At 33 years old, Nate Dreiling’s coaching odyssey is in its beginnings.
Utah State football’s interim head coach has only been coaching for 10 years, going back to his start as a graduate assistant at the University of Kansas in 2015-16.
During his decade in the sport — including stops at Kansas, Pittsburg State, Oregon, Southeast Missouri State and New Mexico State, Dreiling hasn’t crossed paths much with New Mexico’s Bronco Mendenhall.
Some of that is because Mendenhall was retired for a couple of seasons, following the 2021 campaign.
But mostly, it’s because the two haven’t coached anywhere close to each other.
Until now.
Dreiling and Mendenhall will be on opposite sidelines Saturday afternoon when Utah State hosts New Mexico.
It is a key game for both teams.
Utah State stands at 1-5 overall and has lost five straight games, most recently a 50-34 loss to UNLV last Friday.
New Mexico, meanwhile, is 2-4 overall and is coming off back-to-back wins over Air Force and New Mexico State.
For both teams, a chance at bowl eligibility hangs in the balance Saturday. Maybe not mathematically speaking, but for all intents and purposes. Neither team can afford to lose a winnable game like the one in front of them in Logan.
And though Dreiling doesn’t personally know Mendenhall well at all — the pair first met this summer at Mountain West Conference media days — he has nothing but respect for what Mendenhall is attempting to do at New Mexico, i.e. rebuild a program that hasn’t had a double digit win season since the early 1980s.
“I think that was just a home run hire for New Mexico,” Dreiling said. “To get (Mendenhall) down there. That is what he does, he fixes problems and builds programs. Whether he is going to flip it this year or down the road, he is going to get it done.”
Dreiling noted that he’s watched Mendenhall from afar for a while now, before his own coaching career even began, and isn’t blind to Mendenhall’s successful coaching resume.
“Watching as a fan … he has arguably been one of the top coaches in the country at a couple spots,” Dreiling said. “He was at BYU and had great success and carried that on to Virginia.”
And as Dreiling sees it, he is already starting to make a mark at New Mexico.
You need look no further than where the Lobos are this season.
“If you look at their schedule, it has been pretty similar to ours,” Dreiling said. “They’ve played some really good teams and have kind of gotten on a roll the last couple of weeks against easier opponents. They are way better than their record. We know that. Their offense has been rolling. So we have to get some stops, get some turnovers and get our offense on the field and get some points.”
