College Football: Top 6 Group of Five coaches facing 2017 hot seat
By Zach Bigalke
New Mexico State might be among the hardest FBS head coaching jobs on the market. No head coach has had a winning record at the school since Warren B. Woodson went 63-36-3 in Las Cruces between 1958 and 1967. After five decades of futility, Aggies fans have relatively low expectations. Even a sniff of their first bowl appearance since 1960 would be enough to keep a coach off the hot seat.
A lot has changed since the 1960s in college football. New Mexico State is hardly a destination program. Headed once again toward the purgatory of independence, the Aggies have not even finished with a winning record since 2002. Martin did help navigate the Aggies through the death of the WAC and a year of independence. Is that enough to let Doug Martin off the hook?
Martin has gone 10-38 in four seasons in Las Cruces. Now New Mexico State is about to become independent after 2017, when they end their relationship with the Sun Belt. Martin offers little to inspire hope, given that his previous head coaching stint ended in a 29-53 record at Kent State between 2004 and 2010. In this case CBS got it right — as he enters his pivotal fifth year at New Mexico State, Doug Martin is indeed on a hot seat.