Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Predictions for 2008

OK, lets predict the Aggies record for the 2008 football season.

A schedule is always impossible to accurately forecast. You will look at it and say to yourself that they will win this one, lose that one and that one and definitely win here. It never seems to work. Here are my predictions for the upcoming season. The only thing I can guarantee is that they won't be generic

vs Nicholls State - W
@ Nebraska - L
@ UTEP - L
vs UNM - W
@ Nevada - L
vs San Jose St. - L
@ Idaho - W
vs Boise St. - L
vs Hawaii - W
@ Fresno St. - L
vs La Tech - L
@ Utah St. - W

That makes for a 5-7 record. Will this be exactly how things shake out? No. But you gotta roll the dice here a little. San Jose will be a tough team as usual while La Tech is going to be the surprise team of the conference. The Aggies can certainly win at UTEP but I can't see them sweeping their rivals. If so, it will get things off to a rousing start. Hawaii loses everything that made them great last year, i.e. a strong passing attack with an offensive-minded coach. They lose in Las Cruces.

No doubt, the key games on the schedule are as followed: @ UTEP, Hosting UNM, vs San Jose State, vs Hawaii and vs La Tech. If you broke those contests into a 5-game season, the Aggies would have to go 3-2. I have them going 2-3. Four of the five are at home and the other is down the road in El Paso. Lots at stake here.

Also, I have them winning at Idaho and Utah St. These two teams are the dregs of the conference and the Aggies are farther along than both programs. Forget about the USU game last year at Aggie Memorial. NMSU needs to win both of those but I think they will. NMSU is the better team in both games. Still, the road can be tough. Certainly not guaranteed W's.

Lots on the line this season for Aggie football. I have them going 5-7. What do you got?

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

vs Nicholls State - W
@ Nebraska - L
@ UTEP - W
vs UNM - L
@ Nevada - L
vs San Jose St. - W
@ Idaho - W
vs Boise St. - L
vs Hawaii - L
@ Fresno St. - L
vs La Tech - L
@ Utah St. - W

I have 5-7 too, but I just flipped a few games. I think we beat UTEP, although they are going to light us up on offense. It will come down to clutch performances, and with Chase, CW, and AJ, I think we have enough experience to fight them off.

UNM owns Aggie football, period. I can't stand that program, but the last time we beat them was when I was a senior (2002). Rocky Long has an unmatched ability to re-load with talent. I thought Dontrell Moore was one of the best running backs ever to play in the State of New Mexico, but when he graduated, Ferguson stepped right in and carried the load. Unless our talent clearly surpasses theirs, we lose to them every year. It makes me sick, but that's how it goes.

The WAC is weak, and besides Fresno, Boise and Nevada, I think we can truly win any of those games. However, I also thought we could win any of those games last year, and we only pulled off one win. Some of the losses were downright ugly.

The defense does not have to be great, but it is crucial that they do not put our offense in bad situations all day.

Anonymous said...

Nicholls St.- W
Nebraska- L
Utep- W
Unm- W
Nevada- W
SJSU- W
Idaho- W
Boise- L
Hawaii- W
Fresno- L
LaTech- W
Utah St. W

9-3? It could happen.
This team, when healthy can be very good.

Nevada really struggled w/ UNM's Defensense last year (we are running the same D) and the Aggies have an off week before both team play.

Hawaii lost too much fire power!

I still think the key to a succesful season will be sweeping our rivals!

Vic

Teddy said...

Nice to have you back on board SM....Vic, if the team goes 9-3, you deserve a ton of credit. Can it happen? Sure, why not.

Anonymous said...

Ted,I disagree-Hawaii and UNM will be LOSSES-they're both down but still have more overall talent and CAN PLAY DEFENSE!! Three wins tops.UNM takes the pick of LC football talent and uses them to beat the Aggies every time-and Coach Dummy could care less about that.Colt's gone,but Hawaii still can play two-team football,unlike NMSU's one-dimensional offense and occasional to none defense.This program is,or should be,D-1AA bound..

Anonymous said...

After last year,UTEP won't lose in THEIR house-a loss to UTEP,I say

Anonymous said...

My bet is 6-6. I find it curious you pick NMSU to beat UNM when they dominated a Nevada team that has always been very competitive with us. The UTEP game we won last year, but you give us the loss this year? UTEP plays Texas and NMSU plays Nebraska the week before. I think the Aggies would rather play Nebraska than Texas, if they had a choice, and should have more confidence going into the UTEP game than the Miners.

NMSU should beat: Nicholls State, UTEP, Nevada, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, and Utah State. I say Nevada because that win would be the first sign of improvement over last year's team. I agree Hawaii will be in transition and should be a very competitive game, but can't give the Aggies the W because of last year's blowout.

Everyone should go to the Hawaii game because if it is not competitive, Boston should take note. We all know what Hawaii lost last year, and we should have the upper hand in that one, and if we don't, then we have major problems. I like this year's schedule. It actually lines up really nice for the Aggies. If we beat UNM and Nevada back-to-back then look out! It is up to the Aggies, Hal and the defense to show us what they are made of. I see the 6-6 glass as half full.

Teddy said...

Anon 7:44....Three wins! Oh my gosh, that's not a lot at all! That's hilarious! But hey, they had four last year so you might be right. I do think they'll have more than that though....Anon 7:50, yeah, I picked them to flip-flop the rivalry games. Last year, both those games were very competitive. I think playing UNM here will make a difference. The Aggies can beat UTEP there, I don't doubt it. I just don't see them sweeping their rivals. If they do,it will be a great jumping board for the season.

Anonymous said...

Uh,Vic- NINE WINS? You know that we're not in the Sun Belt anymore,right? You haven't been an NMSU Aggie long enough..

