Texas A&M Football: Schedule Preview – New Mexico

This the first article in a series previewing the 2023 football opponents for Texas A&M Football.

It’s only May, but Texas A&M football fans everywhere are anxiously awaiting kickoff against the New Mexico Lobos on September 3. As often happens in college football, the Aggies begin with a warm-up game against a weak nonconference opponent to start off the season. Now, that didn’t work out great for them last season—not that New Mexico is on the same level as App State, however. The Aggies should feel much more comfortable for a whole litany of reasons against the Lobos.

The 2022 season was even more inauspicious for the Lobos than it was for the Aggies. New Mexico finished with a whopping 2-10 record, notching wins over FCS Maine and a moribund UTEP program. They suffered losses to (inhales) Boise State, LSU, UNLV, Wyoming, New Mexico State (!!!), Fresno State, Utah State, Air Force, San Diego State, and Colorado State. The closest they got in any of these losses was 11 points in a 31-20 loss to Wyoming. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they are not a good team.

Texas A&M Football Matchup History vs. New Mexico

There’s not a whole lot of history to speak of between these two schools—only five matchups in total. Texas A&M football, as one might expect, has come out of each game victorious. The most notable matchup in recent history between these two schools was a narrow escape by the Aggies in Albuquerque in 2008 (the Aggies’ worst season in recent memory—yes, even including last year), where Texas A&M eked out a 28-22 victory. This was the only one of the five matchups hosted by the Lobos—clearly a testament to their fierce home field advantage.

The first meeting between Texas A&M football and New Mexico football was in 1926, where the Aggies, under Dana X. Bible, emerged with a 63-0 victory. This was the largest margin of victory in the series so far. Their next meeting didn’t happen for 82 years and was the aforementioned scare in Albuquerque. 2009 saw a return trip to College Station for the Lobos, who were vanquished by a 41-6 mark. In 2017, led by Kevin Sumlin in his final year, Texas A&M football beat New Mexico 55-14. In 2021, Zach Calzada dazzled us all with a long pass to Demond Demas against the Lobos in a hookup between players that, despite being on the team only one year ago, feel like they have been gone for forever. Maybe it’s because that 2022 season aged me so much. In any case, the Aggies won 34-0 despite UNM notching 3 sacks and 6 TFL, an amount that, at the time, felt obscene for Texas A&M to allow against a program of the Lobos’ caliber. In light of victories against Alabama in which future #3 overall draft picks registered not even a single QB hit that were yet to come, however, that memory was pretty much erased.