We did it, boys and girls — we made it through another offseason and now enter year seven of the Norvell era with plenty of questions. Can Duce Robinson improve upon his monster 2025 season? What will the defense look like in year two of the Tony White scheme? How will another offensive line built from the portal look? Will Flo from Progressive break a rock this year? And perhaps most importantly, can everyone make it through another regular season with Norvell at the helm?
Who knows what will happen
this year, but we’ll do our best to bring you an inside glimpse of FSU’s opponent each week with the return of our Line of Scrimmage preview series.
Up first, the Seminoles will line it up with the New Mexico State Aggies for a Week Zero matchup on the mighty CW Network. Move over Vampire Diaries, there’s a new life-draining program on your favorite channel, ACC Football. To help us get to know the Seminoles’ season-opening opponent better, we sat down with Nick Coppola, formerly of The Las Cruces Sun News, now with The Greenville News (more on that later).
New Mexico State head coach Tony Sanchez built an impressive resume at Bishop Gorman High School, winning six straight titles. But in the college ranks, Sanchez had yet to duplicate that success— posting seven losing seasons as a head coach, including the last two with the Aggies. What do you believe has been the biggest challenge for Sanchez as he tries to turn around this program?
Coppola: New Mexico State is just a very hard place to win at. Not a lot of historical success to build a foundation on, not a lot of resources at your disposal and you’re not exactly in a recruiting hotbed. It’s been hard for him to retain players from year to year. He also just hasn’t figured out a winning formula at the college level. Things didn’t go his way at UNLV either, although that was also a hard place to win games at the time. He’s just got a lot of things working against him at NMSU, and several of them aren’t his fault. They are things any coach would have to deal with at NMSU.
The offense will have several new faces for the Aggies. The quarterback position will be helmed by Furman transfer Trey Hedden (2,967 yards, 17 touchdowns). His assumed top target will be an Aggie veteran, senior TK King (41 receptions, 588 yards). The offensive line is expected to start a handful of transfers and Delaware State’s James Jones will complete the backfield. It’s a tall task to expect this offense to fully gel in game one, but how might offensive coordinator David Yost find success?
Coppola: If they can have balance, the answer to this question is yes. In 2 seasons under Sanchez, NMSU hasn’t had a 2-dimensional offense. In 2024, they couldn’t throw the ball. They had one of the nation’s worst passing offenses. In 2025, they couldn’t run the ball. They statistically had the nation’s worst rushing offense. I really like the pieces they added to the run game and I think TK King and Brodie Malone-Bradford are two good receivers to build a group around. Just have to limit the turnovers, which Trey Hedden has struggled at during his career.
In 2025, New Mexico State’s defense was a turnover machine. The Aggies defense ranked 14th in the nation on forced turnovers with 24. The Joe Morris coached 3-3-5 defense recorded a turnover in every game, picking up 15 interceptions and nine fumbles. The defense struggled overall though, allowing over 400 yards a game. Do you expect the defense to take a step forward this year? Or will the loss of key pieces be too much to overcome?
Coppola: Whether the defense takes a step forward depends on the defensive line. I think they’re set at LB with Sone Aupiu and Tory Gethers, two returning starters, and the secondary has some really nice pieces. The DL has to make improvements, especially in the pass rush. NMSU was 11th in Conference USA for sacks last season and the two DEs who will likely start for them, Gabe Peterson and Brad Vislisel, haven’t exactly been sack monsters in their career. Between the two of them, there were only 0.5 sacks last season. DT should be decent. I like what they have in UTSA transfer Kaian Roberts-Day. He’s about 300 but moves and plays like he’s 250. But he’ll have to get used to being a starter. He wasn’t at UTSA. Henry Davis III is also a new starter after spending two years as a backup player. If the DL improves, NMSU’s should have at least a decent defense again.
Finally, how do you see Saturday playing out? And the New Mexico State 2026 season as a whole?
Coppola: Well, I don’t think NMSU is gonna win. Nothing against them, the talent level is just too wide between NMSU and FSU. However, I do think this NMSU team can get 6 wins. They have the pieces, they just gotta put it all together. Hedden has to limit turnovers and the DL has to take a major leap. 4 new OL starters have to figure out how to play with each other. But the pass-catchers are a solid group, James Jones should be a really good RB, Aupiu and Gethers should be one of CUSA’s best LB duos and the secondary goes deep. Tayden Barnes (questionable for Saturday), Josiah Charles and Nick Session are players that know the program, and I really liked what I saw from CB transfers De’Marcus Peters (Texas A&M-Kingsville) and Javon Gillespie (East Texas A&M) during fall camp. Those guys made play after play after play. I think this can be a 6-6 team, and I think they will win 6 games.
Bonus question: Nick is headed to the Clemson beat. Take a moment and tell everyone how to see your upcoming work?
Coppola: I’m stoked about joining the Clemson beat. I’ll be writing about the Tigers for the Greenville News. Perhaps your readers will see me when Clemson rolls into Tallahassee. You can find me on Twitter @Nick_Coppola__ and on Facebook at Nick Coppola, Clemson Sports. I post my work on there. You’ll be able to find my stories on the Greenville News website when I start on September 1st.
