Samuel and Aggies face must-win season
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Associated Press
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) _ Over the last 35 years, New Mexico State has had just four winning seasons, two of them under current coach Tony Samuel.
The Aggies' 11 conference wins the past three seasons are the most for the school since an 11-win run from 1936-38. Two years ago NMSU finished 7-5 _ the most wins in a season since 1967 _ and just missed winning the Sun Belt Conference title.
Samuel, says his boss, does a good job of managing his budget, makes sure his athletes go to class and interacts well with the Las Cruces community and high school coaches throughout New Mexico.
So why is his job on the line?
``Clearly, we're at a point where we need the program to take another step,'' said NMSU athletics director Brian Faison. ``I think after six or seven years, you have to step back and take a hard look at where we are and where we want to be.''
Where the Aggies want to be is in a bowl game, something that hasn't happened since 1960. Only a Sun Belt Conference title will end that four-decades-long-and-counting drought and Samuel knows it may be what it'll take to save his job.
``That's what we came here to do,'' he said. ``That's the nature of this business. If you don't do well, you're probably not going to be here.''
The Aggies, who open the season with back-to-back road games at Arkansas on Sept. 4 and California the following week, have made steady, though not spectacular progress in Samuel's seven seasons in Las Cruces. Gone are the days when they averaged one win a season, as they did from 1985 to 1990. Samuel's 29 wins are the third most in school history.
``This program versus where it was ... is markedly different,'' said Faison. ``You've got better student athletes. The teams are competitive. Even last year, when they were 3-9, in six of those games they were ahead at halftime. They were right there.''
Samuel, a former assistant at Nebraska and one of only five black head coaches among 117 Division I-A schools, refuses to get involved in discussions about his future at NMSU.
``That's not something I want to concern myself with,'' he said. ``I have to concern myself with trying to win a damn bowl game. I let everybody else worry about all the other stuff.''
Samuel and the 2002 team lifted expectations so much that Faison and Aggie fans expected last season to be a breakout year. Instead NMSU lost six of its first seven games, including a season-crushing 35-31 loss to Idaho in a game the Aggies led 21-0 at halftime.
Five of the nine losses were by seven points or less.
``We have to see progress,'' said Faison. ``Last year we didn't see the progress we expected.''
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