New Mexico Bowl: How to watch and 10 things to know

The Isleta New Mexico Bowl will feature New Mexico State (10-4) vs. Fresno State (8-4). Kickoff is 3:45 p.m. Mountain Time at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Watch the game on ESPN.

Line: The Aggies are 3.5-point favorites and the over-under is set at 51 points.

Before the game: A Fan Fest will be held around University Stadium starting at 12:45 p.m.

Weather: After a week of wet and windy conditions around Albuquerque, The Weather Channel is forecasting a temperature of 51 degrees under partly cloudy skies with low winds at kickoff. No precipitation is expected as temperatures dip back into the low 40s by the time the game is set to conclude.

Here are 10 more things to know about the teams, players and game.

Aggies are bowl perfect

New Mexico State has never lost a bowl game. The team is 4-0-1 all-time, including last season's 24-19 win over Bowling Green in the 2022 Quick Lane Bowl.

This year's Aggie squad is one of the best. NMSU has double-digit wins for the first time since 1960, defeated an SEC team for the first time ever (a 31-10 win at Auburn that came with a $1.85 million payday for the Aggies), and made it to the Conference USA championship in its first year in the league (Liberty won a 49-35 shootout). Before that loss, the Aggies were on an eight-game winning streak.

The 1960 NMSU team went 11-0 and won the Sun Bowl. Read about an Aggie who played in that game and a fan who attended and later wrote a book about it.

Fresno State dominant in series matchup

The Bulldogs are 18-1 all-time over the Aggies. Fresno State won the first 17 matchups between the teams (first game in 1972), until NMSU finally won 48-45 in Las Cruces in 2011. Fresno State won the most recent matchup, 30-17 in Las Cruces in 2019.

This is the first time these teams will have played against one another in a bowl game.

New Mexico Bowl attendance record?

This is the first time New Mexico State has played in the New Mexico Bowl. NMSU is located in Las Cruces, about three-and-a-half hours south of Albuquerque.

Executive Director Jeff Siembieda has overseen every New Mexico Bowl since its inception in 2006 and told the Journal that general interest in this year’s bowl — the first to feature an in-state team since 2016 — is “certainly” up.

Per Siembieda, nearly 21,000 tickets had been sold as of Tuesday morning; for comparison, last year’s New Mexico Bowl, a 24-23 BYU win against SMU on Dec. 17, 2022, had a listed attendance of 22,209.

Siembieda has not provided an updated attendance figure.

These are the five most attended New Mexico Bowls:

• 2006 | San Jose State 20, New Mexico 12 | 34,111
• 2010 | BYU 52, UTEP 24 | 32,424
• 2015 | Arizona 45, New Mexico 37 | 30,289
• 2007 | New Mexico 23, Nevada 0 | 30,223
• 2016 | New Mexico 23, UTSA 20 | 29,688

Aggie coach best dressed?

Jerry Kill, in his second year as NMSU's head coach, has garnered attention for the serape ponchos he sometimes wears before and after games. He's worn variations of the serape poncho. He wore a red-and-white one at Friday's press conference.

“Everybody always says, ‘hey coach, why you wear a poncho all the time?’” Kill said. “Well, I don’t wear it all the time — I gotta guy who started it, put it on my desk and said you’d never wear it. Ever since then, he just keeps making me ponchos, okay?

“But you wanna know something — hey, this is our culture,” he said. “I don’t care who you are, where you’re at, if you’re a Lobo, if you’re an Aggie. This is our culture. This is who we are.”

Read more from Kill about what this game means to the state of New Mexico.

Interim coach for Bulldogs

On the other sideline will be Tim Skipper, who is Fresno State's linebackers coach and assistant head coach. He'll be filling in as head coach for Jeff Tedford who has been out since Dec. 1 due to an undisclosed health issue.

Skipper has been an interim head coach once before in his career, taking over from Jim McElwain (who had to have is appendix removed) in Central Michigan's 2021 season opener. The Chippewas lost that game to Missouri, 34-24.

Skipper is back as interim, but “had a little bit more time (to prepare) for this one,” he said at a press conference Friday.

Read more from Skipper about how he expects his team to play.

Diego Pavia and Tre Watson homecomings

New Mexico State starting quarterback Diego Pavia was a standout football player and state champion wrestler for Volcano Vista High School in Albuquerque.

UNM, his hometown team, offered him a spot as a walk-on. Instead, Pavia went to New Mexico Military Institute after high school and led the team to a national junior college championship.

He then landed at NMSU, where he shared quarterbacking duties during the 2022 regular season and ultimately led the Aggies to a bowl victory as the starter.

In 2023, Pavia threw for 2,915 yards, 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions while leading the Aggies in rushing with 851 yards and six touchdowns; and was named CUSA Offensive Player of the year.

With a win Saturday, Pavia would be 2-0 in bowl games and 2-0 in Albuquerque this year, after leading the Aggies to a 27-17 victory on Sept. 16.

He talked about his homecoming earlier this week.

Fresno State tight end Tre Watson is also coming home this weekend.

Watson was a star at Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho, a suburb of Albuquerque. Some of Watson's family were in attendance at a Friday pep rally in Albuquerque's Old Town.

Navajo broadcast

This year's New Mexico Bowl can be heard on the radio in one of three languages: English, Spanish or Navajo.

NMSU's starting left tackle Shiyazh Pete, originally from Shiprock on the Navajo Nation, represents a small group of American Indians playing Division I FBS football.

NMSU’s annual rivalry football game against UNM has also been broadcast in Navajo.

Don't leave home without it: Air fryer

On Tuesday, a picture making the rounds on social media showed Fresno State linebacker Malachi Langley walking on the tarmac of Cutter Aviation in Albuquerque holding of all things, an air fryer. According to the other half of the Bulldogs’ linebacking tandem, Levelle Bailey, this wasn’t the first time Langley left Fresno with his air fryer.

Nor was Bailey particularly thrilled.

“I saw the air fryer on the plane and immediately switched my seat,” Bailey said with a chuckle in a press conference on Friday. “Malachi, a guy like that, he keeps his nutrition a top priority. He actually brought the air fryer (to) the last bowl game.

“We kinda didn’t know if he was gonna do it (this year), but he did — had it buckled in the middle of the seat. And (I) had to switch seats with somebody.”

Mayors' bet

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller will be doing the coin toss to determine possession before the New Mexico Bowl kicks off Saturday. Then, he'll be rooting for New Mexico State to beat Fresno State.

That's because Keller and Fresno (Calif.) Mayor Jerry Dyer made a friendly wager on the outcome of the game. Here's what is at stake in the bet.

New Mexico State is based in Las Cruces, not Albuquerque. So what does Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima have to say?

"That's cool about Mayor Tim backing NMSU! I am not part of (the wager), but obviously rooting for NMSU," he stated in a text message to the Journal. Miyagishima confirmed he will be attending the New Mexico Bowl.

Who has the advantage?

Here's a position by position breakdown of who has the edge in the Isleta New Mexico Bowl by Journal staff writer Sean Reider.

Follow Sean's coverage of the game on X: @lenaweereider.