How UNM transfers have embraced the Rio Grande Rivalry
It was an honest mistake.
Back in December, Jeremiah Hixon was courting a steady stream of offers after entering the transfer portal following the conclusion of the 2022 season. A then-redshirt junior receiver out of Alabama State, Hixon received a healthy amount of offers from the likes of Grambling, Samford, Alabama A&M, New Mexico and New Mexico State.
Hixon visited both New Mexico and New Mexico State, at one point posting a tweet with photos of him in an Aggies uniform. Normal for any recruit on any official visit, at any school, in any state. But the tweet also had a UNM logo. And the caption: “#GOLOBOS.” Comments correcting him — politely and impolitely — on his error came quickly.
That, in short, was Hixon’s first introduction to the Rio Grande Rivalry.
“We’re trying to overcome that,” laughed Hixon, now a starting slot receiver for the Lobos. “But I did get a lot of trash talk from it. I still get it from (head coach Danny Gonzales). He said until I win this game, he’s gonna trash talk me and won’t let me live it down.”
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Gonzales smiled as he said he’ll never forget Hixon’s mistake, no matter how honest it was. But he was quick to add if it did anything for Hixon, he got an early taste of what this Saturday’s UNM and NMSU game might be like.
“That’s already entrenched in him,” said Gonzales, an Albuquerque native and UNM alum passionate as any about the Rio Grande Rivalry. “And he hasn’t played a single game in the rivalry.”
Nor have 41 other Lobos on the roster this year, be they incoming freshmen or transfers. Following last Saturday’s 56-10 win over Tennessee Tech, Gonzales promised there wouldn’t be any problem getting players into the full swing of the rivalry no matter where they came from.
But UNM-NMSU is different from other college football rivalries. It’s older than some prominent rivalries (North Carolina-Duke and Alabama-Tennessee, for instance) but lacks much national notoriety.
Which begs the question: How does one jump into it?
Before joining the Lobos this summer, safety Noa Pola-Gates spent the last four seasons at Nebraska, a school lacking an in-state rival but holding long-standing feuds against Colorado, Oklahoma and Iowa. Pola-Gates vividly remembers his freshman year, when Iowa’s Keith Duncan drilled a 48-yard field goal with one second remaining to down the Cornhuskers, 27-24.
Duncan promptly grabbed his you-know-what in celebration.
“After that whole situation, that rivalry really stood out to me the most just because there was real beef behind it,” Pola-Gates said.
With NMSU, he sees much of the same fuel that took Iowa and Nebraska from a routine matchup to an annual grudge match. “Those wounds go deep, considering the game last year,” Pola-Gates said. “Just hearing stories about the rivalry and how big it is, it puts an even bigger chip on our shoulder.”
Mississippi State transfer receiver Kaydin Pope came from the Egg Bowl, one of the oldest state rivalry games between MSU and Ole Miss known for wild finishes and undying loyalty. For his part, Pope said it wasn’t all too hard to adapt to a new rivalry — after all, he heard more than his fair share about it during his visit.
“You have to really choose a side of what school you want to be with,” he said.
Defensive end Gabriel Lopez spent the last two seasons with Washington State, one half of the Apple Cup rivalry with Washington. He admitted he hasn’t learned much about the history of the UNM-NMSU series.
But he knows it’s a rivalry. And if there’s one thing he can get up for, it’s that.
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“It matters so much to the people of Albuquerque,” Lopez said. “It matters to our coach — he’s from here. Nobody wants to lose … last year, we took the (loss), unfortunately. And that’s why we brought in all these new guys, so we can have a great season and beat our rivals.”
Kill returns to practice
After missing practices earlier last week due to a medical issue, New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill returned to practice on Wednesday but did not speak with the media. KTSM-9 News was the first to report.
Kill’s status for Saturday’s game is still unclear but appears to be trending toward him coaching his second outing in the Rio Grande Rivalry.“Coach Kill and I have communicated through this. He’s doing a lot better and he’ll be ready to roll on Saturday for sure,” said Tim Beck, NMSU’s associate head coach and offensive coordinator who has been appointed the interim head coach in Kill’s absence. “We expect him to be there and be his old self.”
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: How UNM transfers have embraced the Rio Grande Rivalry
