New Mexico vs. Texas A&M: Game Preview, How To Watch, Odds, Prediction
Lobos have a tough one this week
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It is a payday game
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The Lobos will hit the road to open 2023 in SEC country against the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station.
Location: College Station, Texas
Conference: SEC
Series History: Texas A&M leads the all-time series against New Mexico, 5-0.
2022 Record: 5-7 (2-6 SEC)
Head Coach:
Game: New Mexico Lobos vs. Texas A&M Aggies
Date: Saturday, September 2, 2023
Location: Kyle Field in College Station, TX
TV: ESPN
STREAMING: ESPN+ or FuboTV with a free trial
Series History: Texas A&M leads the all-time series against New Mexico 5-0
Odds/Point Spread: Aggies (-37)
Total/Over-Under: 49.5
The UNM Lobos under Danny Gonzales is in its fourth year, and the Lobos are headed to College Station, Texas, to take on SEC opponent Texas A&M on September 2 at 5:00.
The Texas A&M Aggies (5-7 last year) welcome the New Mexico Lobos (2-10 last season) at Kyle Field on Saturday, September 2, 2023. New Mexico opens as 37-point dogs. The total has been set at 49.5.
They will play in front of a national audience on ESPN+.
The Texas A&M Aggies enter their sixth year under head coach Jimbo Fisher. Last year, the Aggies had a very underwhelming season, to say the least, finishing at 5-7 and 2-6 in the very tough South East Conference.
Fisher added Bobby Petrino to add punch to this Aggie offense, which was ranked just 101 in FBS offensive scoring last year.
Lobo Coach Danny Gonzales, who went all in on the transfer portal this year with over 41 transfers coming to New Mexico, says it’s an entirely different team than last year’s team from top to bottom.
“We’ve adjusted our model to have more kids that can compete right now instead of developing them over four years,” he said. “I said at the very beginning that we’re going to get to a conference championship, and you might have to deviate and adjust along the way. “Well, we made a big adjustment.”
He made some decisions, starting with hiring a proven strength coach from SDSU, Derek Baker. When watching them during spring practice, it’s evident that the Lobos are a much more physically strong team.
One big hire for him was a proven Offensive Coordinator from UAB, Bryant Vincent, running a variation of the zone read.
NM’s OC Bryant Vincent said the Blazers ran outside the zone — a zone-blocking scheme built on lateral displacement to open gaps for running backs — on and off for a couple of years.
Along with Coach Bryant came one heck of a quarterback, Dylan Hopkins.
The 2022 Blazers scored 30.1 points per game and ranked 33rd in total offense at 438.2 yards per game, a figure that would rank eighth in Lobo history over 124 seasons.
Hopkins enters the Mountain West Conference with the second most starts at 25 and has won 19 of those games; this kid is legit.
Another big hire was the Offensive Line Coach, who came from UAB, and Cam Blankenship, who showed during spring ball.
Cam is no BS. He is the kind of coach who lets the players know when they blow it assignment-wise and what he expects from them. An old-school, high-intensity coach.
UAB this past season totaled 5,697 yards of offense.
The Blazers ranked in the top five in scoring offense within Conference USA in five of his six seasons with the program as offensive coordinator. In his time at UAB, the offense broke over 20 school records.
This Lobo offense lost five receivers from last year’s squad. Still, it gained eight, some of the more notable ones being Jeremiah Hixon from Alabama State, Ryan Davis from UAB, and a trio of TCU transfers.
One wide receiver that will really help take a lot of pressure off Lobo star receiver Luke Wysong is 6-5 JD Washington, who in 30 games caught 107 passes for 2,027 yards and 24 touchdowns, with a long of 69 yards … last year, he caught 54 passes for 863 yards and ten touchdowns.
A trio of TCU transfers, Caleb Medford (wide receiver), Perkin McAllister (cornerback), and Marvin Covington (safety).
The pressure figures to be as intense as ever in west Texas, but the Aggies will look to turn over a new leaf, much like their first opponent of 2023, the New Mexico Lobos.
Last year’s loss by the Aggies to the Mountaineers from Appalachian State gave the Lobos a recipe for getting this upset there in College Station.
Limit the time of possession for the Aggies offense: The Mountaineers outgained A&M 305-186 and had 22 first downs to just nine by the Aggies, and they controlled time of possession, too, holding a 41:29 to 18:31 advantage.
Watch for the Aggies to try to get a fast start against this Lobo 3-3-5 defense coached by Defensive Coordinator Troy Reffett and Danny Gonzales.
The Aggies’ last three years’ slow starts have cost them against Appalachian State, Vanderbilt, and Colorado, playing down to the level of the team they played against.
So it will get hot and heavy for the Lobo Defense right off the bat, so watch for this as the key to this game; the Aggies will want to start strong and pull off the gas later in the game, as I see it.
Can the Aggies stop the run game against a big New Mexico offensive line averaging over 300 coached by former UAB coach Cam Blankenship?
The run game is one of the areas that the Aggies have struggled with, so that will be something to watch for.
The Lobos are loaded at running back, more than this writer, who has covered the Lobos for over 20-plus years.
Look for Jacory Croskey-Merritt to start for the Lobos; he turned heads during spring back and rushed for over 1,164 yards and 13 TDs at Alabama State.
Behind him is First team all MWC kickoff returner Christian Washington, Dorian Lewis, Sherod White, ULM transfer Andrew Henry, and Zach Vigil.
Head Aggie Coach Jimbo Fisher knows what to expect when playing this very aggressive 3-3-5 scheme that former Lobo head coach and DC Rocky Long perfected.
“This bunch will twist, blitz, come from every angle known to man. They do a great job up front with their creating packages and really challenging the offensive line,” he said Monday at his presser.
After talking to many of the Lobos who were coached on this defense under Rocky Long and Danny Gonzales, Gonzales is more aggressive than some of his calls.
Regarding the Lobos’ defense, they need to STS, if you will. “Stop the Studs”
In Bobby Petrino’s offense, A&M will look to give its most dangerous weapons the ball.
“We talk about offensive philosophy, and I always say ‘FTS,’ which is to feed the studs,” Petrino said. “The quarterbacks and the coaches need to understand how we get the ball to our best guys.”
So under New Mexico DC Troy Reffitt, the goal is to shut down the playmakers for the Aggies, get pressure on QB Conner Weigman, and shut down long, serious threats.
The Aggies have too many weapons for the Lobos, so the defense will have to step up their game against this very big, powerful SEC conference opponent.
This is one of those games where if the Aggies don’t blow out the Lobos by at least 37, it won’t be a good look going into conference play.
The Lobos are in a win-win situation with any offense, say 21 points, and hold the Aggies to less than 37; they have something to build on and a $1.6 million dollar paycheck.
Now that being said, it would be demoralizing to get blown out on both sides of the ball going into the season.
I don’t think that will happen; one thing that the transfer portal is doing is creating more parody in college football.
Time will tell the story for sure!
Texas A&M 38, UNM Lobo 24
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