It seems like it was just yesterday that thousands of New Mexico State football fans stormed the field at Arizona Stadium to celebrate the Aggies’ historic Arizona Bowl victory, but with spring football ready to start this week, it’s already time to start looking at the 2018 season.

The most glaring hole for NMSU happens to be at the most important position on the field. Tyler Rogers was impressive in his senior season, throwing for 27 touchdowns and 4,016 yards — the eighth most in the country, so it won’t be easy to replace that kind of gaudy production.

Returning senior Nick Jeanty did start one game under center last season while Rogers was nursing a shoulder injury, but as of right now, the quarterback competition is wide open. Doug Martin could opt to go young and invest in redshirt freshmen Josh Adkins, Jeremey Hodge or Cameron Matthews, but watch out for Matt Romero, a junior college transfer from California’s Palomar College.

Rogers isn’t the only player to leave big shoes to fill on the offensive side of the ball, though. A number of playmakers finished their careers in 2017, including the human highlight-reel wideout Jaleel Scott, South Alabama hero Connor Cramer and record setting running back and all-time great Aggie, Larry Rose III.

Jason Huntley is primed to take the torch from Rose III this year after being productive as a complimentary back last season. Huntley should only improve on his 783 total yards of offense last season, and fans can expect more explosive plays like the 100 yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the Arizona Bowl from the to-be-junior.

NMSU shouldn’t be too concerned with their receiving corps, either. After Scott, the next four leading receivers were OJ Clark, Anthony Muse, Johnathan Boone and Izaiah Lottie, who are all set to return for the Aggies next season and hope to be apart of another dominant air attack after contributing to last year’s sixth best 340 passing yards per game.

As far as the defense is concerned, there’s little reason to believe that last year was a fluke.

New Mexico State has historically struggled on that side of the ball, but drastically improved in Frank Spaziani’s second season as defensive coordinator/mastermind, improving in just about every major metric from the year before and setting a new school record with 43 sacks in the season.

Replacing experienced leaders like Dalton Herrington and Jaden Wright will be tough, but last year’s group was relatively young, so a majority of the unit will be back for at least one more season. The linebacking core is especially experienced for NMSU, with Terrill Hanks, Javahn Fergurson, Lui Fu’Amaino and Leon McQuaker all entering their senior year.

Even with so many cogs from last season’s successful machine returning, getting back to a bowl game will be a difficult task for the Aggies, who are independent in 2018 after a four year stint in the Sun Belt.

Expectations will definitely be higher for a program that’s had a historically futile past, but after putting together the first winning season since 2002, head coach Doug Martin plans on being “a good football program for a long, long time.” A solid foundation has been set for NMSU, and a strong spring camp could be the start of consistent success for the Aggies.