Coach Martin says NMSU should emulate its Arizona Bowl opponent

The New Mexico State Aggies are in Tucson for the Arizona Bowl.

The Aggies have never lost a bowl game – granted – they’ve only played in three, the last coming in 1960 when they defeated Utah State in the Sun Bowl.

The rematch is being staged at the Arizona Bowl 57 years later as the Aggies were once again matched up against Utah State.

Arizona Stadium is home to the University of Arizona Wildcats, but for now, it’s the site of Friday’s matchup.

Both coaches shared their thoughts Thursday morning. Utah State head coach Matt Wells said he was very impressed with the firepower of the NMSU offense.

Wells said have a lot of respect for the NMSU coaching staff. “Coach Martin and his staff have done a very good job the last five years of getting this team into a bowl game and competitive,” Wells said.

NMSU Head Coach Doug Martin said he was impressed with the entire Utah state program. In fact, Martin said Utah State is almost a prototype for what NMSU hopes to become.

“Utah State is, to me, a program that we really need to try to emulate,” Martin said, ” They’ve been very consistent. What is it? Five out of the last six years in a bowl game, or something like that, to be able to build something like that and be able to sustain it, that is really difficult.”