 

Eck landed the job and didn't merely go to the FCS playoffs three straight years, turning around a program coming off five straight losing seasons. He also had some surprisingly competitive results against FBS programs, including a seven-point loss to Washington State and a 10-point loss to Oregon in 2024 that was within a field goal early in the fourth quarter. 

It was a signal that Eck, in the same vein as coaches who incubated at the lower levels like Curt Cignetti and Kalen DeBoer, had a knack for building rosters and doing more with less. 

"I think the lower levels, like D-II or FCS, where you could split up scholarships and have partials, in some ways it's practice for NIL because you had to really think strategically," he said. "You've got to find value within your budget if you're not the team that has the most money. You've got to wear a lot of hats and I just think handling the bandwidth of that prepares you a little better and I think you just appreciate everything."

How Jason Eck has found success as a head coach

The record speaks for itself: 26-13 at Idaho and 9-4 at New Mexico, which had only won that many games twice this century. In conference games where he's facing teams with similar talent, Eck is a combined 24-8.

Asked why his teams have consistently outperformed expectations, Eck emphasized belief over scheme. He cited Malcolm Gladwell's book "David and Goliath" in helping him think about how to turn disadvantages into advantages. 

For example, before games against power conference teams, Eck drills into his players that when scouts are looking at their tape, that's the game they'll focus on because it's against better competition. That won't be the case for the higher-profile team. He's also acutely aware of his assistant coaches' body language and the potential to send negative signals.

Eck recalls a game at Idaho in 2023 where they're up 17-0 early on Cal but gave up two scores late in the first half to make it 17-14. Instead of a locker room that was jubilant about having the lead as big underdogs, the mood had turned sour. Final score: Cal 31, Idaho 17. It was a lesson learned about how teams draft off confidence from the top and the responsibility of the head coach to set the atmosphere. 

"You've got to have good schematics and good people, but it's the mental thing and getting guys to believe going in there," Eck said. "Because I've been a part of so many games where your team thought they had no chance, no belief and sometimes even the staffs are playing to keep it close. Getting guys collectively to believe and all the people around us to believe is probably my biggest strength."

New Mexico is the co-favorite to win the Mountain West this season along with UNLV. (L.E. Baskow/Getty Images)Las Vegas Review-Journal via Getty Images

Now everyone believes. When New Mexico beat San Diego State for its ninth win last year, it was the first November crowd of 30,000-plus at University Stadium in a couple decades. And now, thanks both to booster engagement and the departure of several Mountain West schools to the new Pac-12, Eck said New Mexico's resources are in the top half of the conference, making this a sustainable program if he ends up staying for several more years. 

"There were some reasons I thought I could win here," he said. "I want to keep that in mind for next opportunities too to make sure there's reasons why we can do better than they've been doing." 

Eck's relative openness about his future is a testament to both his plain-spoken style and the current environment of college football where success creates options for players and coaches and everything feels more transactional. For someone like Eck, who has traveled a hard road to reach career and financial security, there is no need to avoid the obvious. 

The future is uncertain. But whether it's Wisconsin calling him home or another power conference program knocking at his door, Eck is a name college football fans will become very familiar with this fall if New Mexico does what it's supposed to on the field. 

"It's been a long, long journey," Eck said. 

And as he starts his 49th trip around the sun, in some ways it feels like it's just beginning.