Sunday, August 10, 2008

Attack of the WAC

I have to say, I think the New Mexico State Aggies have the potential to be good. A team nobody wants to face. Would you want your team facing a foe that can drop points in a hurry? I'm talking 50. This team can drop 50. But here's the thing.

The WAC is tough. It goes seven deep, and I count NMSU in that seven. Utah State and Idaho. Uhhh, no. They don't seem to be there. But the other schools are my friends.

I still like Boise. Look out for junior receiver Jeremy Childs, who put a blow torch to the Aggies last year. And we all know about Ian Johnson.

Fresno will be good. They always are a hard nosed team. And look out for Nevada. Who's going to that game on Oct. 11? NMSU in Reno, should be a shootout. Both team can put up points, particularly if Colin Kaepernick is the starting QB for the Wolf Pack. The game last year in Las Cruces was up and down with no end in sight....Until a missed Aggie FG at the gun.

Hawaii is the wild card for me. I don't know what to expect from them but my initial gut feeling tells me they have a down year. I think the Aggies could be up on them this year, especially with the game being in LC. Anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about Louisiana Tech. I think they are a sleeper team who is going to be a pain for the big dogs. I think La. Tech cracks the top 4 in this conference and I think when they come to Las Cruces in November it will be a big game for both teams. Mark it down.

San Jose will surprise as usual. Kevin Jurovich had a monster year last season. 85 grabs for 1183 and 9 TD's. Those are huge numbers! And they had no ground game. Yonus Davis returns for the Spartans after an injury sidelined him in 2009. But they need a QB.

And that's where the Aggies have an edge over a lot of these teams. They have a certifiable quarterback in Chase. There are question marks with a lot of QB's in the WAC. NMSU has one. So does Fresno and Nevada. But you need a quarterback to win in football. So that will be a key position to keep an eye on this year for all WAC teams. Only if Chase gets hurt will you have to concern yourself with the hometown team.

I will say that the conference is competitive. It will be hard for the Aggies to move up a ton in the standings. They will have to exceed expectations. In other words, win more than 5 games, four being in the division. Good luck in the WAC. It's tough.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

9-3 Baby!
Get your bowling shoes ready!

Vic

Anonymous said...

I think the WAC will be unpredictable all year long. With the exception of Fresno, and possibly Boise, I dont know that any other team can be penciled in for sure wins week after week. Unless they're playing Utah St or Idaho of course. I think that the rest of the teams, including our Aggies, will be fighting for spots 3-5, and a bowl berth late in the year. Lets get out and support the Aggies at home. I live in ALbuquerque and make a handful of games every year. Las Cruces--why can't you? Go Aggies!!!

Anonymous said...

25 days 2 hours from the time of this post. Oh man I can almost taste it!

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to figure out how all this schedule stuff works. Maybe you can help me understand this.

I notice we never get any name schools to travel here to Las Cruces to play. In football; didn't we have a contract with Kansas State for them to come here? Whatever happened with that. I believe we had Cal here a few years ago, but now all we get are the low level schools we buy. Wouldn't it help fan support to have a name school here playing. Basketball is the same. In mens basketball we only get to see LMU, Pepperdine and lower schools like that. I got to think our fans would come out more if a better team or two were coming in. I believe in a year the womens basketball team will have Kansas coming in and volleyball has some name schools this year too.

How about it?

Anonymous said...

anon 9:19 -- why don't you complain some more? This is a very good home schedule. We have the loobs, Boise St., Hawaii, and a tough LA Tech team coming to Las Cruces. It's solid.

Do you know anything about college sports, it's getting harder and harder to schedule high tier teams to come into what would be a hostile environment. Thats for basketball.

For football, it's hard getting name schools to come into a 30,000 stadium that we have trouble filling up.

VB does have some big names coming into Las Cruces. Texas and Utah. But they can do this because they have a been a top 25 program the last few years. Successful teams have much easier time scheduling other successful teams.

EVERYONE would love to see schools from the BCS conferences coming in, but we need to win at home against the teams we have scheduled. It would be nice if LC would understand how important creating a home field advantage really is to on-field success. Then they can be rewarded with high tier schools. Till then stop the moaning.

BTW, the WBB team will be traveling to Lawrence, Kansas too. They don't have any quality teams coming to Las Cruces.

Teddy said...

Wyoming was supposed to come here Week 1 but backed out. Hence, the Nicholls State game, which was moved back to Thursday night to accommodate the visitors.

I was disappointed because I thought Wyoming would be a good measuring stick as to where the Aggies were right off the bat. Instead, we'll have to judge them against their rivals. Frankly, I don't care much for the Nicholls State contest. Oh well.

Anonymous said...

I think Nichols St. will be a somewhat competitive games. Especially the first half. We should pull away by the 4th quarter. The option offense is a hard thing to prepare for.

Anonymous said...

Hey Anon, the person asked a question on how the schedule efforts work. Obviously he/she wanted to know.

In a typical arm chair quarterback-wanna be athlete/coach-know it all who probably never was, attitude; you got mad and frustrated and asked the stupid question.

The person was asking for and wanting an answer. Wasn't it obvious they wanted to know?

There are many fans who have the same thoughts and don't know. Haven't you noticed that we have many senior citizens living here who have retired and who also attend our Aggie events? We too have questions and look for answers.

So, when you win the Heisman Trophy, we will all look past your limitations and feel good for you.

Teddy, why not monitor some of these people?

Have a great day and on Sept.4th, we will get it cranked up.

Go Aggies!