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 have contributed: All-CUSA left tackle Shiyazh Pete has missed every game while starting center Canaan Yarro missed a 31-11 loss to Sam Houston State last week. At quarterback, NMSU moved Parker Awad (243 passing yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions) to the bench and elevated Santino Marucci in his place.

A Wake Forest transfer, Marucci completed 14 of 29 passes for 74 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in the loss to Sam Houston State, his first career start. Sanchez said Marucci will start against UNM after feeling NMSU made "strides" at the position with the junior in place.

"He made some really good throws," Sanchez said during a press conference on Monday. "I don't know if we did a great job of protecting him. (And we) gotta get our run game going.

"You know, that's it. I don't know if we handed the ball to some of our backs enough early in that game, and that's something we'll address. But we gotta be able to throw the ball down the field to win games ... We gotta settle that position down, we just gotta execute at a high level and we gotta play four quarters of football."

Like his counterpart, UNM's Bronco Mendenhall, Sanchez has been a part of the Rio Grande Rivalry before, but Saturday will be the first time as head coach. Sanchez was a wide receiver at NMSU in 1994 and 1995, and lost both games against UNM.

"It was a big rivalry back then, Jim Hess was our head coach and we lost a tough one my senior year (up in Albuquerque)," he said. "I think I had like, four, five catches, two touchdowns ... It's one of those games that's always highly contested and you really feel the energy."

Sanchez, a former head coach at UNLV, has been largely complimentary of Mendenhall's start at UNM, one that's seen the Lobos play up to Power 4 competition but struggle to finish games. Mendenhall, a former BYU and Virginia head coach, has outwardly toned down the intensity of the rivalry.

Sanchez largely has, too.

"I've known Bronco Mendenhall for a long time," Sanchez said. "He's a good football coach, he's a good guy, he's a good family man — I mean, I got nothing against him. Those guys on their roster, I recruited some of those guys, know some of them.

" ... There's nothing personal about it," Sanchez said. "I mean, we want to go out, we want to get our crowd excited, and we want to get after it. Is there a little bit more of a hard edge? Absolutely. Does it mean a little more? Absolutely. But it has nothing to do with hatred."