Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO -- Saturday will mark the fourth team in the WAC that BYU will have matched up against this season. The good news is BYU is undefeated against teams from the WAC so far this year. The bad news is they're from the WAC.
The New Mexico State Aggies hold a 4-6 overall record (2-3 WAC), coming off of a 48-45 shootout victory over current conference foe, Fresno State.
Head coach DeWayne Walker was announced as head coach of the Aggies in 2008, making him the seventh African- American head coach of a major NCAA football program.
In almost three seasons with New Mexico State, Walker has amassed a total record of 9-27 with no bowl appearances.
Walker did a brief stint coaching at BYU back in 1994 before going on to Oklahoma State University, and then the University of California.
This will be the first time these two teams meet up head to head in football.
With that, let's take a look at what is in store on Saturday going deeper into the Aggies football team.
OFFENSE
Senior quarterback Matt Christian has seen a lot of playing time this year due to a season-ending knee injury to opening-day starter, sophomore quarterback Andrew Manley.
Christian has filled in nicely leading the nation's 39th ranked offense with 1,808 yards, 13 touchdowns, and six interceptions.
As a team the Aggies average 425 yards a game, almost a third of that through the air. Their 302 passing yards is 13th best in the country.
Christian's go-to-guy has been senior wide receiver, Taveon Rogers. So far this season, Rogers has accumulated 881 yards receiving, with nine touchdowns all on 41 receptions.
Rogers averages 20 yards per reception, making him a concern for the BYU secondary. He appears to be a deep threat along with a first down machine.
Besides Rogers, Christian has three other solid targets in wide receiver senior Todd Lee, junior running back Kenny Turner, and freshman wide receiver Austin Franklin.
Lee, Turner, and Franklin have all combined for 96 receptions for 1,436 yards, and eight touchdowns, giving Christian plenty of options to throw to.
If Turner's not catching passes, he's running the ball from the scrimmage line. In 161 rushes, Turner has gained 799 yards, and nine touchdowns, putting him at an average of five yards per carry.
Christian is a runner himself. Carrying the ball 66 times for 260 yards, and four touchdowns.
While their rushing attack isn't as potent as its passing game, the Aggies still rush for over 120 yards per game, with 14 of their 36 total touchdowns coming on the ground.
The Aggies average just over 29 points a game (52nd nationally), but their defense gives up almost 37 points a game, (112th out of 120 teams nationally).
DEFENSE
While the offense eats up a ton of yards and puts up plenty of points, these Aggies are 4-6 because their defense simply can't stop anyone.
They give up over 207 yards per game rushing (107th nationally) and 258 yards through the air (96th nationally).
And this defense has given up an amazing 50 touchdowns on the season- that's an average of five a game.
Through 10 games, BYU has only scored 35 touchdowns, averaging over 28 points a game.
If there is anybody that stands out on the Aggie defense, it's senior defensive back Donyae Coleman.
Coleman has 99 tackles on the year, and four of his team's six interceptions. Coleman has also forced three fumbles, and recovered all three himself.
For BYU sophomore quarterback Jake Heaps, his biggest fear this Saturday should be senior defensive end David Niumatalolo.
Niumatalolo has a total of seven sacks for a loss of 26 yards with three quarterback hurries. With that, Niumatalolo has a forced fumble that he was able to recover himself.
There isn't a whole lot of reason to believe that this game may be different from the Idaho game.
With the four top tacklers on the Aggie defense all being defensive backs with a combined 267 tackles, it appears that Heaps will have plenty of time to wait for receivers to get open. If the Cougar offensive line can contain Niumatalolo, Heaps should have all day to pass.
Although BYU has had a history with being poor at defending mobile quarterbacks, they have shown major improvements this year going up against Utah State's Chuckie Keeton, and Central Florida's Jeff Godfrey, holding both quarterbacks to their second lowest rushing total all season. So, it shouldn't be too difficult to contain Christian.
While the Aggie offense will likely put up points on the board, the BYU defense should be able to contain the run- and-gun offense enough to allow the Cougar offense to pull away.
DeWayne Walker is helping the Aggies gradually improve, but it's not likely that he will be leaving Provo with a victory under his belt.
Email: onlinesports@ksl.com
