Good to see the schedule coming out. I already miss football!

Here are some thoughts, with no predictions.

8/31 @ Michigan State - Looked up the average temperature in East Lansing in August. 81 degrees. That ALMOST makes me want to fly to Detroit and attend. Both teams open with this game.

9/8 vs. NMSU - I like that we have an extra day to get ready for the Aggies. We owe them a vicious whooping. They play twice before coming to Logan, including a visit to Minnesota the week prior. They will have two extra days to get ready for us, but will be recovering from having played five days apart to start the season.

9/13 vs. Tenn Tech - Short turnaround, but we don't have to leave Logan. Hopefully the reduced prep time doesn't affect us against a lower division opponent.

9/22 vs. Air Force - Two extra days to prepare for AFA. Almost certain to be beautiful fall weather in late September. This is one of those games that has it all: two closely matched rivals, great weather, and American pride! Watch out for AFA having a bye week before playing us, however.

10/5 @ BYU - Here are BYU's games before they host us for Conference weekend: Arizona, California, Wisconsin, McNeese State, and Washington. I assume they'll be 1-4, with an outside shot at 2-3. This would be a great time to snatch a second win in Provo in three attempts, and build a winning streak against the stench. Love the fact that we have a bye week before this game.

10/13 vs. UNLV - Another candidate for a great weather game, provided they play it in the day. We get another extra day thanks to the Friday matchup against BYU. This feels like a candidate for a white-out game or some other promotion to get folks through the gates. This is smack dab in the middle of early season hunting, so be prepared for the camo brigade to be missing.

10/20 @ WYO - No idea what to expect out of Wyoming this year without Allen, but they were plenty beatable last year. Granted, we've had our woes on the road against real competition. Side note: Fall Break lands on this weekend, so we don't get to use the "No students on campus" excuse for poor attendance as often this year.

10/27 vs. UNM - Another team that is a little hard to predict, but this is usually where we start to see attendance fall off. Even if we keep our record above .500, these late fall games against less interesting opponents don't usually yield the best attendance.

11/3 @ Hawaii - Must be nice to get to go to Hawaii in November.

11/10 vs. SJSU - Our home finale is a bit of a dud this year. Hopefully we keep our streak alive against the Josers, but I would guess attendance and atmosphere will be really down for this game unless we are seriously in contention for a spot in the MWCCG.

11/17 @ CSU - Excited to see if we can finally beat the Rams in Fort Collins. As a Houston-based Aggie, this is probably my best shot for a road game this year. Would like to see a big Aggie contingent in that new stadium. This is the rivalry we should be looking to grow.

11/24 @ Boise - Pain. So much pain.

On additional thought on UNM - Davie is currently serving a 30 day suspension. I'm guessing there is a possibility that more dirt will come out and he could lose his job, so there's a chance they will have a new coach. Something to keep on eye on.

I've had the CSU game on my radar ever since moving to Colorado. It's too bad it's so late in the year and might be colder than the rest of the season, but it'll be nice to see the Aggies play again. Hoping to see plenty of you there!

Then again, if next fall is anything like it was last fall, the weather out here won't be all that bad

Need to start 3-1

This is a very favorable schedule for a team that can no longer use the terms "inexperienced", "youthful", "growing pains" or "learning to win" as reasons why we lose games. The time to win is now.

Contract year for Wells too. For me it's 9 wins or bust. And the team should be capable of 10 or 11 as a ceiling.

I think 8-10 is a pretty decent goal.

If Michigan State gets rocked in the off season with sanctions (I think they might), that might be a winnable game. I am not holding my breath for it, but I am not overly worried.

@Boise and @CSU are the other ones that scare me and I think a loss is pretty reasonable.

Air Force, @BYU-P, and @Wyoming are very winnable games but will be close.

NM, NMSU, UNLV, and @Hawaii are games we should win fairly easily but could be a game that we lose for some random stupid reason.

Tennessee Tech and SJSU should be blowouts were our back-up gets time and then people on here talk about how maybe the backup is better than the starter.

My over under on the season is 8. More than that is a good year. Less than that is a failure. If we get 8 exactly, it will depend on the games that we dropped.

We will go 7-5.

I'm itching for that Hawaii game... unfortunately I'll need to save up because I'll probably be going there in early December with my son's FB team.

My guess is 5 wins

I was kind of hoping that Southwest would start flying to Hawai'i in time so I could use points from credit card. Not sure if they'll be starting service by then, though. Would be a fun surprise birthday trip for my wife, though, who has a sister in Hawai'i, now.

