Utah State at New Mexico: How to watch, listen to or stream the game

Series: Utah State leads the series 17-14, but New Mexico holds a 9-8 record when played in Albuquerque. The Aggies lost last year’s matchup at home 50-45. For Utah State: The Aggies will be playing …

Utah State (4-3, 2-1) vs. New Mexico (4-3, 1-2)

Kickoff: Saturday, 1 p.m. MDT
Venue: University Stadium (Capacity: 39,224)
TV: Altitude Sports, Mountain West Network
Livestream: Mountain West Network app
Radio: Aggie Sports Network (KZNS 1280 The Zone)/Sirius XM Ch. 382
Series: Utah State leads the series 17-14, but New Mexico holds a 9-8 record when played in Albuquerque. The Aggies lost last year’s matchup at home 50-45. It was the first loss to the Lobos since 2016.

The trends

For Utah State: The Aggies will be playing with regained confidence after earning a gritty 30-25 win over San Jose State last week. Utah State needed a win in the worst way as it suffered back-to-back losses to Vanderbilt and Hawaii, with the loss in Honolulu being particularly brutal.

USU’s defense struggled against Hawaii, especially when protecting against the pass. The defensive backs had a better outing in the win over San Jose State with nine pass breakups and held the country’s leading receiver Danny Scudero to just 25 yards.

Third-down conversions continue to be a sore spot for the offense. Despite a career night from Bryson Barnes (326 passing yards), the offense only converted on 5 of 16 third downs. Through seven games this year Utah State is converting on third downs just 29% of the time. New Mexico is a team hungry to climb back up the Mountain West rankings, and the Aggies can’t afford to surrender much ground.

For New Mexico: It’s a very similar story for the Lobos, who got a win over Nevada last week after suffering back-to-back losses.

It’s been an especially frustrating few weeks for the Lobos after they lost by just a touchdown to San Jose State, gave up 21 points in the final period to Boise State after being down by just a field goal, and scraped by a 1-6 Nevada team 24-22 last week.

While New Mexico doesn’t have the prettiest Mountain West record, it will definitely put up a hard fight as it hosts Utah State. First-year head coach Jason Eck took over as former coach Bronco Mendenhall sidestepped to Logan after one year with the program.

New Mexico has yet to lose at home this season. A win over the Aggies would mark its first time being 4-0 at home since 1962.

What to watch for

A healthier dose of ground and air game: Utah State’s defense will have to readjust after back-to-back weeks of heavy air-raid offenses in Hawaii and San Jose State. New Mexico will be a change of pace as it prefers to have a more even split between the air and ground.

When the Lobos have gone long this year it’s often been met with resistance. Starting quarterback Jack Layne has thrown an even amount of touchdowns and interceptions this year at eight apiece. Keep an eye on if the Aggies’ defensive backs can make New Mexico pay for big aerial plays.

New Mexico has done most of its scoring damage in its run game this season, particularly with running backs Scottre Humphrey and Damon Bankston. The Lobos will also be dangerous in field goal position as kicker Luke Drzewicki has missed only one field goal and he’s connected on both attempts from 40+ this season.

Playing in context: The message from Mendenhall the past two weeks has been made abundantly clear: play within context. Meaning he wants his team to execute better for specific unique situations like with specific time left in a half, third-and-long and fourth downs were some examples he gave.

He used kicker Tanner Rinker as an example of what he liked about playing in context. Rinker hit meaningful field goals with only seconds remaining in a close game with San Jose State.

“Great examples of that would be our field goal kicker going out, not just to kick a field goal, but to kick it with a minute or two left or seconds left to put his team in front,” Mendenhall said. “That’s a different context. The next step for our program is continuing to execute within the specific context at a higher and more consistent level.”

These types of situations are very likely to come up, especially in as hostile an environment as University Stadium in Albuquerque.

Quotable

“New Mexico has a really strong running game, unique schemes and strategies, and they throw the ball well off of that in terms of play action and some unique formations and gadgets and point manufacturing things through creativity. Their coaching staff’s doing a really nice job. And so different approach, and that’s what Mondays are for. Mondays are long, as you identify the new opponent and then start crafting where the matchups are and what your schemes might be.” —Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall

Utah State Aggies head coach Bronco Mendenhall signals that he thinks the Aggies go a first down during a review on a play in the first half Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, in Logan. | Eli Lucero/Herald Journal

“I think they’re a very good team. You look at the teams they’ve lost to, they’ve all been on the road to two teams that are ranked in the top 10. Then obviously Hawaii is a tough trip traveling all the way out there. I think they’re pretty damn exceptional on offense. I think this quarterback, I really like. Bryson Barnes, he’s a good thrower. He’s good with his legs too.” — New Mexico coach Jason Eck

Next up

Utah State: vs. Nevada, Saturday, Nov. 8, at 5:30 p.m.
New Mexico: at UNLV, Saturday, Nov. 1, 1 p.m.

Utah State schedule

Oct. 25 — at New Mexico
Nov. 8 — Nevada
Nov. 15 — at UNLV
Nov. 22 — at Fresno State
Nov. 29 — Boise State

Source: Utah News