South Dakota State hires New Mexico DC Dan Jackson as next head coach

New Mexico needs a new defensive coordinator.

Dan Jackson — hired as UNM’s defensive coordinator last week — has been announced as South Dakota State’s new head coach, the program announced Tuesday.

The longtime South Dakota State assistant replaces Jimmy Rogers after the latter was named Washington State’s head coach on Dec. 28. Jackson, the former defensive coordinator at Idaho, was announced in the same role at UNM on Dec. 23, and was one of six Vandal staffers to follow head coach Jason Eck to Albuquerque.

The Lobos are now tasked with finding a new defensive coordinator barely a month into Eck’s tenure.

“Fired up for (Jackson),” he posted on X following South Dakota State’s announcement. “Great opportunity for him to run his own program after doing a great job last year.”

An Omaha, Nebraska native, Jackson spent 2012-19 as an assistant coach for South Dakota State after playing for the perennial FCS powerhouse from 2003-05. He primarily served as the Jackrabbits’ defensive backs coach before adding assistant head coach duties toward the end of his eight-year run in Brookings, South Dakota.

In that period, Jackson overlapped with Eck, South Dakota State’s offensive line coach and subsequent offensive coordinator from 2016-2021. Jackson joined the latter this season in Idaho, calling a defense that allowed 25 points per game — the fourth-best mark in the Big Sky Conference.

Now Jackson, a former assistant at Vanderbilt and Northern Illinois, takes over a South Dakota State program that finished 12-3 with an appearance in the FCS semifinals.

UNM (5-7) will now look for a new defensive coordinator to help rebuild a defense that finished last in the Mountain West in scoring defense (38 points per game), passing defense (279.2 yards per game) and total defense (492.1 yards per game).