Liberty poses unique challenges for New Mexico State football team
LAS CRUCES – The New Mexico State football team opens its Conference USA era on Saturday at Liberty — a fellow newcomer to the league as a former FBS independent.
Both teams are coming off of wins with head coach Jerry Kill picking up a 58-21 victory against Western Illinois last week and Liberty opening the season with a 34-24 home victory over Bowling Green.
"They get the ball to the edge with the lead option, they have a lot of play action passes and sprint out," Kill, whose team is 1-1 entering Saturday, said. "They have a running quarterback who is very productive at executing their offense. Bowling Green had five turnovers in the game, but they were in the game the whole time.
"You always improve the most from Week 1 to Week 2 so we will get their best, there is no question about that."
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Saturday is the first of three straight road games for the Aggies, who enter Saturday as 10.5-point underdogs, but did beat Liberty 49-14 last season.
"We have a lot of mileage we are going to put up and this one starts it," Kill said. "I think it's exciting for New Mexico State and our kids. We are looking forward to going there."
Liberty spread option poses unique challenges
First-year Liberty coach Jamey Chadwell brought his spread option from Coastal Carolina to Liberty. Liberty had three players rush for over 50 yards with sophomore quarterback Kaiden Salter rushing for a team-high 82 yards on 19 carries and passing for 143 yards and two touchdowns.
Kill ran the triple option at Saginaw Valley State and the Aggies have an option package this season that either Diego Pavia or Eli Stowers can run.
"The triple option keeps everyone accountable," Aggies defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling said. "You have to do your job and you have to have trust in your teammates to do their job. It's good that we have this game early on. It will get us better for the other games as far as relying on each other."
The Aggies have had alignment and communication issues through the first two games.
"Our communication wasn't on point last week so that's a big thing we are focusing on this week is making sure we are on the same page and know exactly what we are doing before the offense is on the field," Aggies outside linebacker Gabe Peterson said. "The front seven has different checks than the back end, but we also have some of the same checks so we have to listen to our inside linebackers who communicate all of our checks and play calls so we know what we are doing before the ball is snapped."
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The Aggies allowed two sustained drives against WIU last week that led to points. Against a better offense on the road, the Aggies will need to get off the field.
"We do a good job on defense if you just look at it as a whole, but it's just a few plays each game where if this one guy did his job right here, we would be off the field instead of making it a longer drive," Aggies defensive back Andre Seldon said.
Aggies offense faces Liberty secondary that had five interceptions
Liberty intercepted Bowling Green quarterbacks five times in Week 1 with linebacker/nickel Jerome Jolley picking off two passes.
Bowling Green rushed for 191 yards on 6.2 yards per carry, but turnovers cost them.
"They play a lot of man, they want to bring pressure and that opens up gaps," Pavia said. "We have to hit those and know when it's coming."
After committing three turnovers of his own against Massachusetts, Pavia was efficient against WIU, completing 16 for 20 passing for 317 yards with two touchdowns and no turnovers, taking checkdowns throughout the game to move the ball.
Pavia is No. 30 in FBS in passing yards per game with 280.5 yards per game, completing 68% of his passes. He completed 53% last season.
"We want to come in and get going fast early in the first quarter and see where it goes from there," Pavia said.
Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @jpgroves.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Liberty poses unique challenges for New Mexico State football team
