GETTING EVEN?
Off a bad loss and a short week, New Mexico State faces Minnesota today
Turnaround seems to be the operative phrase for the New Mexico State University football team this week.
The Aggies (0-1) faced an extremely quick turnaround for tonight’s road opener at Minnesota. Preparation was effectively squeezed into three days starting on Sunday, which is normally a day off for college football teams.
Short week aside, NMSU coach Doug Martin hopes today’s game is an opportunity to turn things around on the field. The Aggies’ normally potent offense fizzled in Saturday’s 29-7 loss to Wyoming, and Martin wants to see a better performance regardless of the challenges it faces against a Big Ten opponent on the road.
“Overall, I’m glad we’re playing early,” Martin said. “I would hate to wait a whole week after the way we played the other night. We need to come out and compete, especially on offense, and play physical football. I didn’t see enough of that against Wyoming.”
Tonight’s game is the season-opener for Minnesota, which finished 5-7 in 2017, coach P.J. Fleck’s first season at the helm. Fleck is in the process of retooling the Golden Gophers roster and has an extremely young group this fall. Sixty of 113 players are either true or redshirt freshmen.
“There’s a lot of talent,” Fleck said in this week’s media conference, “but it’s young talent. We’re inexperienced and we’ll probably have our hands full every week while guys learn their roles.”
Martin hopes his team can capitalize on Minnesota’s youth. The Golden Gophers have four fresh-
men starting on offense, including walk-on quarterback Zack Annexstad.
“We watched video on him from high school,” Martin said. “He’s a big, athletic kid, but we definitely want to get after him. I’m sure they’ll try to establish the running game to make things easier for (Annexstad). We need to prevent that.”
New Mexico State’s defense played reasonably well for most of Saturday’s opener but allowed three long touchdown runs. Wyoming running back Nico Evans amassed 206 yards on the ground on 25 carries.
The Aggies will face another strong runner tonight in Gophers tailback Rodney Smith. The senior has rushed for 2,805 yards and 21 touchdowns in his career and is a pass-catching threat out of the backfield.
“Minnesota’s a heavy run team,” NMSU defensive lineman DeShawnte Lloyd said. “They double-team a lot on the (offensive) line and Rodney Smith is a pretty good running back. He has good vision and hits the hole quickly so we have to be sound up front.”
NMSU’s defense will be shorthanded as lineman Jassavia Reese and linebacker Javahn Fergurson are doubtful with MCL strains, Martin said.
The Aggies are hoping to give their defense more rest than it received against Wyoming. The idea is to put a more effective night together on offense.
New Mexico State finished with negative numbers in rushing yards against the Cowboys and accomplished little in the passing game prior to a 93-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter. Martin said he plans a more aggressive approach tonight.
“I think everyone got so concerned with our quarterback (Matt Romero) would do in his first start, they forgot to do their own jobs,” Martin said. “We’ve got to live on the edge a little more with playcalling, too. We can’t afford to be conservative. We have to play aggressively.”
NOTE: Despite being visitors, the Aggies will sport dark jerseys for tonight’s game. NMSU’s white road jerseys did not arrive in time for the trip and Minnesota agreed to wear white.