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LAS VEGAS — Maybe it was two years away from the game, or two years building and living on his rural ranch with his wife and fellow-empty nester Holly, or maybe it was just the fresh Montana air.
Whatever it was, Bronco Mendenhall found a clear vision of who he is after the former BYU and Virginia head coach stepped away from college football.
What he learned was that he still had plenty to give.
Mendenhall wasn't done, the first-year New Mexico head coach explained at Mountain West media days.
In that decision, his head was as clear as the Montana air and affirmed by the number of text messages he received from former players, each of whom spoke of moments and relationships and rarely about seasons or results.
"There is something about Montana that I'd recommend to all of you," he quipped. "That doesn't mean you can come stay at my place, but come visit. They call Montana 'the last best place,' and I think I found that with distance comes clarity, and I'm clear as to what I want to do, why I want to do it, and where. Sometimes we can take ourselves too seriously in college football, and Montana helped me see that."
Mendenhall missed coaching, but he'll also tell you some things he didn't miss. He didn't miss the "financial component," which has ballooned to now include name, image and likeness rights of his players that occupy a significant portion of his time.
He admits that he's already spent more time in "financial management" in his six months at New Mexico than he did at BYU and Virginia combined.
But he missed plenty; and more than anything, he missed his players and coaches, spending time grinding in the hot offseason sun preparing for a breakout year that was always one fall away, or so it felt.
Sure, he missed football. But mostly, he missed people.
"I missed the relationships," Mendenhall said. "I missed the chance to counsel, mentor, guide and influence their choices."
Mendenhall is a builder, and not just of football programs, like taking BYU from a run of disappointing seasons to a bowl game in his first year in 2005. At Virginia, he took the Cavaliers from four consecutive losing seasons to their first bowl game in six years in his second season.
By 2019, he led Virginia to a 9-3 record and an ACC Coastal Division title with a 6-2 record in league play, beating Virginia Tech at home for the first time in 15 years en route to a berth to the Orange Bowl when ACC champion Clemson advanced to the College Football Playoff.
Before he stepped down from coaching near the end of the 2021 season, Mendenhall's teams were bowl eligible 16 times in 17 seasons. His culture is a culture of winning.
"He's a big culture guy," said New Mexico defensive end Gabe Lopez, a Washington State transfer from Las Vegas. "I think that was the first thing that he addressed. He wanted to fix the culture first. And he's proven that culture leads to championships."
The Lobos are a long way from a championship, and haven't been to a bowl game since 2016. But that won't stop Mendenhall from having high standards for his players — even if he's also realistic about the state of the program.
"The main thing was he was brutally honest that we didn't need everyone," said wide receiver Luke Wyson, a Rio Rancho, New Mexico, native of his first interaction the former BYU coach. "We had some people leave and go other places or foresee other opportunities, but he told us that it's going to be grueling, hard, difficult, and it's going to challenge us mentally, physically, emotionally and more."
Mendenhall is also a builder of men, some of whom continue on to NFL careers, and many more of which continue toward other careers. He cares about his players — including the 60 new players he's added since taking the job — but not only on the football field.
"The life lessons he's been teaching us is stuff that hasn't been talked about much in the football room," Lopez said. "A lot of people care about winning, but you can tell he cares about people. He wants to see us succeed outside of football."
While building men, he earned success. He's currently the sixth winningest active FBS head coach with 135 victories before coaching a game in Albuquerque. His .813 winning percentage in Mountain West games at BYU ranks fifth in the conference's history.
Those wins helped him build a reputation, so it was no wonder when Virginia needed a coach back in 2016 that they went to the Alpine-born Oregon State alum who had fairly recently led BYU from the conference to what he called an "unsustainable" independence.
But in reaching the heights of Virginia, he also realized that climbing the ladder of success wasn't always a climb.
"Sometimes up the ladder is down the ladder," he said candidly in an interview room that also included fellow Latter-day Saint head coach Ken Niumatalolo, formerly of Navy and now at San Jose State. "It might be perceived by the outside world as going up. But possibly morally, with your family and your values, you're going down. Up isn't always up.
"I think this league has young up-and-coming coaches, like when I got to be the head coach at BYU; I was young. And now there are some older, more seasoned coaches that have seen the other part and like where we are. I like that mix. It's pretty cool, and not very typical."
No wonder when New Mexico fired Danny Gonzales after four straight losing seasons and needed a builder, the Lobos turned to Rocky Long's former defensive coordinator who enters a wildly different league than the one he faced more than a decade ago.
Among his first hires were former BYU quarterback Jason Beck as offensive coordinator and Nick Howell as defensive coordinator. He's also added Famika Anae to coach the offensive line, Jan Jorgensen as edge coach, Micah Simon as wide receivers coach and Pat Hickman as chief of staff to give the Lobos an intriguing BYU flair in his return to Albuquerque.
"When I was in the Mountain West when it started with TCU, BYU and Utah, it was a great league — really tough," he said. "I remember when Utah and TCU left and BYU went independent, there was a significant shift, but that void was filled and the Mountain West has been strong and consistent for a long time.
"I think the league right now is the most stable," he added. "I love the parity, I love the type of towns in the Mountain West, and it just feels more college football-ish to me."
Many would argue that the Mountain West feels more college football-ish with Mendenhall in it, as well.
