Stolz to Visit New Mexico State

Denny Stolz, former San Diego State football coach, said Monday night he will travel to New Mexico State today to meet with school officials about their vacant coaching position.

“I want to see the school and hear what they have to say,” Stolz said. “Until I do that, I cannot say how interested I am.”

Stolz said he and his wife, Cena, will spend two days meeting with officials on the campus in Las Cruces, N.M. He said it will be his second trip there. Earlier this fall he was on campus for a golf tournament.

Stolz said it was too early to say if he would accept a job offer from the school. But sources said Stolz is the school’s first choice to replace Mike Knoll, who was fired Sunday after compiling a four-year record of 4-40. One source said that if Stolz indicates he would accept the position, it is likely no other candidates would be interviewed.

“It’s his if he wants it,” the source said.

Stolz, 55, has been out of football coaching since he was fired last November after three seasons at SDSU. He later was appointed men’s golf coach as part of an agreement to honor the remaining three years of his university contract. Stolz has more than two years remaining on that agreement, which this year pays him $63,900.

But Stolz said he is interested in returning to football coaching. He has a 125-93-2 record in 21 seasons at Alma College, Michigan State, Bowling Green and SDSU. He was 16-19 at SDSU, leading the Aztecs to their first Western Athletic Conference title in 1986, his first season.

“I very much want to get back into coaching,” Stolz said in a telephone interview from a golf tournament near Palm Springs. “But whether this is the job, I won’t know until I have a chance to look around down there.”

His interest likely will hinge on whether he can be convinced the program can be made a winner, sources said. The Aggies have had one winning season since 1967, when they were 6-5 in 1978. They finished 0-11 (0-7 in the Big West Conference) in their last year under Knoll to stretch their losing streak to 17 games, longest in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division I-A. Their last victory was 42-29 at Kansas on Oct. 1, 1988.

Stolz has concerns about the school’s financial resources to operate a competitive Division I-A program, the sources said.

Although the school has a 30,000-seat stadium built in 1978 and an adjoining practice field, it lacks a modern weight training room. A fund drive has been started to raise $300,000 to build such a facility.

The school also is below the limits the NCAA allows for scholarships and assistant coaches. The school has six full-time assistants, three less than the NCAA maximum Stolz had at SDSU.

The Aggies had been limited to 65 football scholarships, 30 less than the NCAA permits. Increased state funding will allow the school to lift that restriction starting with next year’s team, but because NCAA rules limit a school to 25 new scholarship players a year, it will be several seasons before the Aggies could be at full strength.

The Aggies expect to have 50 returning scholarship players next season, including 13 starters.