New Mexico State opened its football season last Saturday evening in Las Cruces with a 23-12 loss to Nevada. Now with only a few days to recover physically and mentally, the Aggies will face the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis on Thursday night.
By contrast, Minnesota will be playing its first game of the season and is a 38 point favorite. The circumstances of this game concern Glen Mason who coached the Gophers from 1997-2006. He told Sports Headliners the Aggies are jeopardizing the welfare of their players with a game so soon after their Saturday opener.
Football is a violent sport causing frequent injuries on the college level. But the Aggies are playing the game Thursday on a short turnaround because the athletic program needs the money that comes from payday games against Power Five teams like Minnesota.
Mason understands the economics but is critical. “It’s a travesty what New Mexico State is doing. …To play a game on Saturday and then go on the road and play a Big Ten team on Thursday, I think that’s wrong for those kids at New Mexico State.”
Aggies coach Jerry Kill knows how demanding the schedule is this week. “We’ll see how tough we are,” he said after his game Saturday night.
It wouldn’t be surprising if after Kill was named Aggies coach last November he explored a possible buyout to cancel the game and replace it with a much less formidable opponent than the Big Ten Gophers. The Aggies have been among the most hapless programs in college football for decades and finished 2-10 last season including losses to Hawaii, Nevada and UTEP. The underwhelming fan support for the football program is a key factor in why the athletic department is operating about $4 million in debt, per a story from the Las Cruces Sun News in July.
Mason, though, believes the Aggies should have found a way to cancel the trip to Minneapolis. “Everybody talks a good game about the safety and welfare of the players. You can’t tell me that that’s not an issue here. When you’re not a very good team to begin with (it’s even more of a problem). …They weren’t even equal to Nevada. They got beat handily. Now they’re gonna go play a Big Ten team? Ah, come on.”
For decades Thursday night games have been common in college football, particularly for non-Power five teams. In 2021 ESPN televised a regular schedule of Thursday games from early September through November, providing significant revenue to college teams who were willing to play after having games the previous Saturday.
Mason is concerned, too, about the welfare of the Gophers. He said when players watch film they can tell if an opponent is physically inferior. If players decide to give anything less than 100 percent during the game that’s “when bad things happen (injuries),” Mason said.
Because of the point spread and expectations for Minnesota to rout the Aggies, the game is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation for the home team. If the Gophers win easily, it’s what they were supposed to do. If the game is much closer than the point spread, the Gophers failed and P.J. Fleck was outcoached. “It’s one of those games where you’ve got everything to lose and nothing to gain,” Mason said.
Last year the Gophers were 31 point favorites at home against Bowling Green and lost the game. Fleck said his team learned a lot from that loss and “we have to play our absolute best football” Thursday.
The matchup could be called the “Hand Shake Game.” That might be the label ESPN’s “Sports Center” and other media heavyweights give an otherwise ho-hum nonconference game that is spotlighting the coaches, not the teams.
The plot is this: Will Fleck and Kill shake hands at the game?
“Listen, I have been a head coach 10 years and I have never not shaken a hand of a head football coach,” Fleck said a few days ago.
Kill, though, isn’t announcing his intentions. His dislike for Fleck is in the public record, and he didn’t even use the Gopher coach’s name at his postgame news conference Saturday night.
Asked about going back to Minnesota where Kill coached from 2011-2015, he said “the guy that’s there” has continued the success he started. “We turned the program around when I was there,” Kill said.
Kill thinks Fleck is too much about himself and that the young coach discredited the foundation Kill and his staff put in place by talking nonstop about creating a new culture at Minnesota. Fleck hasn’t countered the verbal attacks from Kill and a lot of Gophers’ fans applaud him for not engaging in a verbal fight.
“I don’t want the game about me,” Kill said. “Everybody is trying to make the game about me.”
Kill’s comments about Fleck this summer and further back make it difficult to look past the two coaches, though. A lot of fans and media find the coaching matchup more intriguing than the game.
When the now 61-year-old Kill was at Minnesota he impressed with his coaching during four-plus seasons. He inherited a program that was a mess on the field and academically. When health issues forced him to resign during the 2015 season, the Gophers had the respect and admiration of not only their fans but other coaches. There was even a 2014 poll of college coaches where they were asked who they would most want their sons to play for and Kill was near the top of the list.
When Kill was in Minneapolis people saw his personal values including thoughtfulness. I remember how Kill once forgot an appointment we had at his office. He later apologized profusely. While he was the Minnesota coach, I don’t think there ever was a time he didn’t return a call.
Kill has many admirers here who will wince Thursday night when he and the Aggies are targeted with boos. You can be sure, too, there will be Minnesotans who applaud either at Huntington Bank Stadium or in their living rooms watching on TV.