Dec. 11—Former New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier will transfer to Utah, he announced via a post on social media Wednesday.
The 5-foot-11, 200-pound first team All-Mountain West quarterback is set to reunite with offensive coordinator Jason Beck and quarterbacks assistant Koy Detmer Jr., who both left UNM for Utah at season’s end.
Dampier, the most prominent of UNM’s 30-plus portal entries, is the first transfer to announce a new school.
He has two years of eligibility remaining.
“Super excited,” Dampier told utah.rivals.com. “In this era of college football, there’s a lot of business going on, so to find a person like (Beck) who has cared for me on and off the field in a genuine way along with the success, couldn’t ask for more.”
Dampier broke multiple program records during a sophomore campaign that saw him thrive within Beck’s veer and shoot offense. In his first year as the Lobos’ primary starter, he passed for 2,768 yards, 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while rushing for 19 touchdowns and 1,166 yards — the most of any quarterback in school history.
Dampier also set the new program record for total offense in a season (3,934 total yards) while his mark of 19 rushing touchdowns tied former UNM running back DonTrell Moore’s school-best mark. The true dual-threat quarterback had five games with 100-plus rushing and 100-plus passing yards, including a Mountain West record 207 yards on the ground in a loss to Wyoming on Nov. 2.
A Saguaro (Arizona) High School graduate, Dampier enrolled at UNM in January 2023 and made one start as a freshman. Former head coach Bronco Mendenhall named him the starter during the first week of spring practice, a status that was never questioned throughout UNM’s 5-7 season.
“He’s dynamic, he’s smart, he’s capable,” Mendenhall said in March. “He has natural leadership skills, he can make all the throws and I love his decision-making. So, so much to work with in a positive way.”
Dampier announced his decision to enter the portal last Thursday, a few hours before the Journal and other outlets reported that Mendenhall was set to take the same position at Utah State. The former BYU and Virginia head coach’s departure has triggered a mass exodus within UNM’s program.
Utah is coming off a disappointing 5-7 season marred by offensive struggles and quarterback injuries. Missing former All-Pac-12 quarterback Cam Rising, the Utes averaged just 23.6 points per game — the third-worst mark in the high-powered Big 12 — as a 4-0 start dissipated into a 1-7 finish.
In the midst of a three-game skid, former Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig announced his decision to step down on Oct. 20. Beck, a former quarterback at BYU, was hired to fill the same role last Thursday after the Utes missed on Oklahoma’s Ben Arbuckle and Texas Tech’s Mack Leftwich.
