How Rocky Long found the ‘perfect situation’ at Division II Fort Lewis College

Rocky Long admits he doesn’t know what retirement is all about. Nor is he totally sure he wants to know — 52 years in coaching, built upon routines to the minute, tends to have that effect.

“I’ve been around football long enough that if I don’t have somewhere to go and something to do, I thought I’ll probably get myself in trouble no matter how old I am,” New Mexico’s all-time winningest head coach joked in a mid-August interview with the Journal.

And for the time being, he won’t have to.

In July, Long joined the staff at Division II Fort Lewis College as a defensive analyst, an off-field role centered around film analysis and advising coaches far more than players.

For the first time in 34 years, the 74-year-old coordinator isn’t helping call a defense. Nor is a head coach with a 146-107 overall record making decisions for an entire team.

It is, in a sense, exactly what he was looking for.

“It’s the perfect situation and I hope that (if) I can give, I give,” said Long, who retired to Durango, Colorado — home to Fort Lewis College — with his wife, Debby, earlier this year. “But they’ve got a really good coaching staff here — they don’t need me. So it was nice of them to allow me to come in and give an opinion now and then.

“And it keeps me involved where I’m actually watching a football practice and watching a football game.”

Courting Long

The Skyhawks’ third-year head coach Johnny Cox was a graduate assistant at Texas in 1997 when Long’s UCLA defense shredded the 11th-ranked Longhorns in a 66-3 win fondly remembered among Bruins fans as “Rout 66.”

He remembers UCLA’s confusing 3-3-5 defense, how utterly hapless it made a Texas team with high expectations look. That one of the architects of that defense had treated Durango as “kind of a second home” for 30 years was hard to ignore.

“It’s just like, ‘man, that’s the guy that put that whooping on us a long time ago,’” Cox laughed.

A self-admitted admirer from afar, Fort Lewis defensive coordinator Spencer Brown even remembers hoping a chance encounter with Debby in Durango last year would lead to an audience with Long.

“I kind of — I don’t want to say I hounded her, but I was excited for the opportunity to maybe have him come by over the summer or something, before he went up to Syracuse (where he was defensive coordinator in 2023), … maybe a clinic or (to) give us some ideas,” Brown said “And it never transpired.”

Long was Syracuse’s defensive coordinator in 2023 before parting ways with the program after head coach Fran Brown was hired in December.

Per Cox, the school’s relationship with Long started to pick up steam when he ran into former UNM men’s soccer coach Jeremy Fishbein this spring. Fishbein, Fort Lewis’ coach from 1992-98, mentioned to Cox that Long was interested in helping the program in some capacity, and would be open to potentially joining the staff.

“Obviously, it takes you about one second to think about that,” Cox said.

Upon getting in contact with Long, Cox found a “really good match” and set to work trying to find a role that’d be most comfortable for one of college football’s defensive innovators. An analyst role, where Long would be able to pore over film without the trappings of “actually coaching,” ended up being the best fit.

“It’s like playing chess everyday, you know?” Long said. “It’s kinda fun.”

Rocky the rebuilder

Fort Lewis, with an enrollment of 3,856, could very well use the help. The Skyhawks enter Saturday’s opener against William Jewell College riding a 39-game losing streak — the longest of its kind in any division of NCAA-sanctioned football — with the five-year anniversary of their last win rapidly approaching.

Cox, a former All-American wide receiver at Fort Lewis, inherited 18 of those losses and a roster with just 35 players. The last two seasons have been a “total rebuild” centered around getting players from the prep ranks up to speed in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, one of the best conferences in Division II football.

“The joke among the coaching staff is that we need a few birthdays,” Brown said. “We’re finally getting some of those coming through with some 20-year-olds and third-year guys in the program understanding what college football really looks like. So that’s part of the growing process, part of the building process.”

It’s a process Long almost found himself leading at another school. After he was let go by Syracuse last season, Long was one of three finalists for the head coaching vacancy at UNM and interviewed with former athletic director Eddie Nuñez in December for the opportunity to help rebuild the Lobos a second time.

“I was trying to find what I wanted to do with (the) years left,” he said. “And, you know, that seemed like a good opportunity. I knew the situation, I knew I could win there. They didn’t see it that way.

“But, you just take an idea and go with it and see what happens.”

Long said he expects head coach Bronco Mendenhall to do “a good job” at UNM and has spoken with his former defensive coordinator a handful of times, but “not in great detail — I mean, not great depth about the program” since the latter was hired.

“Bronco is a very good coach … So I know him very well and he was a really good pick,” Long added.

But for now, Long’s focused on spending time with Debby and enjoying Durango, a town they’ve long loved. Offering advice and diving into the tape for Fort Lewis, a partnership as unusual as it was natural.

“His defensive mentality is unmatched,” Brown said of Long. “It’s similar to what I’m used to of not really caring what the situation is — we gotta go out there and play great defense. And I really think that just having those types of demeanors in the building really helps us out.”

Long still doesn’t know what retirement is all about. Nor does he think he’ll find out.

“It’s an easy transition into retirement,” he said, “but I don’t think I’m the retiring kind. So, you never know what might happen.”