There's a very obvious reason why Jerry Kill is winning at New Mexico State
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Stop us if you've heard this before but a Jerry Kill coached team is feasting on a weak schedule.
Kill's New Mexico State is 10-4 after beating Auburn 31-10 and Jacksonville State 20-17 before Friday's loss to No. 20 ranked Liberty in the Conference USA Championship game.
Despite defeat on Friday this season is still a massive win for a program that just two short years ago was dwindling at 2-10 without a conference to call home. That kind of turnaround is quite impressive no matter how you come about it but it comes with the caveat that the Aggies have hardly played any good teams this season, Auburn included.
Looking through New Mexico's 2023 schedule you'll find that it's riddled with teams with losing records and just a few tough teams.
- Massachusetts (3-9)
- Western Illinois (0-11)
- Liberty (13-0)
- New Mexico (4-8)
- Hawaii (5-8)
- Florida International (4-8)
- Sam Houston (3-9)
- UTEP (3-9)
- Louisiana Tech (3-9)
- Middle Tennessee State (4-8)
- Western Kentucky (7-5)
- Auburn (6-6)
- Jacksonville State (8-4)
Now, Kill can only do so much about the relative weakness of Conference USA but Gophers fans will remember from his days in Minnesota, Kill likes weaker non-conference opponents to build his team's confidence. Scheduling Auburn doesn't necessarily fit with that narrative, but a big $1.7 million paycheck for just showing up will make smaller programs like New Mexico State take games they normally wouldn't.
According to Power Rankings Guru, New Mexico State had the third easiest schedule in the country, only ahead of (6-6) Eastern Michigan and (13-0) Liberty.
Among their 10 wins this season the Aggies have just three wins (Western Kentucky, Auburn and Jacksonville State) against teams with .500 or better records.
If they're just beating up on cupcakes then how did Kill's Aggies destroy Auburn 31-10 while not giving away the ball once? Well, besides outstanding play from New Mexico you could also chalk it up to Kill perhaps having Auburn coach Hugh Freeze's number.
Freeze is in his first year at Auburn after the Tigers rattled off an unimpressive 5-7 record in 2022. Freeze spent the previous three seasons at Liberty. In 2022, Kill's Aggies destroyed Freeze's Liberty 49-14 with New Mexico State quarterback Diego Pavia throwing for 214 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 125 yards and three touchdowns. Fast forward nearly a year to the day of that game and Pavia was excellent again against a Freeze-led team, throwing for 201 yards and three touchdowns while adding another 35 yards on the ground.
