The New Mexico State, coming off five straight losses, will look to get back on track Saturday at home against Utah State in the 36th meeting between the two schools.
Utah State (5-2, 1-0) holds a 28-7 in the all-time series, with one of those wins being a 24-21 victory over NMSU last season in the Aggies' season finale. Since 1985, NMSU and Utah State have been conference opponents in four different conferences (Pacific Coast, Big West, Sun Belt and WAC).
Utah State, led by fourth-year head coach Gary Anderson, faced a tough nonconference schedule in 2012, playing Utah, Colorado State, Southern Utah, Wisconsin, UNLV and BYU. The Aggies are scoring 27.6 points per game and are racking up 428.4 yards of total offense. The Utah State defense is allowing its opponents to score 14.9 points per game and compile 322.1 yards of total offense a game.
The Aggies' offense is headed by quarterback Chuckie Keeton, who has 1,758 passing yards and 14 touchdown passes. Kerwy Williams leads the running backs with 713 yards rushing, averaging 6.0 yards per carry with six touchdowns, while Matt Austin has caught 28 passes for 403 yards and four touchdowns to lead the receivers.
Defensively, McKade Brady has 63 tackles on the season, including one tackle for a loss, followed by Zach Vigil with 59 tackles.
The story for NMSU (1-5, 0-2) this season has been wide receiver Austin Franklin, who recorded his fourth 100-yard receiving game of the season last week against Idaho with a team-leading nine catches for 115 yards. He now has five 100-yard receiving games in his career. Franklin also leads the team in scoring with 42 points on seven touchdown receptions. Nationally, Franklin ranks seventh in receiving yards per game, 29th in receptions per game and 48th in all-purpose yards. He ranks second in the WAC in both receptions per game and receiving yards per game.
Quarterback Andrew Manley, who's been on the other end of Franklin's success this season, has thrown for 1,630 yards and 11 touchdowns while completing 55.2 percent of his passes.
Manley has thrown for over 200 yards in a game nine times in his career and has now thrown a touchdown pass in nine straight games. Against Idaho, Manley recorded his third 300-yard passing game of his career with 309 yards while going 28 of 45 with a touchdown. Manley is currently third in the WAC in passing yards per game (271.7) and fourth in total offense per game (256.8).
