Know Your Opponent: New Mexico State

The history of New Mexico State football is dominated by
hardship and tragedy. Stacy Revere/Getty Images

The Gators begin 2015 with a game against the Aggies of New Mexico State University. Las Cruces College, the institution that would later evolve into NMSU, was founded in 1888 as an agricultural school in what was then a small town in the southern end of the Territory of New Mexico. Shortly afterwards, the Territorial Assembly ordered the establishment of the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, a land-grant college, in Las Cruces. The original Las Cruces College was absorbed by New Mexico A&M in 1890. The first senior was prepared to graduate in 1893, but, in true Wild West fashion, he was murdered before being granted his diploma. The school was renamed New Mexico State University in 1960. Today, the university enrolls over 18,000 students and nearly 15,000 undergraduates. The official school colors are crimson and white, although the "crimson" usually appears as a rich maroon.

The origins of New Mexico State football trace back to 1893, when a group of New Mexico A&M students organized a game against students from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The two state schools, which were both founded and began playing football within two years of another, share one of the sport's oldest and most-played rivalries. Although reasonably successful in their early years, success has come only fleetingly since the end of the Second World War. New Mexico A&M joined the Border Conference in 1931, winning two championships (1938, 1960) until departing in 1961. The Aggies shared their first conference championship with New Mexico, despite losing to the Lobos 6-2 that season. New Mexico State played as an independent from 1962 until 1972, when they joined the Missouri Valley Conference. The Aggies won two MVC championships in 1976 and 1978, then left to join the Big West in 1984. They remained Big West members until 2001, when the Aggies joined the Sun Belt. After spending just four years in that conference, the Aggies became members of the Western Athletic Conference. When the WAC folded in 2012, NMSU reverted to an independent status. The Aggies rejoined the Sun Belt for the 2015 season. New Mexico State plays home games in Aggie Memorial Stadium, which was designed to seat 30,343 spectators. However, almost 33,000 were at-hand to see the Aggies defeat rival UTEP in 1998.

Warren Woodson proved that great leadership could bring
success to even the most woeful and underprivileged
programs.  Stacy Revere/Getty Images

As mentioned earlier, the glory days of NMSU football are long gone. From 1893 to 1945, the Aggies compiled 31 winning records in 48 seasons. The 1935 Aggies played in one of the first-ever bowl games, the 1936 Sun Bowl, and the 1938 Aggies won the Border Conference championship. Since the end of WWII, the Aggies have only amassed 11 winning seasons in 70 years. Seven of those seasons were during the 10-year tenure of the overachieving, Hall-of-Famer head coach Warren Woodson (1958-1967). Since Woodson's departure, the Aggies have lost at least five games every season.

Since 1893, NMSU has played their rival New Mexico Lobos on 105 occasions. Although the Lobos have a commanding 69-31-5 lead in the series, they have utterly dominated it since Woodson left New Mexico State. Since 1968, New Mexico has won 37 games against NMSU while the Aggies have won only 10 games against their rival. An equally important rival is the UTEP Miners, who reside just 41 miles away in El Paso. Although UTEP leads this rivalry 55-35-2 overall, it has been more tightly contested in the last five decades. Since 1958, UTEP only leads the series 32-23 (although they have not been defeated since 2008).

The Woodson-coached Aggies of 1960 are remembered as the greatest New Mexico State football team. Remarkably, those Aggies went undefeated in 11 games, beginning with a 41-0 drubbing of the University of Mexico. Only two opponents (Arizona State and Utah State) held the Aggies within 12 points. The Aggies crushed New Mexico 34-0 and beat Texas Western (now UTEP) 27-15. The Aggies ended the season with a 20-13 victory over Utah State in the Sun Bowl and ranked 17th in the AP Poll. Unfortunately, this would be the last bowl appearance for the Aggies. As of 2015, New Mexico State has not appeared in a bowl game since the 1960 season. This 54-season absence is the longest bowl drought of any bowl subdivision team. Throughout this ongoing period, the Aggies have posted eight one-win or winless seasons.

Florida has played New Mexico State on one previous occasion, on this day (September 3rd), 21 years ago. Like this season, those Aggies served as the Gators' season opener. While the Aggies were destined to a 3-8 record (high-pointed by a 23-22 victory over UTEP), the Gators would go on to win 10 games and an SEC championship. The game was predictably one-sided. The Gators nearly set a program record for points scored in a single game, winning 70-21. New Mexico State is 0-17 against programs currently in the SEC; Florida is 16-1 against teams from the current Sun Belt.

Note the tongue-in-cheek allusion to drunkenness in the Aggie fight song.