More than a game
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For Jason Lenzmeier, ’06 BUS, it’s not enough for studentathletes to play well—what really counts is integrity. By Greg Archuleta ’90 BA and Albuquerque is the fact that his wife, Kelsey, is a UNM graduate (’08 BA). And on March 29, 2012, their first child, Brooks, was born here. The Lobos had just started spring practice, but Brooks waited until the team had an off-day. “It’s awesome for it to work out the way it did,” Lenzmeier said. “To get back here and have my son born in Albuquerque is special. He’s already got his Lobo gear.”
Jason Lenzmeier fine-tunes the Lobos during spring practice. You can take the man out of New Mexico, but every day it’s getting harder to take New Mexico out of the man.
first-year coach Bob Davie’s offer to direct the offensive line. It’s a job he held previously at UNM from 2007 to 2008 after serving as a graduate assistant from UNM assistant football coach Jason Lenzmeier is beginning his 13th year as a 2006. Lenzmeier was New Mexico State’s resident of the state. He first arrived in the offensive line coach from 2009 to 2011. summer of 1999—a 6-foot-5, 315-pound, “I enjoyed my time down in Las Cruces, 18-year-old man-child of a recruit out of and the people I worked for were good Frisco, Texas. people,” said Lenzmeier. “But this is my school. I played here.” Now 31—and down to a svelte 250 pounds—Lenzmeier is beginning his third stint with UNM, having accepted
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
Boomerang Lobo Adding to Lenzmeier’s affinity for UNM
Except for a year in which he pursued an NFL career with the San Diego Chargers in 2004, Lenzmeier has called New Mexico home since ’99. He originally came to play for then-Lobo coach Rocky Long and was a first-team All-Mountain West offensive tackle by his senior season in 2003. Lenzmeier returned to UNM in 2005 to finish his degree in University Studies and became a graduate assistant coach in 2006. Long promoted Lenzmeier to offensive line coach in 2007; at age 26 he had become the youngest full-time UNM assistant coach in 23 years. When Long resigned in 2008, Lenzmeier found himself looking for work. He didn’t have to look far, landing a job at New Mexico State. But when Davie came to UNM at the end of the 2011 season, the first assistant coach he interviewed was Lenzmeier. “Jason was so impressive when I first talked to him,” Davie recalled. “He was so passionate about Lobo football, but more than that, he really cared about the