¡Buenas noches, Aggies! Esperanza Lujan-Tafoya here, a Las Cruces native, a chile farmer's daughter and an ag-science grad. Everything gets a chile rating from me. A routine first down? Mild. A 40-yard run? Hatch hot. A fourth-down stop? So hot you need a glass of milk and a minute alone.
But I never heat up the facts. So let's start with the honest truth.
Part 1: An Open Week, and a Cool Night in Miami
New Mexico State didn't play last week. We had an open date, and I spent it out in the fields. So let me tell you about our last game, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, in Miami.
FIU beat us 22-3. That one was mild, friends. Very mild. AP says FIU's Robert Czeremcha made five field goals, a career high that tied a program record, from 40, 52, 33, 21 and 48 yards. We turned the ball over three times, and Kyah Francone's 26-yard field goal was our only score. We're 2-4 and 1-1 in Conference USA.
But here's something worth knowing. Our defense allowed one touchdown all night, a 1-yard run in the first quarter. And New Mexico State actually outgained FIU, 230 yards to 220, per ESPN's box score. FIU ran 44 times for 100 yards, 2.3 a carry. Gabe Peterson had two sacks and three tackles for loss. Sone Aupiu had a sack and three tackles for loss. Nick Session made 13 tackles. Javon Gillespie intercepted a pass. That defense was Hatch hot, even on a cool night.
The offense was the bug in the chile patch. We went 3 for 12 on third down and had the ball for just 22:06. James Jones ran 15 times for 89 yards, and he came into that game leading Conference USA at 102.0 rushing yards a game, per AP.
This season's had some heat and some frost. We lost at Florida State, 34-17, and at Hawai'i, 29-19. We lost to New Mexico at home, which I won't discuss, because Mama says if you can't say anything nice about the Lobos, eat a tamale. But we beat Mercyhurst 51-14 and Western Kentucky 34-13. And the Hilltoppers have won their last two since, so that win looks better every week.
Part 2: Wednesday Night in Huntsville
Wednesday, 8 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2, New Mexico State at Sam Houston.
First, my respects to the Bearkats, because they've earned some. AP ranks Sam Houston's pass defense fourth in FBS, at 137.8 yards a game. Fourth! And it ranks 24th in third-down defense, allowing conversions 32.1% of the time. Landyn Locke has 11 touchdown passes. Chris Reed has 289 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Dean Ford has 38 tackles. Those are good young men with real fight.
Now let me get out my chile scale.
Sam Houston's run defense ranks 129th in FBS, allowing 200.3 yards a game. And who do we have? James Jones, with 599 rushing yards on 92 carries. That's 6.5 a carry. Chile rating for that matchup: Hatch hot, roasted, peeled and ready to serve.
Sam Houston's rushing offense ranks 134th, at 95.0 yards a game. Its scoring offense ranks 123rd, at 19.5 points a game. In its last two games, a 35-3 loss at Liberty and a 16-3 loss at home to Western Kentucky, the Bearkats scored six points combined. Against WKU, they gained 177 yards, per AP. Chile rating: bell pepper. No heat at all. And our run defense ranks 47th. So the Bearkats will have to throw, and Peterson has 4.5 sacks. I like our chances.
The Bearkats also rank 108th in FBS in penalty yards, at 67.3 a game. We rank 42nd. And the Bearkats rank 38th in time of possession, while we rank 127th, so we'll need to make every snap count.
I'll be honest about our side, because farmers can't lie about the weather. Our turnover margin is minus-5, which ranks 122nd. Our red zone defense ranks 118th. And Trey Hedden, who started the first four games, has six interceptions. We've got to hold onto the ball.
And history? CollegeFootballData.com says New Mexico State leads the series 2-1. We won 27-13 at home in 2023 and 37-10 at home last year. Sam Houston won 31-11 in Huntsville in 2024. So this is only our second trip to Bowers Stadium. Time to roast something new.
Tales From Two Towns
Las Cruces. Las Cruces is a city of 111,385, the second-largest in New Mexico, per Wikipedia. It's the heart of the Mesilla Valley, the farming country on the floodplain of the Rio Grande, and the Organ Mountains rise just 10 miles east of town. We're home to New Mexico State, the state's only land-grant university. Spaceport America, which has offices in Las Cruces, operates about 55 miles to the north and has completed several successful crewed suborbital flights. Our neighbors launch people into space. We grow the chile they'll want when they get back. Wikipedia says the town was founded in 1849, when the U.S. Army first surveyed it after the Mexican-American War, and the White Sands Missile Range is one of the area's big employers. Science, farming and football, all under the same big sky.
And Aggie Memorial Stadium has a story. Wikipedia says it opened in 1978, seats 28,853 and sits at 3,980 feet above sea level. The original Memorial Stadium was dedicated to New Mexico A&M students who died in World War II, World War I and the Spanish-American War. We remember. And our program has history, too: one of NMSU's earliest games was against New Mexico on Jan. 1, 1894, before New Mexico was even a state. In 2017, we beat Utah State 26-20 in overtime in the Arizona Bowl, our first bowl game in 57 years. In 2022, we beat Bowling Green in the Quick Lane Bowl. In 2023, we beat Auburn 31-10. Hatch hot. And our coach, Tony Sanchez, is one of our own. Wikipedia says the former UNLV head coach played at New Mexico State before he was named head coach in January 2024. He knows what Aggie chile tastes like.
Huntsville. Huntsville, Texas, is a pleasant town of 45,941 in the East Texas Piney Woods, per Wikipedia. It got its start around 1836 as a trading post, and its first postmaster named it after his hometown, Huntsville, Alabama. So even the name was borrowed. Its most famous landmark is a 67-foot statue of Sam Houston that Wikipedia says can be seen from Interstate 45 for 6.5 miles. So most folks see Huntsville's best attraction from the highway, on the way to somewhere else. And the town is named for Huntsville, the stadium is named for a university president, and the university is named for Sam Houston. Las Cruces has the Organ Mountains. You can't borrow a mountain.
Esperanza's Chile Recipe for Wednesday
1. Feed James Jones. A 129th-ranked run defense is a fresh-roasted batch. 2. Hold onto the ball. Minus-5 is too much salt. 3. Make them throw. Sam Houston's rushing offense ranks 134th. 4. Finish in the red zone. Field goals are mild. Touchdowns are hot.
Grab your green chile stew and turn on ESPN2, Aggies. It's going to be a spicy Wednesday.
My call: New Mexico State Aggies 24, Sam Houston Bearkats 23.