Walker named New Mexico State football coach

Dec 31, 2008 - 8:08 PM LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (Ticker) -- New Mexico State introduced former UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker as its new head football coach Wednesday.

The 48-year-old replaces Hal Mumme, who was fired in early December after a 3-9 campaign.

"This is a great opportunity for myself and my family," Walker said during Wednesday's press conference. "As long as I have coached you always want to see your vision and formula put to work and I'm thankful and grateful to New Mexico State University for giving me this opportunity to put together a good staff and begin to flip this program around."

Walker becomes the latest African-American to get a shot to run a program in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

The 33rd coach in Aggies' history, Walker is the fourth black coach to take over a program in the last three weeks, joining Miami-Ohio's Mike Haywood, New Mexico's Mike Locksley and Eastern Michigan's Ron English.

There are now seven black head coaches in the FBS. The four newcomers join Buffalo's Turner Gill, Miami's Randy Shannon and Houston's Kevin Sumlin.

This is Walker's first opportunity at the head coaching level in the FBS, but he did serve as the Bruins' interim head coach during the 2007 Las Vegas Bowl.

"New Mexico State University is very fortunate to hire a coach of DeWayne's caliber," UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. "DeWayne has been a terrific asset to UCLA, both on and off the field, and he will be missed. I have no doubt he will be successful at New Mexico State."

Before joining UCLA's staff in 2006, Walker had been the defensive backs coach for the NFL's Washington Redskins, New York Giants and New England Patriots.