{"id":27713,"date":"2015-10-06T17:35:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T22:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=27713"},"modified":"2015-10-11T16:47:20","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T21:47:20","slug":"new-mexico-state-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/new-mexico-state-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss – New Mexico State Preview: Saturday, October 10, 2015 at 11 am in Oxford, Mississippi"},"content":{"rendered":"

What did I say about getting weeks off? Yeah, Ole Miss<\/strong> is getting one the week after that miserable\u00a0Florida<\/strong> game<\/a><\/span> with a homecoming matchup against New Mexico <\/strong><\/span>State<\/strong>. \"IMG_6327\"<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Look, I\u2019d love to sit here and type all about the upstart Aggie<\/strong> offense, and how they\u2019ll be hungry for a statement win to turn around their program, and how the Rebs<\/strong> could be caught sleeping if they\u2019re not careful. <\/span><\/p>\n

But New Mexico State football is sort of like, say, a spider crawling around your bedroom late at night; they\u2019re really more of an annoyance than a threat, and even if you\u2019re sleeping, you might swallow it or roll over on it, crushing it entirely without really noticing.<\/span>\"239-sports-3-below\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

New Mexico State\u2019s season has, to this point, been defined by clo<\/span>se home losses to Georgia State<\/strong> (whose football program is a mere five years old) and UTEP<\/strong>. They were stomped by Florida to open the season, and they took\u00a0on in-state rivals New Mexico <\/strong>(and lost)<\/a>\u00a0before traveling across the better part of a continent this week to take on the Rebels. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to say whether they might be looking ahead to Ole Miss during their game with the Lobos<\/strong>, or if they\u2019ll experience an emotional hangover vs. the Rebs due to a shootout with their rivals the previous week. Either way, the smart money is on Aggie losses in both weeks. <\/span>
\n\"239-sports-newmexicologo\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

You see, NMSU is in a rebuilding \u201cphase,\u201d which is sort of like saying that Donald Trump<\/strong> is having a bad hair day; it\u2019s not so much a trend as it is a permanent fact. They\u2019re young, inexperienced, and have been trying to reach a bowl game since 1960. While the Rebs were \u201csuffering\u201d through years of Liberty Bowls and 6-6 seasons, the \u201cother Aggies\u201d were daydreaming of one day being invited to the party. And the daydream lives on still.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could line-list some stats about their offense, which runs a now-standard hurry-up system that alternates high-percentage passes on the outside with a \u201cpower\u201d run game in between the tackles when appropriate. <\/span><\/p>\n

I could tell you about their defense, which seems to be built on the same \u201cbend-but-don\u2019t-break\u201d principles that Dave Wommack<\/strong> has utilized to much success here in Oxford. I could crunch numbers, look at head-to-head matchups, examine tea leaves and tarot cards\u2026 but any way you slice it, the sad truth is that NMSU will almost certainly lose this football game.<\/span><\/p>\n

But you know what? This is all similar to what we thought about Jacksonville State<\/strong> a few years back, before they came into our house and won<\/a> to kick off one of the worst Rebel seasons in history. Michigan<\/strong> probably didn\u2019t have a whole lot of respect for Appalachian State<\/strong><\/a> in 2007, either, setting the stage for one of the sport\u2019s most famous upsets. Everyone assumed The Phantom Menace<\/em> was going to be a good movie before they actually saw it in theaters. You\u2019ve got to play the games on the field before you can be sure of the outcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the loss last weekend to Florida, Ole Miss has 38\/1 odds<\/a> to win the National Championship, according to the odds makers, and the Rebels are favorited by six\u00a0touchdowns against the Aggies.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, this homecoming weekend, as football weather comes to Oxford in earnest, do yourself a favor and go watch this game. You might familiarize yourself with some up-and-coming names on the Rebel roster while the starters rest on the bench. You might get your last tan of the year thanks to our 11 am kickoff. You might take advantage of shorter lines at the BBQ nacho stand. Just be there, be engaged, and enjoy yourself \u2014 because nothing is for absolute certain in college football, and Davids live to kill Goliaths. \"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What did I say about getting weeks off? Yeah, Ole Miss is getting one the week after that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":27822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,6],"tags":[2493,7302,7296,7300,1174,7298,7301,7303,4333,7299,7290,7067,700,7297],"class_list":["post-27713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-athletics","category-ole-miss","tag-aggies","tag-appalachian-state","tag-dave-wommack","tag-donald-trump","tag-florida","tag-georgia-state","tag-lobos","tag-michigan","tag-national-championship","tag-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico-state","tag-ole-miss","tag-rebels","tag-utep"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/NewMexicoFEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}