Prediction for New Mexico State game

This game should give any member of the Big Red faithful the heebee jeebees. These Hal Mumme (pronounced ‘Mummy‘) led New Mexico State Aggies throw more unorthodox junk at you than a drunken wiffleball game with the Niekro family.

If New Mexico State wants to sell clothes, they should change their mascot from Lasso Larry to this dude.

Not only will the Huskers face the brand new offensive sensation that is sweeping the nation, i.e. ‘The Spread Offense’ , but they will also have to contend with the mysterious, radioactive force that is the 3-3-5 defense, a “wacky” scheme dreamed up by lazy defensive coordinators who hate stopping the run, but love interceptions.

Just kidding, actually. That assumption is wrong. At first glance, it would appear as if the 3-3-5 alignment would lead to plenty of running room. But sometimes with this scheme, the opposite is true. The 61 year old defensive coordinator for New Mexico State is Joe Lee Dunn. Dunn has done been the dadgum head coach at New Mexico and also defensive coordinator at Arkansas, South Carolina, Memphis and Mississippi State.

When Dunn was coordinator at Mississippi State in 1999, the team led the nation in both rushing defense and total defense.

The Aggies pregame notes include this fascinating nugget:

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Dunn’s 3-3-5 scheme has given opposing offensive coordinators fits for over 40 years and this year should be no different. Each member of the Aggie defense had to graduate from a preseason camp in Gallup, N.M., by completing a drill called ‘The Packer,’ which consists of 15 minutes of up-downs. No breaks, no water. All the defensive players on this year’s team graduated from the Packer day.

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Yeah!

Take that, future opponents of the Aggies!

No breaks. No water. You heard me.

Everyone knows up-downs equal touchdowns, son. And ALL of our defensive players graduated from Packer Day. ALL OF ‘EM!

Maybe you should think about forfeiting this game, before we fly up there to kick all your asses and drink all your water.

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Sorry about that. Back to this 3-3-5 mummified scheme. During tomorrow’s game, you’ll see New Mexico State dropping eight, nine, ten…. heck - during the spring game, we even saw footage of your mom dropping back into pass coverage.

The Aggies defense is designed to bewilder opposing quarterbacks, giving them strange looks they’ve never seen before. How will Joe Ganz do? This news isn’t encouraging:

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“Joe Ganz used the term “weird” five times while answering two questions about what he’ll see. “It looks like a defense I play against in Madden,” he said, referring to the video game.”

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Yikes. Just to further compound matters, the diabolical Aggies run the spread offense. The Nebraska secondary has looked vulnerable so far against Western Michigan and San Jose State.

The Aggies have a senior QB named Chase Holbrook who completes over 70% of his passes. That’s not a typo. It’s really seventy percent. In three years he’s thrown for 8,485 yards and 60 touchdowns. They have two killer receivers in A.J. Harris (13 career TDs) and Chris Williams (23 career TDs).

According to New Mexico State, this dude Chris Williams ran a ridiculous 4.24 in the 40-yard dash, making him the fastest player in New Mexico State history. Which is kind of like someone being the best student in the University of Phoenix history. Except that you have actual responsibilities, like putting lipstick on Lasso Larry.

How about some random bullets before we make our prediction.

• New Mexico State is 1-18 against BCS schools since the Bowl Championship Series was implemented in 1998.
• NMSU’s only win against a BCS school since 1998 came on Sept. 18, 1999, a 35-7 win at No. 22 Arizona State. That was also New Mexico State’s only win over a ranked opponent and it ended an 0-15 drought against Top 25 teams before that.
• The Aggies’ only wins against teams from the Big 12 came at Kansas in 1988 as NMSU won 42-29 and at Iowa State in 1983, as the Aggies beat the Cyclones 24-17.
• A petition needs to be submitted to the NCAA which would give every school the option of temporarily changing their school mascot to a “Mummy” if and when Hal Mumme becomes the head coach of their football team

Vegas has Nebraska favored by 25.5 points, with the over/under at 58.5. Nebraska has an open date next week, so it’s not like they should be ‘looking ahead’ to anything, especially Virginia Tech. They’ll have 13 days to recuperate from this game, so they shouldn’t be holding anything back.

Still, this experienced Aggies offense has me more worried than Joe Ganz playing Madden against the computer on “All-Pro” level.

I think the Huskers will ultimately prevail, but it could be a nail-biter. A high-scoring nail-biter. Sorry, that’s just what my gut tells me.

HUSKERS 36 NEW MEXICO STATE 33