As KTSM reported in July, the long-running rivalry will go on pause after this season.<\/a> UTEP\u2019s upcoming move to the Mountain West removes the game from next year\u2019s schedule, and with both programs\u2019 non-conference slates filled out years in advance, there\u2019s no clear timetable for when the series might resume.<\/p>\nDespite the teams\u2019 combined 5-16 record this season; the significance of this year\u2019s showdown is undeniable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great opportunity playing a rival game. The game has been played for a long time. It\u2019s got a great history and tradition. I\u2019ve played in it, been involved as a player, and as a coach now so I understand how important it is to the region, the area and to the universities,\u201d NM State football head coach Tony Sanchez said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to get back out there. Both teams are in a similar situation. We\u2019re both fighting to win a rivalry game but also fighting to get a good taste back in your mouth after a tough season.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s personal, man. Especially how we lost last year. Nobody\u2019s happy about that,\u201d NM State redshirt sophomore safety Naeten Mitchell said. \u201cI\u2019ve been here for three years, so I know how, personal it gets for the fans as well. I know the community gets into it as much as we do. I\u2019m excited to see how many fans are going to be in there. And, yeah, it\u2019s going to be a great game and we\u2019re ready for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Mexico State comes into the matchup at 3-7 after a 42-9 loss to nationally ranked Tennessee in Knoxville. The defeat effectively ended the Aggies\u2019 hopes of earning a bowl berth with two games remaining.<\/p>\n
Still, NMSU isn\u2019t throwing in the towel.<\/p>\n
The team is focused on finishing the regular season strong \u2014 and that starts with trying to knock off rival UTEP at the Sun Bowl on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, you are playing for another W and obviously you\u2019re playing for a rivalry win,\u201d Sanchez said on Monday. \u201cThere are some things in the offseason we\u2019ll look back on, and we\u2019ll talk about but today\u2019s not the time. You know this is not right now. We have to focus in on the on the task at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
NMSU VS. CUSA\u2019S 2ND BEST PASS DEFENSE<\/p>\n
New Mexico State expects to have starting quarterback Logan Fife back after he got banged up in last week\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cLogan is good. He was in last night limping around, He got beat up a little bit bu he\u2019s doing good,\u201d Sanchez said on Monday. We assume [Logan Fife will start] unless something happens or something deviates. Adam did good too. He showed that he\u2019s got a live arm and can do some good things, so I think they\u2019re going to have to prepare for both.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Aggies are going to need Fife, as they\u2019re up against the second-best pass defense in Conference USA. The Miners are giving up 207.5 passing yards per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been pretty consistent throwing the football. We threw the ball well against a Tennessee team this last week. We\u2019ve thrown the ball well throughout the course of the season. We have a chance to post 3,000 yards by the end of the year. We do a good job of throwing around the yard. We have a really talented, you know, receiving and tight end core. So again, I think the biggest thing is going to be us, you know, making some headway in the run game.\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n
NM State is 5th in CUSA in passing offense with 241.9 passing yards per game.<\/p>\n
LEARNING FROM LAST YEAR\u2019S DEFEAT<\/p>\n
NMSU looks to get its lick back on UTEP. The Aggies were on the losing end of a game where UTEP rallied back from down 17 to take a 42-35 win over NMSU at Aggie Memorial Stadium in the 2024 season finale.<\/p>\n
The Aggies are looking back at last year\u2019s game as motivation to play a cleaner game and come out with a win.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we outgained them 543 to 298. We had 33 first downs; they had 14. We had the ball for 40 minutes; they had the ball for 20 minutes. We really dominated both sides of the ball,\u201d Sanchez said on Monday. \u201cUnfortunately, we had the fumble scoop and score and punt return for a touchdown. That flipped the game. When you go back and look statistically in that game, it\u2019s crazy to think we lost that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about it yesterday one time. We won\u2019t speak about last year\u2019s game again. But there\u2019s a bad taste in our mouth from it and has been the entire offseason, because we know, you know, again, you know, it is what it is \u2014 it\u2019s history. But we know that if you play like that, you should win that football game. But turnovers coming into effect, like you said, a couple of plays, a bounce here and there. We have to control the controllables. We\u2019ve turned the ball over quite a bit lately. We\u2019ve got to do a better job offensively of not turning the ball over.\u201d Sanchez said. <\/p>\n
NM State and UTEP will go head-to-head on Saturday, Nov. 22 at the Sun Bowl. Kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. MT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KTSM) \u2014 It\u2019s Battle of I-10 week, and Saturday\u2019s matchup between UTEP and New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-54513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}