Williams steps down as UNM's Deputy Athletic Director, will reunite with Nuñez at Houston

Another familiar face around Lobo Athletics is moving on.

Dave Williams, Assistant Vice President and Deputy Athletics Director, is stepping down at the end of the week after six years of being one of the department’s top administrators, including serving as its Interim Athletic Director for five months last year.

Meanwhile, in Houston, the band is getting back together.

Williams has been hired as Senior Deputy Athletics Director at the University of Houston, where he will again work side by side with Eddie Nuñez, who first brought Williams on to be his top assistant at UNM six years ago, and will again be doing so now at the University of Houston.

“I am deeply grateful for my six years at the University of New Mexico. We have made lifelong friends and memories,” Williams said. “... Lobo Athletics is in good hands with the administration, coaches and staff that are in place.”

Williams served as Interim Athletic Director from August when Nuñez left until December when new AD Fernando Lovo began. He was one of the finalists for the job in the fall and told the Journal the decision to leave was not an easy one, and certainly not as easy as it may have seemed when he didn’t get the job.

“(I decided) only recently, honestly,” he told the Journal on Monday afternoon. “When I didn’t get the job, I wanted to give it some time so that I didn’t make an emotional decision, but also because I truly care about UNM and knew there were some things going on that Fern was going to need my help with. I had to make sure he was set up for success as much as I could before I could decide.”

That wasn’t the only issue making difficult a seemingly obvious professional move — leaving for better pay to work as the top assistant in a Power 4 conference like the Big 12 over staying at the school that just passed you over for the top job and is in a much less stable conference in transition. Williams also had plenty of personal reasons to stay.

His wife, Dr. Suzanne Williams, is a full-time lecturer in UNM’s Department of Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences. His two oldest kids are a lawyer and a teacher in Albuquerque and his youngest a freshman at UNM.

The immediate plan is to finish the spring semester for his youngest and his wife, Williams said.

Williams started at UNM in January 2019 and has more than three decades of college athletics administration experience. He oversaw external affairs, marketing, ticketing, licensing and other revenue-generating areas of the department but also was instrumental in helping Nuñez stabilize the culture around Lobo athletics after a period of financial turmoil and heavy public and political scrutiny.

Williams also helped the department work through COVID, increase revenue, and was instrumental in the hiring of several coaches, including men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino and football coaches Bronco Mendenhall and current coach Jason Eck.

And despite not getting the job himself, Williams was a great asset to Lovo in his transition.

“Dave was incredible. I mean, just so helpful to me when I got here. First class,” Lovo told the Journal. “... He is a true professional, and an incredible administrator. I’m just super happy for him and his family and, frankly, indebted to what he provided me in my short time here.”

Lovo, just now completing the end of his second month as UNM’s AD, said he is still very much learning about the inner workings of the department and trying to finalize the structure of what his executive team will look like in an ever-changing era of college athletics that is very different today from even one year ago.

As such, he has not yet posted the job Williams is vacating as he finalizes exactly what that job may entail, though he assured it will not be long.

While senior associate ADs Jalen Dominguez, Amy Beggin, Chris Hudson and Ed Manzanares remain integral parts of the department, Williams’ departure represents another significant loss of institutional knowledge and experience with Lobo Athletics.

Along with Nuñez and Williams leaving for their Big 12 posts, longtime assistant AD Ryan Berryman left last summer for a job at Washington of the Big Ten. There are at least three openings to be filled at the Lobo Club, including two key fundraising positions.