The Minnesota Golden Gophers will open the season against New Mexico State on Thursday night, but while the Aggies have been one of the worst programs in college football in recent years, they come into the opener as a relative unknown.
The good news for the Gophers is that the Aggies opened their season against Nevada on Saturday night – losing 23-12 – so was there anything that they could learn heading into the opener?
Gavin Frakes will probably be the starting quarterback
Jerry Kill's first assignment at New Mexico State was to find a starting quarterback. Diego Pavia got the start against Nevada, but turned the ball over four times (three interceptions, one fumble) in the first half before being replaced by Gavin Frakes.
Frakes entered the game down 17-2 and looked more comfortable in the offense. He went 9-for-13 for 143 yards and threw a goal-line fade to Kordell David into the back corner of the end zone for his first career touchdown.
Kill was non-committal after the game over who would get the start against Minnesota but Saturday's performance indicates that Frakes should be the frontrunner.
The Aggies want to run the ball
The running game was one of the staples of Kill's offense during his time at Minnesota and that philosophy hasn't changed with his move to New Mexico State.
The Gophers ranked in the top five among Big Ten teams in rushing attempts per game during Kill's four-plus seasons at Minnesota, and in his lone season as the offensive coordinator at Rutgers in 2017, Kill's offense ran the ball (36.4 attempts per game) more than they threw it (22.9 attempts per game).
Kill tried to establish the run game against the Wolfpack, but the Aggies averaged just 3.4 yards per carry. The Aggies were also forced to take to the air once they fell behind, leading Kill to lament about his team's ability to run the ball after the game.
The Aggies' defense is tougher than you think
New Mexico State allowed 23 points in their opener, but their defense did enough to keep the Aggies in the game.
Nevada ran for 179 yards on Saturday night but needed 45 attempts to reach that number – an average of four yards per carry. The Wolfpack also collected 78 of those yards on their two final drives of the game, meaning the Aggies largely did their job on the ground.
This could be a big factor in Thursday's game. The Gophers ranked eighth in rushing attempts last season and although they should have more balance under offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, Mohamed Ibrahim and Trey Potts will have their hands full.
The Aggies will turn the ball over
Kill's team did some things right against the Wolfpack, but one of the things they didn't do was protect the football.
We already discussed Pavia's four turnovers in the first half but Frakes also tossed an interception, giving the Wolfpack five takeaways on the night.
That number is indicative of the growing pains on the roster but it also allowed Nevada to work on a short field on a night where the Aggies held them to 257 yards of total offense.
"You are never going to win in the game of football turning the ball over five times," Kill told reporters after the game. "I told the kids I will never get on them for playing hard, but the winning formula is you can't turn the ball over five times."
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