It’s a new season for New Mexico State football and their second year with head coach Jerry Kill. The Aggies headed into their season opener against the University of Massachusetts hopeful after their win last season, but failed to perform cohesively which resulted in a 41-30 loss. Over 15 thousand fans packed the Aggie Memorial Stadium with high hopes for the team to see where Coach Kill would take them this season after winning last year’s Quicklane Bowl in Detroit.
At the start of the game, NM State came out strong defensively and showed great promise. However, UMass quickly took advantage of a tipped pass thrown by junior quarterback Diego Pavia. The Minutemen would then convert this turnover for the first touchdown of the night, taking the lead 7-0.
After starting to find their offensive rhythm in the second quarter, the Aggies would squeeze through UMass’ defense and start to earn their way onto the scoreboard. It would begin with redshirt sophomore Monte Watkins, who took it to the house for an 80-yard touchdown run. Both teams would then tally on a field goal to tie the game 10-10, before heading into halftime.
“Sometimes you got to play the first game of the season to see where you’re at,” said head coach Jerry Kill. “Defensively we’ll be fine, offensively we got talent.” Kill mentions how they need to identify themselves with that talent, so it doesn’t have to come towards the halfway point where the identity of the team is beginning to be seen.
Although the third quarter only yielded a UMASS field goal, both teams combined would tally 425 total yards and score 48 points in the fourth quarter. It would begin with a Minutemen touchdown before NMSU’s Diego Pavia spotted junior Trent Hudson in the end zone who successfully battled his defenders to catch his first touchdown of his Aggie career.
The Minutemen would then tack on another touchdown, but NM State still appeared to be hanging on. The momentum then quickly shifted when Pavia threw an interception to UMass’ Isaiah Rutherford who returned it for a 55-yard touchdown to push their lead to 34-17. Despite this, the Aggies would still tally on two more touchdowns but after UMass’ final touchdown, NM State fell 41-30.
“I take responsibility for that, offense wasn’t there tonight,” said quarterback Diego Pavia. Pavia goes back to what Coach Kill said about finding their identity as a team and mentions that with turning the ball over on multiple possessions, winning games are going to be difficult to come by. At the end of the night there were still notes to take from Pavia as he had over 200 passing yards and two touchdown passes that came in the fourth quarter. Pavia’s first touchdown pass of the season went to Trent Hudson for 62 yards while his second would go to redshirt junior Jordin Parker.
“We’ll go back to work tomorrow and do the same thing as last year [and] keep moving, keep this way, keep coaching them and get the ones that buy in,” Coach Kill said. “We’ll be fine, but I ain’t waiting for that fifth or sixth game to happen.”
Now that the first game hiccups are out of the way, the team will be finding its identity and rhythm for their second home game against Western Illinois on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. Coverage will be streamed on ESPN+.
