Game Day

Aggies open season against Sac State tonight

By: Anthony Esparza

Aggie wide receiver Austin Franklin. Photo Courtesy of NM State Athletics 

The New Mexico State football team opens the 2012 season by hosting Sacramento State at Aggie Memorial Stadium tonight at 6 p.m.

The Hornets’ season got off to a promising start in 2011, as former NMSU quarterback Jeff Fleming led Sac State to a 29-28 road win over Oregon State in the first game of the year.  However, the team was inconsistent the remainder of the season and finished the year at 4-7 (7^th in Big Sky).

This year, the Hornets return with a sound defense anchored by preseason All-Big Sky linebacker Todd Davis. The Aggies are anticipating the Hornet defense to come with a hard-nosed, blitz-heavy attack Thursday night.

“They tend to send pressure and disguise it, so that’s something we’re working on,” said senior wide receiver Kamonté Bateman. “We expect to see a lot of blitzes and a lot of pressure, so we’ve just been working on hot reads and all that stuff. That’s what we’re anticipating to see Thursday.”

Sac State has a relatively inexperienced secondary, which could bode well for redshirt sophomore quarterback Andrew Manley and the Aggie wide receivers. However, the offense’s success will be based on the effectiveness of the offensive line.

“I think it starts upfront. We’re going to have to give our quarterback time to find those guys open if they get open,” said NMSU coach DeWayne Walker. “I think our biggest challenge is going to be upfront and making sure that we can run the football and protect our quarterback.”

Walker said the Aggies have to play smart football on both ends of the field and control the game from start to finish.

“Defensively we have to get off the field. We don’t want them to keep us on the field if we’re not able to get some three-and-outs,” Walker said. “Offensively we can’t afford to have negative plays like tackles for losses and sacks. We’ve got to make sure that when guys are open we connect.”

Most of the Hornets’ struggles last season came on the offensive side of the ball. Sac State was seventh in the Big Sky in total offense and last in passing yards per game. As a result, Sac State hired new offensive coordinator Paul Peterson to try to improve the offense.

Sophomore quarterback Garrett Safron played in five games as a freshman and will be behind center for the Hornets this season. Safron is an athletic quarterback, whose mobility adds much-needed versatility to the Sac State offense.

Although the Aggies have the advantage on paper, Walker said his team cannot overlook this scrappy Sac State squad.

“We don’t want it to ever be that they’re controlling the game,” Walker said. “I really think they have more to lose to a certain degree being a I-AA school and we are paying them money to come play us, so we don’t want to be in that situation. We want to be in control from start to finish if we can.”