Anonymous said...

What is Vic smoking? 9 wins? That would be nice, but let's get real. If they cab get 6 wins, we should be dancing in the streets.

The problem still remains - Chase. When that promadona gets hit and goes out, what then. You know Nebraska, under new leadership of that Defensive mastermind; Bo P, they will be hungry and mean. Because its early in the season up there, they will be out to CRUSH us to get their swagger back. They will lay Chase out "Big Time". What then? Mumme never gives his other QB's any reps in game action so they aren't ready when the Golden Child goes down.

UTEP and UNM will also be after Chase as both teams are wanting to continue their growth too.

I sure hope we can get to 6 wins too.

Regardless, how about all you Aggie fans staying on the wagon and getting to ALL the games this year!

Anonymous said...

I don't get your personal animosity towards Chase. The guy is all heart and is tough as nails. There's a link in the Charlie Johnson post, provided by RonMexico. I suggest you visit the site and read it. If you still feel the same way, I encourage you to post. You'll be the laughing stock to be certain, but at least put your thoughts out there to more people. I don't get you though. It's obvious you don't follow the team that closely, because if you did, you would know that JJ got a lot of snaps this spring.

I agree Vic's prediction is overly optimistic, but i don't see anything wrong with that. I think we could all use an injection of optimism, instead of carrying on these negative attitudes.

I love your reasoning why UNM and UTEP are going to beat us. Because they want to continue to grow. Yeah, and I'm sure NMSU is perfectly happy with the status quo. They aren't going to be hungry to win both games either. Give me a break. We have a good chance at beating UTEP in Juarez (I mean El Paso). And I will guarantee a win against the loobs. BTW...

WTF is a promadona anyways?

Anonymous said...

Football season is just around the corner! Could this be the year we take that step and get after some folks.

I enjoy the back and forth of you all posting. There are several spelling errors, which is why some posts lose their sting.

5 or 6 wins is a positive step forward, especially if we can get the W's against some of the top teams in the WAC. The game at UTEP is going to be difficult, but we had a shot at winning down there two years ago until our QB threw a late pick. UNM in our stadium could be a good one. Playing those two rival games are tough to do when they are so close together.winning the home game vs. UNM is probably the one we have to win, of the two.

Its football season, we should all be excited and show some enthusiasm the entire season and support our guys.the excitement for all our teams all year long starts with football. We have to get it going.

I just wish more people would be die hard Aggie fans and not fade away when we hit a tough stretch.remember last seasons advertising for the WAC basketball tournament; "Fans win games." Fans help the players reach a higher level. We saw how it helped both mens and womens basketball teams in the tournament so why not carry that over to the football season? We can help. I'm so pumped for the football season!

Let's have some fun.

And, let posters have their say and don't be so critical.

Anonymous said...

That's exactly what's wrong with the offense.It's so one-dimensional custom fit for Chase-which is great when it works-but the minute another QB has to replace Chase,then the whole sysem falls apart.Even more infuriating is what everyone saw against Boise St last year-if Chase isn't out there,throw in the towel and surrender.No backup offensive plan or anticipating contingencies-NONE.All Coach Dummy cares about is how good Chase and the offense has to look,and let some other coach care about "small stuff" like a REAL defense.Eight wins in 4 years-those are Mike Knoll numbers-does this program need to go through this again? A BIG vote of NO CONFIDENCE for Coach Dummy-even bigger than Coach Knoll.He's just bad for this program,and why is it that NMSU always finds these type of coaches?

Anonymous said...

anon 7:42 -- you have no sense of history. A bigger no confidence vote for Mumme than Knoll? Mumme hasn't gotten us on the cover of SI for being terrible has he? No, in fact many publications are predicting a bowl for us this season. Come on man, get over your personal feelings and be objective. Also, we did get slaughtered against Boise St. But then the next game against LA Tech JJ started and had a great. If it hadn't been for some unlucky breaks at the end of the game (i.e an easy INT that didn't happen and actually resulted in a TD for LA Tech) we would have won, and our bowl aspirations would have been one step closer.

Anonymous said...

...all he needs is TIME..He'll get the program there-BTW,I was a stuent there during the 27-game losing streak-seenit happen before..

Anonymous said...

Teddy, I agree with your picks. My question is if we can find another win on the schedule(hopefully week 3), and that bumps us to 6, does that makes us bowl eligible if one comes against Nicholls St.?

Anonymous said...

The Nicholls State game could turn out to be like the Ark.-Pine Bluff game. That team comes to play and have been very successful in I-AA. Let's face it--we are really a fairly good I-AA team.

Anonymous said...

anon 11:28 said: "The Nicholls State game could turn out to be like the Ark.-Pine Bluff game. That team comes to play and have been very successful in I-AA. Let's face it--we are really a fairly good I-AA team."

Who knows, I doubt it, but to ease your fears: we won that game.

Anonymous said...

NMSU IS GOING 12-0

Anonymous said...

Hey, how's it going Frank?

Unknown said...

Well someone on here obviously lost their girlfriend to Chase, or maybe Mumme? Yikes.


I agree with most of your predictions Teddy. But I'm thinking we beat La Tech and SJSU and lost to Hawaii. We've shown we can compete with SJSU and LT year after year, but Hawaii is just a notch above us regarding talent, depth, and athleticism. I say 6-6 is both possible and a reasonable improvement.

Anonymous said...

Anon said: but to ease your fears we won that game. (Ark-Pine Bluff).
That does not ease my fears--we beat Pine Bluff by 3 with a last second field goal. A typical Nicholls St. team would beat a typical Pine Bluff team by about four touchdowns.

Anonymous said...

But we also beat SELA easily the first game of the season. The guys will be stoked, and no way they suck it up against Nick St.