FACTS & STATS: Site: Aggie Memorial Stadium (30,343) -- Las Cruces, New Mexico. Television: None. Home Record: UNM 1-2, NMSU 0-0. Away Record: UNM 0-1, NMSU 1-1. Neutral Record: UNM 0-0, NMSU 0-0. Conference Record: UNM 0-1, NMSU 0-0. Series Record: New Mexico leads, 65-28-5.

GAME NOTES: As part of the Rio Grande Rivalry, the New Mexico Lobos and the New Mexico State Aggies meet for the 99th time this weekend in non-conference action in Las Cruces. It is bad enough that the Lobos have just one win in four tries so far this season, but now the squad has to face the reality of losing its starting quarterback to a season-ending knee injury. UNM began the 2008 campaign with high hopes and three straight games at home in Albuquerque, but the unit lost to both TCU and Texas A&M before bouncing back versus Arizona in a 36-28 decision. Unfortunately, the Lobos were crushed in their first trip of the campaign as Tulsa squashed the group in a 56-14 decision last weekend. As for the Aggies, they've played just two games thus far because of an early bye and a cancellation due to weather concerns. At home for the first of back-to-back contests, the second being a newly-scheduled date with Alcorn State on October 4th, the Aggies rebounded from their season- opening loss to Nebraska in Lincoln (38-7) by slipping past UTEP in a 34-33 decision last Saturday. The win in El Paso against the Miners was the first since 1994 for New Mexico State. UNM took last year's meeting with NMSU by a score of 44-34, which boosted the team's mark in the series to 65-28-5.

Rodney Ferguson produced his third straight 100-yard rushing effort, but by no means was that nearly enough for the Lobos to fend off a 42-point loss against Tulsa. Ferguson, who finished with 122 yards and a touchdown wasn't even the main topic of conversation for the UNM offense because quarterback Donovan Porterie went down with a knee injury and is now lost for the season with a torn ACL and MCL. As a result, in steps Brad Gruner who converted 7-of-12 passes for 98 yards and a score, but was also picked off three times. Gruner, a native of Arizona, is no stranger to injury himself as the freshman missed almost all of his junior season of high school following a torn ACL on just the fifth play of the season. Which such an unproven commodity now handling the calls on offense, you can be sure that head coach Rocky Long will be asking Ferguson to shoulder even more of the load for the program. With his 118.5 ypg on the ground thus far Ferguson, who needs just 67 yards this weekend to eclipse the 3,000 yard mark for his career, is tops in the MWC and 11th in the nation.

If the offense thought it was having a rough time on Saturday, who knows what the UNM defense was thinking as it surrendered 49 points in the first 50 minutes of the contest. The Golden Hurricane completely dominated the visitors in every aspect of the game, producing not only 469 passing yards but coming away with better than 600 yards of total offense. Even more impressive was the fact that Tulsa converted all but one of 15 chances on third down. Trying to keep the score somewhat respectable was Glover Quin who logged a pair of interceptions in the losing effort. Over the course of four games the Lobos have looked dreadful defensively in the first quarter, surrendering a total of 58 points, which is just 17 points fewer than UNM has scored itself overall this season. The one bright spot for the group is Quin who already has three INTs this season and is credited with the only fumble return for the Lobos as well. If not for Quin, there's no telling how bad the scoring defense would be, with the unit currently giving up 34.5 ppg to rank ninth in the MWC and 103rd in the nation.

The New Mexico State offense was quiet for the first quarter against the Miners but then came alive in the second frame, en route to the narrow one- point win on the road. Quarterback Chase Holbrook converted 29-of-39 passes for 329 yards and five touchdowns, while working through a pair of picks and three sacks. Marcus Anderson was the receiver of the day for the Aggies as he took three of his five catches into the end zone. Chris Williams stepped up with seven balls for a game-high 119 yards, his total more than three times the program's running efforts of just 37 yards. Needless to say, the rushing offense for the Aggies is again a weak point for the team with an average of only 75.5 ypg. Not only does that number push the team to the end of the line in the Western Athletic Conference, it is also 113th in the nation. Once again the focus falls on Holbrook who finished last season with close to 3,900 yards and 26 touchdowns. A year earlier the gunslinger posted an incredible 4,619 yards passing and 34 TDs so he's always a threat to break out and have a huge game against weaker competition.

While the passing attack of Holbrook and the Aggies accounted for all the scoring on one side of the field, the Miners turned to as many as three quarterbacks in order to hit just 11-of-26 for 95 yards. Clearly it was the running game of UTEP that kept the home team in the hunt and vexed the NMSU defense. The Miners came up with a healthy 277 yards on 48 attempts, which means the Aggies allowed close to six yards per carry. Derrick Richardson did all he could to stem the tide with an incredible 21 tackles, while also collecting one fumble recovery. Not only was his tackles total a career high, it also marked the most stops for any player in the NCAA so far this season. Because of the effort, Richardson is now averaging a stunning 19 tackles per game in 2008, which is easily the top number in the Football Bowl Subdivision heading into this week of play. Unfortunately, it seems that no matter how much Richardson does for the Aggies there's no getting around the fact that the unit is last in the FBS in run defense with an incredible 303.5 ypg allowed.

With Gruner getting the call for the Lobos, expect NMSU head coach Hal Mumme to bring the heat as much as possible in order to give the Aggies a much- needed victory.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: New Mexico State 42, New Mexico 20

Saturday, September 27th, 8:00 p.m. (et).