'It was real eye-opening:' Aggies draw largest crowd since 2019 for home opener

LAS CRUCES – The cheers inside Aggie Memorial Stadium were a little bit louder Friday night.

In the most anticipated regular-season contest in four years, and the first game broadcast on a linear ESPN network since New Mexico State played Wyoming in 2018, the palpable buzz that circulated Las Cruces for the last five months manifested into the biggest crowd since 2019. Thousands of Aggie faithful tailgated for hours before NMSU officially ushered in the Jerry Kill era against Nevada Saturday night and steadily filled the stadium once it was opened 90 minutes before kickoff.

Aggie Memorial wasn’t completely full at kickoff, but it was loud enough to give the Aggies an energizing boost as a touchdown underdog. NMSU packed 23,371 fans into its home stadium, 81% of available seating, and eclipsed 20,000 fans at a home game for the first time in three years, even though NMSU dropped its season opener 23-12.

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NMSU did not play in front of fans in the delayed 2020 season due to the pandemic.

“Do I think (the fans) give you a buzz going through Aggie Walk and all of the fans and people in the stands? There’s no doubt. If there’s nobody there, you’re not going to have any emotion,” Kill said. “Them coming out tonight and the job (athletic director) Mario (Moccia) did and the community and all of that stuff, shoot, our kids probably have never seen that – they acted like they’d never seen it before.”

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Kill could hear players buzzing about the electric atmosphere during the short walk from the locker rooms down to the field. He joked he was just trying to get his players to the stadium and keep them from stopping to tailgate during the Aggie Walk, and senior linebacker Chris Ojoh said the energy in the stadium was nothing short of beautiful.

“It was real eye-opening. I thought the whole town of Cruces was down there at the tailgate earlier,” Ojoh said. “It was amazing – good to see little kids, good to see elderly people, just good to see everybody out there. It’s good to see the fans. I just really hope they understand this game doesn’t define us and we’ve got a lot of great things coming in the future.”

The crowd remained energized for as long as it was allowed before fans were asked to clear the stadium due to a 35-minute lightning delay, but it helped the Aggies hold its ground against a team it was originally a two-possession underdog against. NMSU out-gained Nevada 94 yards to nine in the first quarter but failed to come away with points thanks to a missed field goal and an interception in the endzone.

But the 15,000-plus fans who promptly returned to their seats after the lightning delay re-energized the stadium, and Ojoh said the atmosphere didn’t lose any of its electricity. A raucous crowd helped force Nevada into a bad snap over the quarterback’s head and into the endzone for a safety to give the Aggies their first and only lead of the game, and Nevada didn’t establish an offensive rhythm until midway through the second quarter.

Most of the student section was full at kickoff, and most students remained after the lightning delay. Some of the crowd thinned out during halftime, but those that stayed watched freshman quarterback Gavin Frakes attempt to lead his team back from a 17-2 halftime deficit with 10 points on scoring drives in the second half, even though it ultimately wasn’t enough to overcome the Aggies’ five first-half turnovers.

But that didn’t seem to matter to the thousands of NMSU fans determined to give the underdog Aggies a home-field advantage against a team it hadn’t defeated since 2008. And Kill said the Aggies will keep fighting to build a football program that represents the fans well.

“It’s going to take a village (to build up NMSU football),” Kill said. “It’s gonna take a village to get it turned around, and we’ve got a good village if they stay with us, and I know they will. There’s good people here. That’s why I’m here. I just want to make sure we get a football team that represents them. My life has been great, but my only goal here is to see them smile and see our kids smile. …But we’ll smile. You’ve just got to take it day by day.”

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: NM State Aggies draw largest crowd since 2019 for home opener against Nevada