Key storylines for NMSU football as spring practices begin

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KTSM) – The New Mexico State football team held its first spring practice on its practice field outside Aggie Memorial Stadium on Monday. Here’s a look at a few key storylines as NMSU begins its spring football season.

THE TONY SANCHEZ ERA BEGINS

Monday’s spring practice was the first time we got to see New Mexico State football under the direction of new head coach Tony Sanchez.

Sanchez was named New Mexico State’s 36th head football coach last December after Jerry Kill stepped down from the role after two winning seasons as the Aggies’ head coach.

Kill built a winning culture within the NMSU football program during his time in Las Cruces. Under Kill as the head coach, New Mexico State put together two winning seasons, qualified for two bowl games, and played for a Conference USA championship in its first season as a member of the league in 2023.

Sanchez, who has worked with Kill from 2021-2023, has no intentions of changing that now that he has the keys to the program.

“It honestly didn’t feel that much different. Obviously, I’m not coaching one group. I’m coaching the whole team,” Sanchez said. “It’s a very similar group of guys and a similar place that I’ve been the last couple of years, so that’s been the nice part about the transition [from wide receivers coach to head coach].”

“[Tony] Sanchez has always been a high energy type. It’s really no different, man. We still hold the same standards, the same expectations as when [Jerry] Kill was here. It’s just a few changes, discipline changes, but it feels the same.” NM State defensive back Dylan Early said.”

This is Sanchez’s second crack at being a head coach of a NCAA Division I FBS program. Sanchez went 20-40 in five seasons as the head coach for the UNLV Rebels from 2015-2019.

“When you’ve done it before, you know what’s coming, where the landmines are, some of the problems that might occur, organization rules,” Sanchez said. “I came out here today fired up but you’re not nervous because it’s not your first rodeo.”

NEW QUARTERBACK SITUATION

The last two seasons, New Mexico State had Diego Pavia playing quarterback, but that will not be an option on the table for the Aggies this upcoming season. Pavia decided to spend his final year of college eligibility playing at Vanderbilt. NMSU backup quarterbacks Gavin Frakes and Blaze Berlowitz also entered the transfer portal and found new homes for the 2024 season.

With three key departures at the quarterback position, NMSU had to bring in new talent at that position. Sanchez brought in quarterbacks Parker Awad, Brandon Nunez, and Deuce Hogan as part of his first signing class as NMSU’s head football coach.

The big get here for NMSU is Deuce Hogan. Hogan comes to Las Cruces after two seasons at Kentucky. The product out of Southlake, Texas also spent time at Iowa prior to Kentucky. The former Wildcat and Hawkeye was once rated as the 15^th best pro-style quarterback in the nation in the Class of 2020 after throwing for 8,192 yards and 100 touchdowns throughout his high school career at Faith Christian Academy where he holds school records in wins, touchdowns, yards and completions.

Naming a starting quarterback for the 2024 season is something Sanchez is far away from doing right now. The focus this spring is developing the talent it has in its quarterback room.

“Right now, we are about getting even reps, making sure that they are seeing different looks, and right now we are just running around in pjs,” Sanchez said. “When we get into those scrimmage situations, where you have the defense truly coming down on you, that’s when its crucial to make good decisions.”

“Just day one, we threw the ball better than we did last year at this time. We got three guys that can throw the ball. I thought Parker Awad had a really good day. Deuce Hogan had a really good day to day, and the other guys got to come along a little bit but as far as distributing the ball to our athletes on the outside, I think we are actually going to be better at that.”

IMPLEMENTING NEW DEFENSIVE SCHEME

There’s a lot of new faces on this year’s NMSU football team. One of those new faces is Joe Morris, the Aggies’ new defensive coordinator and defensive line coach. With a new defensive coordinator, comes a new defensive scheme.

Morris joined the Aggie staff in January 2024 after three seasons at Sam Houston where he served as the defensive coordinator and defensive ends coach for his final two seasons with the Bearkats.

“Defensively, we’re putting in a whole new scheme. So, it’s just [about] getting everybody coached up, everybody on the same page and make sure we get our alignments and assignments down.” Sanchez said.

“This is a completely whole different scheme,” NM State defensive back Dylan Early said. “We had a great coordinator in Nate Dreiling, and I feel like Coach [Joe] Morris is a great defensive coordinator as well. This spring it’s just about getting the guys going, learning the scheme so we can be able to play fast when fall comes.”

Morris and Sanchez aim to build on a season where New Mexico State’s defense gave up the second-least number of points per game (22.8) in Conference USA in the 2023 season.

COACHING STAFF CHANGES

New Mexico State made several changes to its coaching staff in the winter. Whether that was moving a coach out of their then-current role to a new role or hiring an entirely new coach to fill a role, there was plenty of that in the construction of NMSU football’s 2024 coaching staff.

For example, Tony Sanchez was promoted from wide receivers coach to head coach.

Along with his offensive line duties, Andrew Mitchell is now the assistant head coach and run game coordinator.

Tyler Wright was promoted to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach after he spent the last season as the tight ends coach and special teams coordinator.

David Cobb went from director of scouting/NFL liaison to running backs coach.

There were also new hires like Joe Morris (defensive coordinator/defensive line); Jared Hensley (linebackers); Henry Fernandez (safeties); Steve Irvin (cornerbacks); Nelson Fishback (tight ends/special teams coordinator); Eti Ena (defensive line); Cedric Cormier (wide receivers); Timothy Wilkinson (defensive analyst); Shaun Wick (offensive analyst); Scott Ohara (offensive analyst).

“We hired a great group of professionals. Offensively, we got kind of our solid core unit still here. We’ve got Coach Wright, Coach Mitchell, some new guys, some familiar faces, guys I worked with before and then obviously a new defensive staff, but again these are guys that have had a lot of success from different places they’ve been.”

After Monday, New Mexico State will have 12 more spring practices before the squad plays its spring game that is scheduled for Saturday, April 6th.

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