MalAgua wrote: ↑

March 2nd, 2018, 11:54 am

My guess is 5 wins

Favorable schedule and 90% of our starters returning? 5 win prediction is overly pessimistic. Whats your reasoning?

thegreendalegelf wrote: ↑

March 2nd, 2018, 3:58 pm

MalAgua wrote: ↑

March 2nd, 2018, 11:54 am

My guess is 5 wins

Favorable schedule and 90% of our starters returning? 5 win prediction is overly pessimistic. Whats your reasoning?

He's just grumpy because it's not Fritter Friday yet.

A bad season would first be to lose ANY home game. Second, winning less than 2 road games. In other words, for me, the minimum expectation would be an 8 win season. The reasonable ceiling in a 10 win season...and a bowl game win. A 7 win season would be barely less than OK, but I wouldn't be that happy about it.

thegreendalegelf wrote: ↑

March 2nd, 2018, 9:43 am

I think 8-10 is a pretty decent goal.

If Michigan State gets rocked in the off season with sanctions (I think they might), that might be a winnable game. I am not holding my breath for it, but I am not overly worried.

@Boise and @CSU are the other ones that scare me and I think a loss is pretty reasonable.

Air Force, @BYU-P, and @Wyoming are very winnable games but will be close.

NM, NMSU, UNLV, and @Hawaii are games we should win fairly easily but could be a game that we lose for some random stupid reason.

Tennessee Tech and SJSU should be blowouts were our back-up gets time and then people on here talk about how maybe the backup is better than the starter.

My over under on the season is 8. More than that is a good year. Less than that is a failure. If we get 8 exactly, it will depend on the games that we dropped.

I am curious. What makes you think the NMSU game will be fairly easy? The teams just played 2 months ago and NMSU held USU to something like 1 of 17 on third down. NMSU returns 9 starters on defense. I would expect another close game unless your offense is totally different. Are you getting a new o-coordinator or switching schemes?

alum93_1 wrote: ↑

March 5th, 2018, 2:46 pm

thegreendalegelf wrote: ↑

March 2nd, 2018, 9:43 am

I think 8-10 is a pretty decent goal.

If Michigan State gets rocked in the off season with sanctions (I think they might), that might be a winnable game. I am not holding my breath for it, but I am not overly worried.

@Boise and @CSU are the other ones that scare me and I think a loss is pretty reasonable.

Air Force, @BYU-P, and @Wyoming are very winnable games but will be close.

NM, NMSU, UNLV, and @Hawaii are games we should win fairly easily but could be a game that we lose for some random stupid reason.

Tennessee Tech and SJSU should be blowouts were our back-up gets time and then people on here talk about how maybe the backup is better than the starter.

My over under on the season is 8. More than that is a good year. Less than that is a failure. If we get 8 exactly, it will depend on the games that we dropped.

I am curious. What makes you think the NMSU game will be fairly easy? The teams just played 2 months ago and NMSU held USU to something like 1 of 17 on third down. NMSU returns 9 starters on defense. I would expect another close game unless your offense is totally different. Are you getting a new o-coordinator or switching schemes?

Well, I'm willing to bet our All-Conference kicker won't miss 4 of 5 field goals this next time around.

aggies22 wrote: ↑

March 5th, 2018, 2:54 pm

alum93_1 wrote: ↑

March 5th, 2018, 2:46 pm

thegreendalegelf wrote: ↑

March 2nd, 2018, 9:43 am

I think 8-10 is a pretty decent goal.

If Michigan State gets rocked in the off season with sanctions (I think they might), that might be a winnable game. I am not holding my breath for it, but I am not overly worried.

@Boise and @CSU are the other ones that scare me and I think a loss is pretty reasonable.

Air Force, @BYU-P, and @Wyoming are very winnable games but will be close.

NM, NMSU, UNLV, and @Hawaii are games we should win fairly easily but could be a game that we lose for some random stupid reason.

Tennessee Tech and SJSU should be blowouts were our back-up gets time and then people on here talk about how maybe the backup is better than the starter.

My over under on the season is 8. More than that is a good year. Less than that is a failure. If we get 8 exactly, it will depend on the games that we dropped.

I am curious. What makes you think the NMSU game will be fairly easy? The teams just played 2 months ago and NMSU held USU to something like 1 of 17 on third down. NMSU returns 9 starters on defense. I would expect another close game unless your offense is totally different. Are you getting a new o-coordinator or switching schemes?

Well, I'm willing to bet our All-Conference kicker won't miss 4 of 5 field goals this next time around.

Great point. Food poisoning was it? I was thinking more along the line of similar level of athletes on both sides of the ball leading to a close game. Actually we will be starting a new qb for the first time in 4 years so we'll just have to see what that position brings. I fully expect defense to be ahead of offense early on. NMSU opens with Wyoming at home so we'll get a good feel for the team vs MWC right off the bat.

alum93 wrote:Actually we will be starting a new qb for the first time in 4 years so we'll just have to see what that position brings. I fully expect defense to be ahead of offense early on. NMSU opens with Wyoming at home so we'll get a good feel for the team vs MWC right off the bat.

