New Mexico expected to hire Paul Weir as next head coach, per report

The New Mexico coaching search has hopefully come to the end with the Lobos being “close to finalizing a deal” with New Mexico State’s Paul Weir, per Jon Rothstein.

The Sports Editor from the Las Cruces-Sun News says Weir has been offered.

Weir went 28-6 in his one year as the Aggies head coach as he took over for Marvin Menzies who left for the UNLV job last year. He led the Aggies to a second-place finish in the WAC but ended up heading to the NCAA Tournament by winning the WAC tournament.

Weir was an assistant with New Mexico State for the nine years prior to earning the head gig, and prior to that he was an assistant at Iowa from 2005-07. As mentioned quite a bit during this coaching search money is an issue with Lobos athletics. Weir comes very cheap as his base salary is $250,000 and his max bonuses are $140,000, so that checks one box for New Mexico.

Geoff Grammer of the Albuquerque Journal has the buyout info on Weir.

To say the Lobos coaching search has been a roller coaster is an understatement. The names that came up first in the search were Florida Gulf Coast’s Joe Dooley, San Antonio Spurs assistant coach James Borrego, East Tennessee State head coach Steve Forbes and UT-Arlington’s Scott Cross.

All of these coaches were able to get interviews and at one point Borrego seemed to be the guy to land the job but he pulled his name out of the running late Sunday night.

New Mexico on Monday tried one more time but missed again.

The “for now” is very timely as this search has been crazy and all over the board, and while Rothstein has a very good reporting track record things could change on Weir being hired.

former New Mexico State regent Bob Gallagher is not happy at all on Weir possibly moving to the other Division I program in the state.

Here is his full quote via KVIA-ABC 7:

"If in fact a contract is agreed to tonight or tomorrow for Paul Weir to be the next head coach at the University of New Mexico, the blame needs to be very loud and very swiftly placed on the head of the NMSU Board of Regents and President Garrey Carruthers. They have shown a total lack of support for not only Coach Weir, but all athletics. And in a $600 million budget, to suggest that you could not find $250,000 dollars to be able to keep and retain a coach who has dedicated the last ten years of his life to NMSU is a sad, sad scenario.

...Their arrogance in not wanting to accept the fact and the role that athletics plays at a university, the amazing comparison is UNM is paying a $1 million buyout of their former head coach and is prepared to pay $700-800,000 a year for this new coach. They don't have a president right now, and they have a virtually lame duck athletic director. The governor is calling the shots. And the fact that we cannot come up with $250,000 dollars in an over $600 million budget is an absolute black eye to the entire country about the leadership of NMSU."