Impressions of AFCA from the perspective of Lobos Football Operations

By: Gavin Bevis, Associate AD for Football Operations, University of New Mexico

There’s no better place for a football coach to be this week than San Antonio, Texas! The AFCA convention is great for networking. You see guys you used to work with years ago, some guys you haven’t seen in 10-15 years. You even run into some guys from playing High school ball- some you played with, some you coached with. You also get to see lots of vendors we do business with.

I’ve been coming for 20 years now. I keep coming back to see everyone and this is the one place where you see all the vendors in one place. If you want to buy a new blocking sled, you can talk to someone. If you want to see the interior design team who did our locker room, they’re here too. It’s great that all of the vendors are all in one place so we don’t have to travel around to see them. I even pushed 3 new customers to a certain vendor so I can use that in the future to negotiate a better deal for us.

I’ve been to these conventions for years. I’ve been to Orlando, Dallas, etc. I remember the very first one I went to when I was a high school coach. I had a job at the time but I was looking & wondering if I could go to Division 1. I coached high school for 11 years (football & wrestling). There were times I thought about joining the service or something else but I love football. (My Dad was a policeman, so I thought about doing that too.) The 1st time I came to an AFCA convention, I was looking for a job. Now I don’t need to look. Now people are coming to me & wearing me out!