Utah State returns 18 of 22 starters plus punter and place kicker. With the new additions (top JC running back among others) and experience gained in the second half of the season, we're expecting big things out of the UTAgs.

aggies22 wrote: ↑

March 5th, 2018, 2:54 pm

alum93_1 wrote: ↑

March 5th, 2018, 2:46 pm

thegreendalegelf wrote: ↑

March 2nd, 2018, 9:43 am

I think 8-10 is a pretty decent goal.

If Michigan State gets rocked in the off season with sanctions (I think they might), that might be a winnable game. I am not holding my breath for it, but I am not overly worried.

@Boise and @CSU are the other ones that scare me and I think a loss is pretty reasonable.

Air Force, @BYU-P, and @Wyoming are very winnable games but will be close.

NM, NMSU, UNLV, and @Hawaii are games we should win fairly easily but could be a game that we lose for some random stupid reason.

Tennessee Tech and SJSU should be blowouts were our back-up gets time and then people on here talk about how maybe the backup is better than the starter.

My over under on the season is 8. More than that is a good year. Less than that is a failure. If we get 8 exactly, it will depend on the games that we dropped.

I am curious. What makes you think the NMSU game will be fairly easy? The teams just played 2 months ago and NMSU held USU to something like 1 of 17 on third down. NMSU returns 9 starters on defense. I would expect another close game unless your offense is totally different. Are you getting a new o-coordinator or switching schemes?

Well, I'm willing to bet our All-American kicker won't have food poisoning and miss 4 of 5 field goals this next time around.

FIFY

That only works against SJSU, apparently.

Ahbye wrote: ↑

March 5th, 2018, 7:21 pm

aggies22 wrote: ↑

March 5th, 2018, 2:54 pm

alum93_1 wrote: ↑

March 5th, 2018, 2:46 pm

thegreendalegelf wrote: ↑

March 2nd, 2018, 9:43 am

I think 8-10 is a pretty decent goal.

If Michigan State gets rocked in the off season with sanctions (I think they might), that might be a winnable game. I am not holding my breath for it, but I am not overly worried.

@Boise and @CSU are the other ones that scare me and I think a loss is pretty reasonable.

Air Force, @BYU-P, and @Wyoming are very winnable games but will be close.

NM, NMSU, UNLV, and @Hawaii are games we should win fairly easily but could be a game that we lose for some random stupid reason.

Tennessee Tech and SJSU should be blowouts were our back-up gets time and then people on here talk about how maybe the backup is better than the starter.

My over under on the season is 8. More than that is a good year. Less than that is a failure. If we get 8 exactly, it will depend on the games that we dropped.

I am curious. What makes you think the NMSU game will be fairly easy? The teams just played 2 months ago and NMSU held USU to something like 1 of 17 on third down. NMSU returns 9 starters on defense. I would expect another close game unless your offense is totally different. Are you getting a new o-coordinator or switching schemes?

Well, I'm willing to bet our All-American kicker won't have food poisoning and miss 4 of 5 field goals this next time around.

FIFY

This, and our 30 - 8 all time record against the Raggies.

To be fair, I fully recognize (and I think most of us do) that we are pretty high up on the totem pole in college football (remember, the important ones are on the bottom of totem poles). I will be severely disappointed if we lose to NMSU. Not necessarily because I think we are leaps and bounds ahead of you guys, but more because I want us to be better. I recognize the Red Aggies accomplishments this past season, but it still remains that you guys are even further up the totem pole than us, even if only a spot or two. Bottom line, I just want our team to be better. And frankly (no pun intended), I wouldn't blame you guys for feeling the same way about us. You just had a great season and you want to do better and USU has not shown itself to be a world beater lately.

Now should we actually lose to you guys, then you damn well better have your best season of all time!

If this Team cannot get it done at Home against the NewMags then a terrible tone will be set for the rest of the schedule. If we expect to have a good Season ( 8 Wins like most of us expect) we'd had better beat the Raggies.

Yeah why would we think that we’d have an easier time at home with 18 returning starters than we did as a de facto road team against the best NMSU senior class in fifty years?

YoungBloodAggie wrote: ↑

March 6th, 2018, 12:22 pm

Yeah why would we think that we’d have an easier time at home with 18 returning starters than we did as a de facto road team against the best NMSU senior class in fifty years?

