Rule of Best Fit: Some Aggies Found a Home in the Eye of the Transfer Portal Hurricane

Let’s talk about the Aggies who are starting their fourth or fifth year with New Mexico State University football. These players represent the “secret weapon” aimed at launching the Aggies to another bowl game.

Among fifth-year Aggies are a quarterback, two running backs, a wide receiver and an offensive lineman. They have worked within the system since their freshmen year, and waited in the wings while older, more experienced transfers took the field for the Crimson and Black. In the development of young players, its expected to take a backseat to the more experienced players needed to fill the roster in this new era of NIL (Name, Image and Likeness).

In college football, today, we have to love a great transfer… and the Aggies have their fair share, this year.

Related: Once an Aggie: For the Players and Coaches, the 2025 Football Season Started Yesterday

But here’s the secret to the Aggies success, this year. [For the record, Las Cruces Digest predicts the Aggies will return to a bowl game this year, and maybe even take the Conference USA Championship.] The fourth and fifth year Aggies who stand to take ownership of their home field this season are invisible to the opposing teams scouting the Aggies.

When the whistle blows, and toe meets pigskin, they won’t know anything about the quarterback who backed up Pavia (NMSU tranfer to Vanderbilt), or the running backs who went head-to-head with McGowan (NMSU transfer to Kentucky) and Washington (NMSU transfer to Arkansas). The Aggies who stayed know what top-tier NCAA talent is, and they know what it means to compete with the best to fill those positions.

Related: SEC Kickoff Shines Spotlight on Diego Pavia, Three Recent Portal Transfers and the 2025 NMSU Aggies

And nobody knows about these players except Coach Tony Sanchez… at least for now. Here are the names, numbers and faces of veteran Aggies to be on the lookout for this season: