A glance a Rocky Long's
UNM tenure

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - - KRQE.com looks back at some of the best and worst moments of former Lobo Head Coach Rocky Long's career :

Regular season success

As Head Coach of the New Mexico Lobos, Long compiled a record of 65-69 making him the most winning coach in school history.

Since the NCAA instituted increased scholarship limits and two-platoon football in 1965, the Lobos have only had a winning record in one decade—the 2000's.

Long was the team's only coach during that time span. The Lobos' record since 2000 is 58-53.

Since 2002, he's led the Lobos to a 30-23 record in the Mountain West Conference. That's third most in that time span, behind only BYU and Utah.

Long's players pile up awards

Rocky Long has coached some impressive talent in his Lobo life, and numerous organizations have noticed.

From 2001-2007, UNM churned out 73 All-Conference players.

From 2003-2007, the school had 33 first team All-Mountain West honorees which is 12 more than any other team in those years.

10 Lobos have been selected in the NFL draft after stints with Long including perennial pro-bowler Brian Urlacher and wide out Marcus Smith.

Former Lobos like Hank Baskett III have also found their way into the professional ranks via undrafted free agency.

Players also hit the books hard under the coach. UNM football's top 15 semester grade point averages were attained under him.

Past seniors Cody Case and Vince Natali were named Academic All Americans in 2007. They were the only two players from the Mountain West to earn that honor in 2007.

Put on your bowling shoes

In Long's 11 seasons the Lobos played in five bowl games, winning only one—the 2007 New Mexico Bowl.

In that game, the Lobos tore apart the University of Nevada's tricky pistol offense en route to a 23-0 bowl shutout.

Those five bowl games all came between 2002 and 2007. Only to other teams in the conference (Utah and TCU) went to five bowl games in that period.

In 103 years of competition before Long, the Lobos had only gone two six bowl games total. Their record in those bowls was 2-3-1.

However, bowls didn't start until around the 1920's and the Lobos didn’t play in their first one until 1939.

The Lobos last bowl win without Long was the Aviator Bowl in 1961.

New contract doesn't last very Long

On Aug. 19, Long signed a new five-year contract with the school extending his contract through June 30, 2013 and raising his salary from $439,000 to around $750,000.

Long will not serve out the remaining four years of his deal, but he will get paid $240,000 for next year, according to UNM officials.

The rest of the deal's end terms have not yet been disclosed.

What's so bad about 05 and 08 coach?

The former coach made a point to address two specific seasons where he said the coaches did a "terrible job of coaching."

As it turns out, those two seasons were the only years that Rocky Long's Lobos failed to either match or surpass preseason conference polls.

In 2005, the team was picked to finish the Mountain West in second place. That year they finished 6-5 overall achieving bowl eligibility, although they weren't invited to play in the post season.

In 2008, the Lobos were picked to finish fourth in the conference, but they will most likely finish in the seventh slot.

The year that led to Long leaving

The 2008 season was chalked full of road blocks and detours that the Lobos just couldn't navigate through.

Before the season started, the Lobos were slapped with penalties stemming from NCAA violations after coaches helped students gain fraudulent college credit from Fresno Pacific University.

• The punishments both imposed by the NCAA and self-imposed by the university:
• Public reprimand and censure (NCAA)
• Three years of probation - Aug. 20, 2008 to Aug. 19, 2011 (NCAA)
• Reduction of five initial scholarships for football players, and a reduction of five "counters" on the football squad (NCAA)
• 50 percent restriction on number of recruits from two-year colleges for two years (UNM)
• Restriction on the number of coaches allowed to recruit off-campus for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years (UNM)
• Cap on the number of official paid visits for prospective players: 46 for 2008-09, 48 for 2009-10, and 48 for 2010-11 (NCAA)

When the Lobos finally got to take the field this season, they were crushed in a 26-3 loss to TCU.

The game was the team's earliest conference game in school history, and they lost quarterback Donovan Porterie to a neck injury in the first half.

Porterie would return to practice the following Monday, but his good health didn't last long. He would go on to tear his ACL and MCL in the fourth game of the season against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

UNM then turned to redshirt freshman quarterback Brad Gruner to lead the team. Gruner was extremely rough in his early playing time, completing less than 50 percent of his passes and frequently tossing interceptions.

Despite suffering more injuries, the Lobos clawed their way back from a