We return 9 starters on a defense that held, i am assuming your qb for next year as well, to 1 of 17 on 3rd down. I highly doubt athletically NMSU will be overmatched. I think it will be a close fun game for both fan bases. Without a shank of a punt, your offense didn't drive the field once for a TD. I don't think there will be anything easy about it. I am guessing Vegas will have you favored by 3 being at home. Now if we struggle opening week at home against Wyoming with a new qb, well then i might not feel as confident. That is the biggest question for the offseason for NMSU. All other positions on offense have good talent returning.

Just going to leave this here:

Team Totals NMSU USU
FIRST DOWNS 16 22
Rushing 6 8
Passing 9 12
Penalty 1 2
NET YARDS RUSHING 174 187
Rushing Attempts 29 45
Average Per Rush 6.0 4.2
Rushing Touchdowns 1 1
Yards Gained Rushing 179 217
Yards Lost Rushing 5 30
NET YARDS PASSING 191 254
Completions-Attempts-Int 29-54-2 25-44-0
Average Per Attempt 3.5 5.8
Average Per Completion 6.6 10.2
Passing Touchdowns 1 0
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS 365 441
Total offense plays 83 89
Average Gain Per Play 4.4 5.0

Those numbers might not be far off again.

USUaggie wrote: ↑

March 6th, 2018, 2:50 pm

Hats off to NMSU for winning that day. But if last year's teams played 10 more times I think USU wins 8. Next year we should have a bigger advantage.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

I saw nothing to indicate your team was good enough to win 8 out of 10. We have beat UNM 2 years in a row. 3 years ago we were up in second half before our qb went down and we lost. 4 years ago the game went down to final minute. So for 4 years in a row we have matched up athletically just fine. I saw the same thing in USU game. Offensive line, defensive line, speed at WR/RB/secondary, teams looked about the same. If they played 10 times, it would probably be 5-5 or 6-4. Same as UNM. When UNM went 9-3 2 years ago and rolled thru the MWC, we beat them. The hardest part about turning around a program is getting enough quality FBS athletes to compete week after week. It's taken Martin 5 full years to get there. He inherited an absolute mess with APR issues and scholarship reductions. He fixed that by focusing on HS recruits and giving them time to get stronger and faster. It paid off. The majority of starters are back, we don't play freshmen anymore, and we match up just fine with middle of the pack teams MWC teams like UNM and USU. I expect the trend to continue with Wyoming, UNM, and USU next year on schedule. We will probably go 2-1 or 1-2, but games should be entertaining and close. This all assumes we get decent play from a new qb.

Fair argument alum 93. Who will be starting qb next year. I remember us recruiting nick jeanty and then we signed Myers so jeanty ended up in las cruces. Do you think he will start?

slcagg wrote: ↑

March 7th, 2018, 8:36 am

Fair argument alum 93. Who will be starting qb next year. I remember us recruiting nick jeanty and then we signed Myers so jeanty ended up in las cruces. Do you think he will start?

We have 5 kids total at qb, but three are redshirt or greyshirt freshmen. The competition will probably come down to Jeanty, a senior who paid his dues waiting behind Rogers all this time and has started and won games when Rogers was hurt, and a JC kid we brought in from California named Romero. Romero got most snaps in final spring scrimmage, and Jeanty was second.

Jeanty is solid but doesn't have the arm strength that Rogers did. From what i have heard, Romero is athletic and can run. We'll see.

Are you guys set at qb for starter or is competition still open?

alum93_1 wrote: ↑

March 7th, 2018, 8:40 am

Are you guys set at qb for starter or is competition still open?

The competition is supposedly still open. Love did start the second half of last season, but there are a lot of folks that think that Colombi is the better passer. Colombi was redshirting last season.

Personally, my attitude is that if Love is the starter then he'll get the job done, but I hope that the coaches give all real contenders a real shot at the starting spot. If someone can beat out Love, then great!

Overall, there are a lot of us that, while still a bit disappointed with last season, are holding out some hope that we'll see improvement overall with no major turnover on the offensive staff, a lot of our starters and lettermen returning, some stability and clarification at Defensive Coordinator, and hopefully a few key positions getting upgraded.

BigBlueDart wrote: ↑

March 7th, 2018, 9:20 am

Personally, my attitude is that if Love is the starter then he'll get the job done, but I hope that the coaches give all real contenders a real shot at the starting spot. If someone can beat out Love, then great!

I am always a fan of a little bit of a competition. Give Love more of a push to get better and get our backups energetic and ready for the season if they are needed (Injury, replacement, etc.). But make the decision "early" so that there is not division on the team for who should be the starter.

If Colombi really is the man for the job, awesome! I liked the progression of Love over the season so if Colombi is better, then man, he is good. I expect Love to get the job but Colombi should get reps against MSU, Tennessee Tech, and some of the other blow out games.