New Mexico State just hung with a Power 4 team on the road. Now the Aggies get to come home against an FCS outfit that got run out of its own opener.
Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces is set for a mostly sunny, 90-degree kickoff on Saturday, September 5, and there's no ambiguity about the size of the gap on the field. Mercyhurst is a Northeast Conference program making the trip from Erie, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico State is a Conference USA team coming off a game against Florida State. That's not a matchup, it's a mismatch on paper, and everything in the buildup points the same direction.
The Lakers didn't just lose their season opener, they got buried in it, falling 43-10 on the road at Youngstown State. Now first-year head coach Thomas Sydeski has his team turning right back around for a second straight FBS road trip, with a visit to New Mexico still on deck after this one. That's a brutal ask for a roster picked to finish fifth in its own conference before a snap was played.
New Mexico State, meanwhile, actually has something to point to. The Aggies went into Doak Campbell Stadium and put up 17 points on Florida State before falling 34-17 — not a win, but a competitive offensive showing against a Power 4 defense in Week 0. Against a program that just got embarrassed by an FCS-level rival, that offense should have a considerably easier time finding the end zone.
New Mexico State finished 4-8 overall a season ago under Tony Sanchez, so this isn't a powerhouse by any stretch — it's a program still trying to find consistent footing in Conference USA. But even a middling FBS roster has a talent and depth advantage over a Northeast Conference team that just got dropped by 33 points, and a home opener against overmatched competition is exactly the kind of spot where that gap shows up fastest, especially with a first-year head coach across the sideline still installing his system.
Nothing about the story here is complicated. Mercyhurst is 0-1 with a lopsided loss on its resume and a second consecutive trip to the FBS ranks ahead of it. New Mexico State is coming off a respectable Week 0 road showing and gets to cash it in at home against a lighter opponent. The scoreboard on Saturday should reflect exactly that.
