• The KillerFrogs

KTSM: Going in for the Kill: newest New Mexico State football coach Jerry Kill arrives in Las Cruces

McFroggin

Active Member
Do not understand why people belittle others, such as making fun of NMS.

Be happy for them, not degrade what they have. TCU fans should be better than
insults and petty comments.

You should understand what NMSU is. It is a university run at the difficulty of a cheap community college with faculty that want a “retirement gig”. You don’t go to Las Cruces to work hard. Students have low attendance, and faculty are pushed to not allow majority failures as it decreases enrollment/tuition. The end result is many classes offer enough extra credit to pass while failing essentially everything. Football has no support and no funding. They held a fundraiser asking fans to donate trail mix and packaged peanut butter sandwiches. They otherwise couldn’t feed their athletes. I can only see this as a job to transition into retirement. They don’t expect Kill to win. Literally keeping the doors open will be a challenge.

This is one of the worst jobs in college football.
 
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Wexahu

Full Member
You should understand what NMSU is. It is a university run at the difficulty of a cheap community college with faculty that want a “retirement gig”. You don’t go to Las Cruces to work hard. Students have low attendance, and faculty are pushed to not allow majority failures as it decreases enrollment/tuition. The end result is many classes offer enough extra credit to pass while failing essentially everything. Football has no support and no funding. They held a fundraiser asking fans to donate trail mix and packaged peanut butter sandwiches. They otherwise couldn’t feed their athletes. I can only see this as a job to transition into retirement. They don’t expect Kill to win. Literally keeping the doors open will be a challenge.
A little harsh maybe.

It is what it is, but relative to the budget and enrollment, I don't think it's any "poorer" than a whole bunch of non-flagship, largish state schools. It's just an impossible place to be successful in sports because of it's location about 500 miles from any decent talent whatsoever.
 

Frozen Frog

Active Member
It may be a retirement job for Kill, but I am glad to see him having some success. His health was a major issue throughout his career, and probably hurt his ability to find a job. When he arrived at MN that was probably the worst P5 job around, and he made it respectable. I am happy for Coach Kill, and I hope he has great success.
 

McFroggin

Active Member
A little harsh maybe.

It is what it is, but relative to the budget and enrollment, I don't think it's any "poorer" than a whole bunch of non-flagship, largish state schools. It's just an impossible place to be successful in sports because of it's location about 500 miles from any decent talent whatsoever.

All true.

In 2015, they almost lost football due to not meeting NCAA football game attendance minimums. Tickets prices were reduced to $10 and a single company bought 19,000 tickets as a “donation” to keep football. Without that 1 donation, they would have dropped a division or lost football - from attendance.

Only high school or college games that I’ve attended where in-seat attendance can be under 500
 

cheese83

Full Member
You should understand what NMSU is. It is a university run at the difficulty of a cheap community college with faculty that want a “retirement gig”. You don’t go to Las Cruces to work hard. Students have low attendance, and faculty are pushed to not allow majority failures as it decreases enrollment/tuition. The end result is many classes offer enough extra credit to pass while failing essentially everything. Football has no support and no funding. They held a fundraiser asking fans to donate trail mix and packaged peanut butter sandwiches. They otherwise couldn’t feed their athletes. I can only see this as a job to transition into retirement. They don’t expect Kill to win. Literally keeping the doors open will be a challenge.

This is one of the worst jobs in college football.

They really had to make peanut butter sandwiches and trail mix to feed the kids?? That’s insane if true.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
A little harsh maybe.

It is what it is, but relative to the budget and enrollment, I don't think it's any "poorer" than a whole bunch of non-flagship, largish state schools. It's just an impossible place to be successful in sports because of it's location about 500 miles from any decent talent whatsoever.

I know this is historically true (I grew up watching the best El Paso teams get thumped in the playoffs by Permian and Lee), but I'm not sure why it has to continue to be. It's a long way from everywhere, but the El Paso-Las Cruces CSA has more than a million people, and if you consider Juárez, it's 2.7 million, which makes it comparable to Baltimore and St. Louis. NMSU is among the few schools with a program that allows Mexican citizens to enroll at 1.5 the in-state tuition rate.

There isn't the money or mindset there for families to invest in high-level skill development, but kids there love football (not just fútbol) and if UTEP and NMSU could find resources to invest in developmental programs, I don't see how, over time, they couldn't regularly populate a pair of 85-player rosters with pretty good local talent, augmented by working the portal for kids from TX, AZ and CA.

I think Kill is a terrific hire for them. Low stress, supportive community, and his past performance suggests he'll field a team that doesn't beat itself, which clears the very low expectation bar of admin and boosters.
 
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