New Mexico State (2-4, 1-1 CUSA) at Sam Houston (1-5, 0-2 CUSA). Wednesday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET), Elliott T. Bowers Stadium, Huntsville, Texas, ESPN2.
Your hosts are Lem Coxwell, a Walker County history teacher and Texas folklore collector, and Esperanza Lujan-Tafoya, a chile farmer's daughter from Las Cruces who grades every play on a chile-pepper scale.
Lem: Evenin', folks. Pull up a stump. This chapter is called "The Hero Stands Back Up."
Esperanza: ¡Buenas noches! Lem, I brought a roaster. Your stump is about to get warm.
Players to watch
New Mexico State running back James Jones has 599 yards and three touchdowns on 92 carries. He entered the FIU game leading Conference USA at 102.0 rushing yards per game. Defensive end Gabe Peterson has a career-best 4.5 sacks, second among CUSA defenders, and safety Nick Session leads the team with 50 tackles. Wide receiver Tyler "TK" King has 286 receiving yards and three scores. Trey Hedden leads in passing with 906 yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions.
Sam Houston quarterback Landyn Locke is 129 of 205 for 1,418 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. Wide receiver Chris Reed has 289 receiving yards, Alton McCaskill leads the rushers with 211 yards, and linebacker Dean Ford leads the team with 38 tackles.
Esperanza: A James Jones 40-yard run? Hatch hot.
What happened last week
Sam Houston lost 16-3 at home to Western Kentucky on Oct. 14. The Bearkats were held to 177 yards and 12 first downs. Locke went 13 of 30 for 112 yards. WKU is now 4-1 against Sam Houston and unbeaten against the Bearkats since they joined CUSA in 2023.
New Mexico State had a bye. Its last game was a 22-3 loss at FIU on Oct. 7, after a 34-minute lightning delay. FIU's kicker made five field goals, and NMSU's athletics department said three turnovers proved costly. Peterson had two sacks and three tackles for loss in that game. NM State says the bye gave the Aggies 13 full days off after three games in 12 days.
Injuries and availability
No official conference availability report has been published for this game. New Mexico State hasn't named its starting quarterback. Hedden started the first four games, and Adam Damante started at FIU, going 9 of 22 for 104 yards. No injury news has surfaced for either team.
What the coaches are up to
Phil Longo is in his second season at Sam Houston. He was named the program's 16th head coach in December 2024. He's an air raid coach who previously ran offenses at Wisconsin, North Carolina and Ole Miss. The passing game works, at 247.0 yards per game, but the run game ranks 134th in FBS.
Tony Sanchez is an NMSU alum and former Aggie wide receiver. He coached UNLV from 2014 to 2019 and before that Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. His defense has allowed fewer than 75 rushing yards three times this season, which NM State says is a first since at least 1994.
Lem: That coach of ours knows how to tell a story through the air. We just need a few more chapters on the ground.
Player storylines
The best matchup on paper is the Aggie pass rush against Sam Houston's protection. NM State has 15 sacks, second in CUSA, and Sam Houston has allowed 17, the second-most in the league. On the other side, Sam Houston allows just 137.8 passing yards per game, fourth in the nation, and NM State says only Texas Tech has topped 200 passing yards against the Bearkats. The Aggies have gone over 200 in four of six games.
Esperanza: Christmas-style, red and green. That's a fourth-down stop on the Bearkats.
Lem: Ma'am, that pass defense has turned better offenses than yours into folklore.
What's happening on campus
Sam Houston lists Wednesday's game as its Hispanic Heritage Celebration. For the Aggies, NM State says this is the shortest road trip of their season, at 1,336 miles, after their first three road trips averaged 4,125 miles.
Anything else fun and true
New Mexico State leads the series 2-1. This is the fourth all-time meeting and only the Aggies' second trip to Huntsville. The common opponent is fun: NMSU beat WKU 34-13 in the Aggies' first-ever win in a CUSA opener, while WKU just beat Sam Houston 16-3.
Lem: Every Texas tale has a turn. This one's coming Wednesday.
Esperanza: Bring water, Lem, and maybe a fire extinguisher. My roaster is set to Hatch hot, and the Organ Mountains are watching.
The Cover Window
My call: New Mexico State Aggies 24, Sam Houston Bearkats 23.