After finishing off of a historic season with an Arizona Bowl victory, the New Mexico State football program showed what a little bit of success and stability can lead to by putting together what looks to be the best recruiting class of the Doug Martin era.

The Aggies added another 10 players on Wednesday’s national signing day to their 12 from the early signing period, bringing their 2018 recruiting class total to 22 and leaving the option of an open scholarship for NMSU as they progress through the offseason.

The recruiting class itself, which ranks in the top 130 in the nation according to 247sports.com, is well balanced, consisting of 11 offensive and 11 defensive players from seven states, with the sign of six three-star recruits, which is by far the most in any one year during the Doug Martin era, being the clear highlight. Pitching a program to top, sought after recruits is much easier when post-season success and a passion fanbase are selling points.

“When they came in for an official visit, we could show the fans taking the field over and that doesn’t happen in many places,” Martin said, referring to the late-season field storming by the fans in each of NMSU’s two final games of the season, including the Arizona Bowl. “That really sold recruits because when you can tell kids ‘this what your fanbase is like when you play here,’ it’s not hard to get kids interested in wanting to play for that university.”

Beefing up the line of scrimmage was the primary focus for Martin and his staff, with 11 of the 22 players signed being offensive and defensive linemen (six and five respectively.) The Aggies’ front seven was much improved last season in defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani’s second year with the team, so adding defensive tackles John Grave and Kai Golden will only bode well for a unit that was comparatively young to the rest of the team.

NMSU still has big shoes to fill with the departure of last year’s senior class, which featured record setters like Larry Rose III and Tyler Rogers and indispensable producers on both ends of the ball like defensive leaders Dalton Herrington and Jaden Wright as well as NFL combine-invitee Jaleel Scott. Martin heaped praise on the group throughout the 2017 season, but it’s difficult to argue their biggest contribution to New Mexico State football has been the solid foundation that they’ve been setting since 2014, establishing a winning culture in the program that hasn’t been there for over a decade.

“Not only are we winning, but we’re nationally, we’re doing some really creative things that are getting a lot of attention now,” Martin said after listing the many strides made in 2017 that NMSU looks to build off of. “We return the whole coaching staff, which is one of the biggest things for us looking forward.”

That stability in the coaching staff is directly related to Martin’s re-upping with the program in the middle of the season. The three-year contract extension tells recruits that they aren’t entering a shaky situation and allows for progress to be built off of by the coaching staff. Now that there’s actual, tangible progress to be built off of, NMSU’s future looks promising for the first time in a while.

The Aggies have resided in the doldrums of the FBS for years, and it will be tough to make the second ever back-to-back appearance in a bowl game with no conference affiliation, but Martin sees last year as a stepping stone to a success-filled future for NMSU for years to come.

“Just understand — everybody thinks we’re going away… we ain’t going nowhere. We’re going to be a good football team in 2018,” Martin said. “We’ve got to replace a couple of positions and develop leadership but the talent level is going to go up so we plan on being a good football program for a long, long time. It’s not the end of the story — it’s the beginning.”