Rocky Long, 75, is a head coach again — at Colorado’s Bayfield High School

Rocky Long retired as San Diego State football coach six years and six days ago.

He has had four jobs since then. Actually, make that five.

Long was hired this week as head football coach at Bayfield High School in Bayfield, Colo.

“I played a little golf, but I don’t want to play golf every single day,” said Long, who celebrates his 76th birthday on Jan. 27. “And I work out about three days a week, but that’s only two hours of the day. So I’ve only got one other thing to do. I can watch TV all day and drink, or I can actually give myself something to do. … I might be the oldest high school football head coach in the country.”

Long is taking over a program that began the 2025 season with three straight victories — fun fact: the first win was over New Mexico’s Aztec High School — before losing six straight games in the 2A Intermountain League.

“Rocky Long is as close to football royalty as you get in this part of the country,” Bayfield AD Andy Duffy said in a release. “We are thrilled that he chose to become a Wolverine, and it is incredible to think he is going to write the next chapter of his legendary coaching story right here in Bayfield.”

Asked if he signed a five-year contract, Long laughed and said: “I have a one-year stipend.”

Long didn’t want to say how much he’s making. Let’s just say he will make in a year about what he made in two days at SDSU. Of course, Long is doing this for the love of the game, not the money.

The population of Bayfield was listed as 2,838 in the 2020 census. Long said enrollment at the high school is 420. The new coach had 21 players show up for Wednesday’s team meeting.

“How do you play a game with only 21 guys?” Long asked.

Word is that there are a couple of Bayview kids playing at nearby Durango High School. If Long can get them to return and get Bayfield players to recruit some of their classmates, then the Wolverines could round out the roster.

Long’s message to the players at the meeting: “I expect them all to get good grades. Don’t worry about the X’s and O’s part, because we’ll be one of the best teams in the state X’s- and O’s-wise. But we still have to have players that want to play and want to work. We’re going to start lifting three days a week, and I expect them all to be there.”

This was the point of the conversation where Long mentioned that he’s the new strength coach, too.

Long’s background is not as deep in the weight room as it is on the sideline, so he made a quick call to former SDSU football strength coach Adam Hall and quickly had a strength and conditioning plan in hand.

Long served as defensive coordinator at New Mexico and Syracuse after he left SDSU. When the staff at Syracuse was dismissed two years ago, Long and his wife Debby moved to the condo they have owned the past 30 years in Durango, Colo.

Long was an analyst two years ago for Durango’s Fort Lewis College and defensive coordinator last year for Durango High School. He had an opportunity to become head coach at Durango, but chose this chance with Bayfield because it seemed like a better fit.

“I didn’t like that the parents were running the program (at Durango),” Long said, “so I found the only way to keep coaching was to be the head coach (at Bayfield) and see if the parents try to run the program with me.”

Long’s first parents meeting was coming up two hours after he got off the phone with a reporter. He previewed his message to them: “Stay out of our business, get the kids there on time, make sure they’re willing to work and they don’t go on vacation when we’re having workouts and all that kind of stuff.”

Long said Durango High School had six starters miss a Monday practice one week last season in order to attend a Denver Broncos football game. Despite the absence, the players were still allowed to start in that Friday’s game.

Long told his Bayfield players on Wednesday: “I don’t know what you’re used to, but I’m an old man and I’m old-school. If you don’t come to practice, you ain’t playing.”

He’s probably older than most of the players’ grandfathers, but the fire still burns to coach football, with a few life lessons along the way.

“I don’t know if it’s fun, but — what’s the word? — it’s energetic,” Long said. “Because you go, ‘What the heck?’ I’ve got to figure out things that I’ve never had to figure out before. It gets you wound up a little bit. And if you have some success, it will make you feel good.”

Durango is a ski destination, so there is some wealth in the community, and some entitlement. Bayfield is 20 miles away. It may as well be 2,000.

“They’re farmers and ranchers,” Long said. “I’m assuming that any kid who has to get up at 6 in the morning and throw hay and milk a cow or something, they ain’t spoiled.”

What is he going to do if a parent calls with an issue?

“Well, I haven’t given out my number, and I don’t have to,” Long said. “They’re going to have to come talk to me after practice or something. It’s always better in person because there’s people around to see how it really goes.”

What sense did he get of his team during that first meeting?

“I got a sense that what I told them, they were taking it all in because that’s not how it’s been here,” said Long, referring to structure and discipline that he has heard was lacking in the program. “Like I told them, ‘I’m not going to tell you where I’ve been and what I’ve done. If you want to, look it up. (Type) Rocky Long, Wikipedia and football and you’ll see.’

“And that’s the last time I better hear my first name. You either call me Coach or Coach Long. I tried to call my dad by his first name one time and he threw me up against the wall. Just so you guys know where I’m coming from. … It’s going to be a real interesting thing.”

Without a doubt.