The wait is finally over.

As all of Las Cruces knows by now — the New Mexico State football team is bowl bound for the first time in 57 years, and soon, the hometown Aggies will take the field and try to bring home their third ever bowl victory against Utah State.

There is obvious reason to celebrate snapping the nation’s longest bowl drought and simply making an appearance in the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl, but in what has felt like a truly special season for NMSU football from game one, this isn’t an “it’s-just-an-honor-to-be-nominanated” situation. New Mexico State wants to — and can — win this game.

“We got to the bowl but we’ve never been champions of anything. We haven’t won a conference championship or anything like that so we have a chance to be bowl champions,” Head Coach Doug Martin said, addressing the team’s ultimate goal. “For the first time I got to tell the players that they were winners after the South Alabama game and that was a great moment. I’d like to have the opportunity to tell them that they’re all bowl champions and that’s what we have in front of us.”

Martin also went on to say that a win would be another brick that this senior class has put in place for the foundation of New Mexico State and highlighted the importance of this game in sustaining program this success, calling it “even harder” to stay at a high level than it is to get there in the first place.

The senior class has played a big role in laying that foundation mentioned by Martin, and with the Arizona Bowl being the last time key contributors like Dalton Herrington and Larry Rose among many others will take the field for NMSU, it’s tough to put the emotional aspect of the game completely aside.

“It’s been overwhelming so you don’t really have a lot of time to think about it actually wrapping up but on the way here, coach talked about it a little bit as I think about it, I’m like ‘man, it’s actually over,’ ” Rose said when asked about the emotions he and other seniors have felt as their careers as Aggies coming to a close. “We still have a ball game to win but it’s been a tremendous few years for me and i have to thank [Coach Martin] for all he’s done for me and the program.”

Despite being a record-breaking running back for NMSU over his career, Rose and the running game have taken a back seat this season to the Tyler Rogers led arial attack for the Aggies, which currently ranks fourth in the nation with 352.6 passing yards per game. One of Utah State’s greatest strengths, though, is their pass defense, yielding only 181 yards through the air per game, good for 19th in the country. New Mexico State may have to lean more on Rose and Jason Huntley in the ground game than normal if they want to stay effective against the other Aggies, who have been poor in that area, giving up nearly 220 yards per game.

NMSU’s high powered offense, while statistically gaudy and fun to watch, didn’t single-handedly drag the team to a bowl game. A much improved defense under second-year defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani looks miles better from last year, and their big play ability (as evidenced by the FBS’s 4th best sack total per game at 3.33 and 11th most interceptions at 16) has helped the Aggies win games that they use to lose. There’s no question that without the strides made on the defensive side of the ball, NMSU wouldn’t be in position to have its first winning season since 2002 — something a victory in Tucson would accomplish.

This game carries plenty of historic impact on its own, but when you factor in that New Mexico State’s last bowl game was against Utah State in the 1960 Sun Bowl (a game, NMSU won 20-13), both teams will be highly motivated. Whether it be Utah State finally getting their revenge or NMSU picking up right where they left off 57 years ago and improving their technically undefeated record in bowl games to 3-0-1, there is no shortage of fire in this matchup between the two Aggies.

The college football season is winding down and one of the feel good stories across the country has been New Mexico State’s road to a bowl. Unfortunately, that road ends, win-or-lose, Friday in Arizona Stadium. I know I’m not alone in saying that this year in football has been a true pleasure to follow, from Jaleel Scott’s one-handed touchdown grab that went viral  in the Aggies’ first game against Arizona State to the epic last drive versus Southern Alabama that captured this Arizona Bowl appearance — and a win in Tucson would be the perfect cherry on top of the sundae that has been the 2017 NMSU football season.