San Diego State football announced on April 11 that it has extended head coach Rocky Long’s contract through the 2022 season.
Long, the head coach since the beginning of the 2011 season, had previously been under contract until 2021.
“I mean that’s nice that they care and want to do that,” Long said about the extension. “To be honest with you, when we were talking about it a contract came down and I just signed it. I had no idea that I’d been extended a year.”
The move assures this year’s freshman class that Long will be locked in as head coach throughout their time at SDSU.
“The biggest value is we can recruit, and if they’re coming here because of the way we run the program, they can be assured that the program is going to be run the same way,” Long said.
SDSU athletic director John David Wicker praised Long as both a person and a coach, and how that extends over to the recruiting process.
“That’s the great thing about (Long) is he is a good person first, or a great person, and then he’s a great football coach as well,” Wicker said. “So he’s going to go out and surround himself with those types of people and get high character kids that can come in here.”
Long originally came to SDSU as the team’s defensive coordinator at the start of the 2009 season, and was promoted to head coach two years later following the departure of Brady Hoke to Michigan.
Long sports an overall record of 64-29 as the Aztecs head coach, and has put together three consecutive double-digit win seasons.
With a college coaching career dating back to 1972, the 68-year-old Long said that he’d like to continue coaching as long as he can, but that he expects this to be his last stop, whether that be up to him or not.
“I plan on coaching as long as they’ll let me coach and I have enough energy to do it the right way. I plan on doing that,” Long said. “There’s nobody else going to be interested in me because of my advanced age, so I would guess this will be my last stop. One way or the other this is the last stop.”
