Vanderbilt expected to hire New Mexico State co-defensive coordinator Melvin Rice, per report

The Vanderbilt Commodores are expected to hire New Mexico State defensive coordinator and safeties coach Melvin Rice, Matt Zenitz reported on Saturday afternoon. Rice was a former cornerback at Northern Illinois. He helped guide New Mexico State to 10 wins this year.

The report by Zenitz didn’t say which role Rice would be taking with the Commodores. Rice previously coached at several different schools across the country, including Temple (2020-2021), Northern Illinois (2016-2018), Southeast Missouri State (2015), and Minnesota (2011-2014). He also had a brief stint as a high school coach with Morgan Park High School in 2009.

This season, the New Mexico State defense allowed 22.8 points per game, ranking them 46th in the country. The Aggies run defense allowed 143 yards per game on the ground, ranking them 51st in the nation. The NMSU pass defense allowed 248.7 yards per outing, ranking them 109th in the country.

Nick Howell was previously the Vandy defensive coordinator and safeties coach, but was demoted from defensive coordinator to a position coach. He left Vanderbilt this offseason to become the defensive coordinator for Bronco Mendenhall with the New Mexico Lobos.

Jerry Kill will step down as the New Mexico State head football coach, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Saturday. Former UNLV coach Tony Sanchez, who worked under Kill as receivers coach the past two seasons, is expected to take his place.

It is reported that Kill could be on the move to Vanderbilt to serve in an off-field role for the 2024 season. The Commodores finished this past season 2-10 and failed to win an SEC game. Their scoring defense allowed 36.2 points per game, ranking them 129th out of 133 qualifying teams.

Kill spent the past two seasons coaching the Aggies and led them to a 17-11 record. This year NMSU finished 10-5 and earned a bid to play in the New Mexico Bowl, where it lost to Fresno State by a score of 37-10.

Since there has been so much coaching turnover with New Mexico State, it shouldn’t be surprising that their prolific signal caller, Diego Pavia, entered the transfer portal on Saturday. He enters the transfer portal after just wrapping up his senior season with New Mexico State. The Albuquerque, NM native started and played in all 15 games for the Aggies. In those 15 games, Pavia completed 60.4 percent of his passes (221-336) for 2,973 yards, 26 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.

On3’s Chandler Vessels and Justin Rudolph also contributed to this article.