Donyae Coleman having big year

The senior safety is having a great season for the NMSU football team.

Coleman is on the field A LOT for the Aggie defense and is playing with confidence — that will take you a long way as a player.

Coleman came to NMSU two years ago and initially played wide receiver. That same year NMSU head coach DeWayne Walker moved Coleman to cornerback and that offseason the team moved him to safety. He did play defensive back in high school.

Just take a look at Coleman’s box score the other night from the Idaho game: 11 tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, an interception and a pass breakup. He filled it up.

He led the team in tackles a season ago and is back at it again this year with 60. He also leads the Aggies with two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. He leads the WAC in interceptions with four.

NMSU is plus-four in turnover ratio this year — a statistic that’s synonymous with winning football. Teams that win the turnover battle typically win games.

Simply looking back at the team’s turnover margin in some recent season: minus-21 (in the 2005 season); minus-10 (2006); minus-15 (2007); minus-6 (2008); minus-nine (2009); minus-four (2010). The Aggies aren’t used to being on the positive end of turnover margin — they have forced 12 this year as a team.

Coleman’s been in the middle of plenty.

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Another player who's come on for the Aggies is running back Kenny Turner. To read a story I wrote on Kenny that appeared in Tuesday’s Sun-News, click here.

Follow me on Twitter @TeddyFeinberg