Year Four

Walker starts fourth season at NMSU

By: Anthony Esparza

Photo Courtesy of NM State Athletics

When DeWayne Walker took over the New Mexico State football program in 2008, he knew it was going to be a rebuilding project.

Walker, now in his fourth year at the helm of Aggie football, was well aware it would take time to change the culture of program that has not played in a bowl game since 1960. Nevertheless, he had his sight set on the future.

“When I first took this job, I was definitely looking forward to our fourth year,” Walker said. “I knew the first two years we had to go through a process of trying to rebuild a program.”

Walker’s first two years at NMSU were certainly challenging, as the Aggies posted a 5-20 record during that span. To make matters worse, the team was not very competitive and lost by an average of 28.2 points.

“Reflecting back, as good as this conference was back then with Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State, to a certain degree we were probably a little undermanned,” Walker said. “We probably didn’t do a good enough job coaching and underestimated the conference. It was a tough few years for all of us to figure it out.”

However, the team showed signs of life in 2011. The Aggies’ 28-21 victory over Minnesota was the first win over a Big Ten opponent in school history. NMSU also defeated Fresno State, snapping a 17-game losing streak to the Bulldogs.

NMSU finished the season with a 4-9 record, but the bar had been raised for 2012 from a competitive standpoint. Expectations are seemingly higher this fall, as the Aggies prepare for the season opener against Sacramento State on Aug. 30.

Redshirt senior defensive lineman Donte Savage, who has been at NMSU throughout Walker’s tenure, said he has noticed many changes within the program in the past four years.  

“At first we started off slow, but now we’re starting to get into the groove of things,” Savage said. “Everybody has bought into coach Walker’s plan at this university, so all we have to do is go out there and do what we’ve got to do.”

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Andrew Manley has also noticed a difference in the team’s attitude this offseason.

“Our team is more motivated this year. We want it more, I believe,” Manley said. “Last year we were out here just going through the motions. I feel like this year we actually want it, and we’re going to actually go for it this year.”

Ending the longest bowl drought in college football is not out of the question for the Aggie football team.  

Teams that NMSU has traditionally struggled against —namely Boise State, Nevada, Hawai’i and Fresno State— are no longer in the Western Athletic Conference and have been replaced by first-year Division I programs Texas-San Antonio and Texas State.

Also, the first half of the schedule is set up for the Aggies to get off to a decent start.

NMSU opens the season at home against Sacramento State, a Division II program from the Big Sky Conference.  The Aggies then go on the road to take on the Ohio Bobcats, a bowl team from a year that defeated NMSU in Las Cruces in 2011.

The Aggies then travel down Interstate 10 for a road game against UTEP, before returning to Las Cruces to host New Mexico. After that, NMSU goes back on the road to face Idaho, a team the Aggies defeated 31-24 last season.

Although making a bowl game would certainly be an impressive feat for NMSU football, Walker said it is something neither he nor the team discusses outside of the locker room.

Walker and the Aggies experienced more lows than highs on the field in his first two years at NMSU, but saw reasons for optimism in year three. This year, the team wraps up fall camp with heightened expectations and a positive viewpoint on the season ahead.

 “I figured that it would take some time, especially after the first two years,” Walker said. “I [said], ‘Let’s just compete at a higher level the third year, and then the fourth year let’s go for it…’ So this is a year that I think all of us are excited about.”