New Mexico State aims to ‘ignite’ season with win over UNM

Sep. 25—Tony Sanchez has seen this before.

In 2022, New Mexico State’s first-year head coach was on staff for a 1-5 start before NMSU beat New Mexico 21-9 in Las Cruces. A blistering 5-1 finish followed and the Aggies returned to the postseason for the first time since 2017, holding off Bowling Green 24-19 in the Quick Lane Bowl.

Last year, NMSU weathered a messy 1-2 start, came up to Albuquerque and knocked off the Lobos 27-17. A 7-1 regular season surge with a historic road win at Auburn and appearances in the Conference USA title game and Isleta New Mexico Bowl were largely born out of a night NMSU put it all together for the first time at University Stadium.

This season? NMSU is 1-3 entering the 114th edition of the Rio Grande Rivalry against 0-4 UNM.

When it comes to turning points, the Aggies wouldn’t mind keeping the recent trend alive come Saturday in Las Cruces.

“It’s one of those deals where both teams have an opportunity to go ahead and ignite the season,” said Sanchez, who spent the last two years as NMSU’s wide receivers coach before taking over as head coach for Jerry Kill, who departed for a role at Vanderbilt in the offseason. “Two years in a row, (the UNM game) has been really something that’s jump-started us. And (the Lobos) have played better football as of late — they’re putting points on the board and (Devon Dampier), he’s a good quarterback … They’ve got some guys.

“They’re in there trying to figure out how to solve their problems, we’re trying to solve our problems,” he said.

The Aggies are looking to fix an offense that’s averaging a second-to-last 211.3 yards per game. NMSU has rushed for a pedestrian 123 yards per game and struggled to pass the ball; only run-oriented service academies Army and Air Force average fewer than NMSU’s 88.3 passing yards per game.

Injuries on the offensive line…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mexico-state-aims-ignite-season-030200965.html

Author : Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

Publish date : 2024-09-26 03:02:00

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