New Mexico State reeling entering visit to Georgia Southern
STATESBORO -- How bad is it going for the New Mexico State football team? Pretty bad.
The Aggies will be offered up as a sacrificial lamb for Georgia Southern’s homecoming game on Saturday at Paulson Stadium. The Eagles are a 30-point favorite as they go for their 11th straight win in Sun Belt Conference play.
New Mexico State has lost 15 straight games -- the longest current losing streak among FBS teams -- and suffered the indignity earlier this season of losing to lowly Georgia State, at home, no less. It was the Panthers’ first ever conference win, and their first ever win over an FBS opponent. The Aggies’ last win came last year at Georgia State.
Eagles head coach Willie Fritz watched his team struggle in beating New Mexico State 36-28 last year, rallying from a 14-0 deficit behind the 136-yard rushing performance by L.A. Ramsby.
With that memory fresh in his mind, Fritz is not about to let his team get caught looking ahead to next Thursday night’s nationally televised game at Appalachian State. The Mountaineers and Eagles (4-1, 2-0 Sun Belt) are the only teams in the conference with a winning record. Arkansas State and South Alabama are both 3-3 while everyone else is south of the .500 mark.
Georgia Southern is coming off an open date while the Aggies were crunched 52-3 by Mississippi last week, and for the second straight week will be facing a long road trip which Fritz is hoping will work to his team’s advantage.
While the Aggies look like a team mired in a losing streak with only matchups later in the season with Troy and Idaho offering the possibility of a win, Fritz sees a team that is better than its record indicates.
“They’re a good football team,” Fritz said. “They’re just having trouble finishing.
“I think they’re a well-coached team and are fundamentally sound. They very easily could have three wins. They had a two-touchdown lead against UTEP in the fourth quarter and lost 50-47 in overtime, led New Mexico (39-28 loss) and had a chance to beat Georgia State (34-32 loss).”
The loss to Georgia State was an especially tough pill for New Mexico State to swallow, having given up 582 yards to the Panthers and still having a chance to win only to miss a field goal attempt with 29 seconds to play. In addition to Ole Miss, the Aggies’ other loss came in their opener at Florida, 63-13.
Since being blanked by West Virginia in the opener the Eagles have been unstoppable, averaging 46.5 points per game in its four-game winning streak with the high being the 51 scored against Louisiana-Monroe. That total could have been higher, Fritz said, as Georgia Southern was plagued by a season high 12 penalties.
“That’s the most penalties we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Fritz said, “and it might by the most penalties of any team I’ve coached.”
Georgia Southern had only 14 penalties in its first four games, and is second in the conference in fewest yards penalized per game at 48.4 yards per game.
Statistically, this game does not bode well for New Mexico State in that the Eagles lead the nation in rushing at 377.4 yards per game while the Aggies are allowing 273.8 on the game and a whopping 568.2 yards per outing.
Matt Breida leads the conference in rushing at 147.6 yards per game with New Mexico State’s Larry Rose III a distant second at 121 per outing. Eagles freshman Wesley Fields is 10th at 60.0 yards per game. Quarterback Kevin Ellison is averaging 72 yards, but he doesn’t have enough attempts to be ranked.
In addition to fighting to break the losing streak, the Aggies also lost starting quarterback Tyler Rogers two weeks ago with a broken thumb. Prior to going out, Rogers averaged 241.6 yards per game passing.
Head coach Doug Martin alternated quarterbacks Andrew Allen and Nick Jeanty against Ole Miss with little success. Jeanty was 12-of-23 for 86 yards while Allen was 10-of-14 for 55 yards and two interceptions.
The Aggies’ head coach said he was not a fan of alternating quarterbacks and he hoped to be able to settle on a starter against Georgia Southern and stick with him.
“I think that quarterback is a different position and it affects everyone on your football team,” Martin said. “I want to give the team and those quarterbacks an identity that, ‘this is the guy.’
“We have to choose the guy who we think can get us in the end zone the most against Georgia Southern. Both of them did some good things (against Ole Miss).”
This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 11:18 PM with the headline "New Mexico State reeling entering visit to Georgia Southern ."