New Mexico football breaks a rock after each win. Here's how the tradition began.

Luke Wysong walked with a sledgehammer to the center of the packed locker room with one thought in his head.

“Don’t miss,” New Mexico’s redshirt junior wide receiver laughed.

After all five wins this season, UNM football has commemorated each by smashing the “rock” — a painted 12-inch-by-12-inch paver stone — with a sledgehammer. The team goes wild after each hit.

The honor of the initial strike is reserved for the de facto player of the game. Wysong had rock-busting duties after the Lobos downed Air Force 52-37 on Oct. 12.

At home, the rocks are busted in the locker room. On the road, it’s occasionally done outside. But there’s always a stampede to the middle of the room to grab a piece of the broken-up rock, a chunk to remember the win by.

“Obviously we have those select few goblins that try to take the big pieces,” Wysong joked.

Wysong said he wants to put together a mural with the shards or rock he’s collecting. Linebacker Randolph Kpai and running back Na’Quari Rogers — the rock-breakers after wins against San Diego State and New Mexico State, respectively — have also been collecting tiny chunks.

It may be UNM’s tradition now, but it didn’t start there.

When Shawn Griswold was the strength and conditioning coach at Tulsa in 2008, he wanted something to signify moving “the mountain” one rock at a time. There were 12 games, so Griswold bought 12 paver stones and painted them himself.

The message?

“All that matters is the next game in front of you,” SMU’s current head football strength coach told the Journal. “You don’t need to think about the third game, or the sixth game or the last game — it just keeps you focused.”

Tulsa smashed 11 rocks that year and a tradition was born. Griswold kept it rolling for the next two seasons before moving on to Arizona State. Over the course of six seasons, the Sun Devils kept it up

In 2018, Mendenhall hired Griswold as his head strength coach at Virginia. There, newcomer to the strength staff Nate Pototschnik was exposed to the beloved tradition.

“At Virginia, there was none of the rock remaining,” he said. “It was something that was special to the players, to the coaches — once that hammer hit, everyone wanted a piece of it. The more we broke them, the more it kind of became a big deal.”

In time, it grew into something bigger. The rocks took on greater significance to not just players and coaches, but their families. At SMU, Griswold’s wife hand-paints each rock, stenciling in team logos like a tattoo artist before handing them off to her husband.

“My kitchen table from August until whenever we’re done playing is an artwork piece,” Griswold said. “We don’t even eat there. Right now, she’s got one for the (ACC Championship Game) she’s working for next week.”

And when Pototschnik was hired as UNM’s director of athletic performance last December, he remembered the impact of those rocks. He put in a call to Griswold, asking for his blessing to bring the tradition to the Lobos.

Griswold didn’t hesitate.

“I don’t think it’s a copy thing,” he said. “I think it’s just a great tradition and it tells a big story at the end of every — mostly — Saturday night of what’s happening.”

David Flores, an athletic performance graduate assistant at UNM, painted 12 paver stones ($1.78 each) in the preseason, each of the Lobos’ 12 opponents adorning a different rock. When the Lobos travel, that week’s rock makes the trip in a black Nanuk hard case.

On game days, associate director of athletic performance Richard Burney stays back at halftime to make sure the setup is right if UNM wins. And if the Lobos do win, Pototschnik meets with Burney to get the sledgehammer and Mendenhall speaks briefly.

After that, it’s on.

“You go in the locker room and most expect a speech from the head coach,” Mendenhall said. “That’s not enough. And sometimes a coach will throw a game ball to someone (instead).

“(The rock) just puts a definitive mark to start the celebration. And so after the coach says what he’s going to say for a player to be recognized — who’s the real influencer of the game — then they get to lift something heavy with all their might, then swing and explode something.

“A lot of other people erupt because of that.”