Danny Gonzales
Danny Gonzales went 11–32 as a head coach, 2020–2023, at New Mexico. Share
- Record
- 11–32 career
- Seasons
- 4
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Jan 13, 1976
- Alma mater
- New Mexico 1998
- Best season
- 2023 4–8
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | New Mexico | 2–5 | T–7th | |||
| 2021 | New Mexico | 3–9 | 6th | |||
| 2022 | New Mexico | 2–10 | 6th | |||
| 2023 | New Mexico | 4–8 | T–10th |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
Teton Saltes2020 Wuerffel Trophy
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 3 | 0–3 | 0% |
| Against top-10 teams | 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 5 | 2–3 | 40% |
| Conference games | 31 | 5–26 | 16% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 7 | 3–4 | 43% |
| At home | 22 | 8–14 | 36% |
| On the road | 21 | 3–18 | 14% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 7 | 6–1 | 86% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 36 | 5–31 | 14% |
His own 43 games on file, 2020–2023, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Craig Bohl 2020–2023 | 2–2 | Wyoming | 4 | |
| Troy Calhoun 2020–2022 | 0–3 | Air Force | 3 | |
| Andy Avalos 2021–2023 | 0–3 | Boise State | 3 | |
| Blake Anderson 2021–2023 | 0–3 | Utah State | 3 |
Danny Gonzales’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Fresno Stateseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| Wyomingseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| Utah Stateseries | 4 | 0–4 |
| New Mexico Stateseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Boise Stateseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Air Forceseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| UNLVseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Hawai’iseries | 2 | 1–1 |
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999–2002 | New Mexico | Graduate assistant | |
| 2006–08 | New Mexico | Safeties and special teams coach | |
| 2011–16 | San Diego State | Safeties coach | |
| 2017 | San Diego State | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2018 | Arizona State | Defensive coordinator | |
| 2019 | Arizona State | Assistant head coach and defensive coordinator | |
| 2020–23 | New Mexico | Head coach | |
| 2024 | Arizona | Linebackers and special teams coach | |
| 2025–present | Arizona | Defensive coordinator |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Rocky LongNew Mexico, San Diego State
- Herm EdwardsArizona State
- Brent BrennanArizona
Assistants who became head coaches
- Rocky LongNew Mexico, San Diego State
- Bryant VincentUAB, UL Monroe
Worked under (3)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Long | New Mexico | 1999–2008 | 1999–2002: graduate assistant; 2006–08: safeties and special teams coach | |
| Rocky Long | San Diego State | 2011–17 | 2011–16: safeties coach; 2017: defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Herm Edwards | Arizona State | 2018–19 | 2018: defensive coordinator; 2019: assistant head coach and defensive coordinator | |
| Brent Brennan | Arizona | 2024–26 | 2024: linebackers and special teams coach; 2025–26: defensive coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (2)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Long | New Mexico, 2020–22: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | New Mexico, San Diego State | |
| Bryant Vincent | New Mexico, 2023: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | UAB, UL Monroe |
Other assistants under him (5)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Derek Warehime | New Mexico, 2020–22: offensive coordinator | |
| Jordan Somerville | New Mexico, 2020–21: running backs coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| Drew Mehringer | New Mexico, 2021: co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Joe Scelfo | New Mexico, 2023: tight ends coach | |
| Troy Reffett | New Mexico, 2023: defensive coordinator |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | San Diego State | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $94,011 | $192,416 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Gonzales’s teams went for it on 16% of fourth downs and on 28% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 44% of plays and took 28.5 seconds a play, 2020–2023.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 7 g | 8 of 55 15% | 22% | 46% | 24.4 | +0.02 | |
| 2021 11 g | 21 of 106 20% | 35% | 40% | 28.9 | −0.19 | |
| 2022 12 g | 15 of 118 13% | 20% | 43% | 29.1 | −0.25 | |
| 2023 11 g | 13 of 71 18% | 36% | 48% | 29.9 | +0.13 | |
| All 41 g | 57 of 350 16% | 28% | 44% | 28.5 | −0.08 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.