Key takeaways from New Mexico State football’s spring game

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KTSM) — The New Mexico State football team played its spring game at Aggie Memorial Stadium on Saturday morning.

The spring game served as a glorified scrimmage as it was offense versus defense with full contact.

The highlight of NMSU’s spring game was the defense’s performance and how it’s developed under new defensive coordinator Joe Morris. NMSU’s defense “stepped up” after the offense was the side of the ball to watch out for most of the spring.

“We’ve been really explosive on offense throughout the course of the spring, but it was good to see the defense step up,” said NMSU football head coach Tony Sanchez. “It started off really good when we started with the goal line right away, they were really, really physical.”

“On the defensive side of the ball, it was all energetic,” NMSU safety Dylan Early said. “We had a lot of energy flowing through, so that led to us playing fast and to the shutdown defense today.”

“I thought it was a pretty good day, especially defensively. Offensively, there was some stuff I think we showed that we definitely still need to work on,” NMSU tight end Eli Stowers said. “It’s the spring, we got some new guys coming in, new coaches, and we knew there was going to be some growing pains. We had some good drives where we got the ball in the end zone, so I think it’s looking up.”

New Mexico State’s offense did have bright spots as it did put together several scoring drives. NMSU’s offense is expected to be the strength of the team as it returns a lot of experience at the running back, offensive line, and wide receiver positions. The one position that still has question marks surrounding it is the one the most important in all of sports: quarterback.

Deuce Hogan, Parker Awad, Brandon Nunez, and Jeff Davison all shared reps at the QB spot in the spring game. NMSU’s starting quarterback battle is expected to continue well into the summer and fall.

“The biggest question mark for us is at that quarterback spot and letting those guys battle it out,” Sanchez said. “They all got even reps. They got to play with the ones, they got to play with the twos, play with the threes. We’re not 100% where we want to be going into the season, but we got a lot of time to do that. Summer work is going to be important with those guys.”

New Mexico State will have one more practice on Monday before it concludes its 2024 spring season.

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