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FACTS & STATS: Site: TCF Bank Stadium (50,805) -- Minneapolis, Minnesota. Television: Big Ten Network. Home Record: NMSU 0-1, Minnesota 0-0. Away Record: NMSU 0-0, Minnesota 0-1. Neutral Record: NMSU 0-0, Minnesota 0-0. Conference Record: NMSU 0-0, Minnesota 0-0. Series Record: First-ever meeting.

GAME NOTES: A battle between a couple of teams seeking their first wins of the season takes place at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis this weekend, as the Minnesota Golden Gophers entertain the New Mexico State Aggies in non- conference action.

The Aggies, who hail from the Western Athletic Conference, won a total of just two games a season ago and dropped four in a row to close out the 2010 campaign. Last Saturday, the team watched its losing streak reach five straight following a 44-24 against Ohio University at home in Las Cruces. The meeting with the Bobcats was the first-ever between the two program and the same goes for the Aggies and Golden Gophers for this week as well.

Minnesota, a mere 3-9 last season while enduring a lengthy nine-game skid, actually won the final two games of the campaign over Illinois and Iowa which means the Gophers were trying to make it three in a row last weekend when they matched up with USC in California. Unfortunately, even though the Trojans are dealing with their own unique issues right about now, they still figured out a way to bring home the narrow 19-17 win and halt Minnesota's brief win streak while handing Jerry Kill his first loss as the new head coach of the Golden Gophers.

Sophomore signal-caller Andrew Manley threw for a career-high 362 yards last weekend against the Ohio Bobcats in front of a favorable crowd, but still his efforts left the Aggies wanting more in their 20-point setback. Manley converted 22-of-41 passes, leading to a pair of touchdowns and an interception, the bigger problem for the Aggies being a lackluster rushing attack that logged a mere six yards on 23 attempts. While it doesn't fall under the category of offense per say, kick returner Taveon Rogers made a name for himself in the meeting as he returned a kick 97 yards for a touchdown to give NMSU a little spark. Rogers finished with 177 yards on four kickoff returns and tallied 259 all-purpose yards while being named the Western Athletic Conference Special Teams Player of the Week. If nothing else, the scoring output for the Aggies was a step in the right direction, given that the team ranked 117th in the country last season with a mere 15.7 ppg.

The New Mexico State defense was attacked from all sides by the Bobcats as the visitors rolled up 241 yards on the ground and another 211 yards through the air in the opener. Outside of holding the Bobcats scoreless in the final quarter, once the outcome had been decided, the NMSU defense got progressively worse as it allowed a touchdown in the first frame, 16 points in the second and three TDs in the third period. Safety Donyae Coleman was the lone bright spot for the Aggies as he picked up where he left off in 2010 by recording a team-best 14 stops against Ohio University, adding his first career interception and first career fumble recovery, but even all of that wasn't enough to draw his team within 20 points at the final gun. In 2010 Coleman led the Aggies in total stops with 92 and had three games with double-digit stops, but that's not something you want out of a player in the secondary because it means the guys in front of him aren't doing their job well enough.

Minnesota entered the meeting with the Trojans over the weekend having won only one of the previous seven affairs between them, so earning a victory didn't appear to be in the cards this time around either. In fact, the Gophers have now gone without a win in the series since 1955 when they scored a six- point triumph (25-19). From an offensive standpoint, the Gophers averaged five yards per snap, but got off just 60 plays. Perhaps most concerning was the team's inability to dictate most of the action in the second half when they had control of the ball just nine and a half minutes. Quarterbacks Max Shortell and Marqueis Gray combined to hit 14-of-26 passes for 192 yards and a score, but the latter was sacked three times and that dropped the team's rushing output down to just 110 yards. Gray was second in rushing with 47 yards, trailing only Duane Bennett who gained a modest 53 yards and scored once on 15 carries. Minnesota wasn't much of a running team last year either, the squad coming up with just 135.3 ypg to rank 10th in the Big Ten Conference and 86th nationally.

It was clear that the Trojans were going to attack Minnesota through the air and still the Gophers could do nothing about it. USC quarterback Matt Barkley converted 34-of-45 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns, rarely dealing with any measure of Minnesota pressure in the backfield. The inability of the Gophers to get hits on the quarterback is nothing new however, the team failing to record a single sack in six of their games last season. In fact, Minnesota is so weak in its attack at the line of scrimmage that it ranked last in the nation a year ago with an average of only 0.67 sacks per contest. The pass efficiency defense was 113th in the country in 2010, putting up a rating of 154.16 so there doesn't appear to be any improvement yet in that department either. On a positive note, Minnesota did come away with nine stops overall behind the line of scrimmage, so at least that's a step in the right direction.

As weak as the Minnesota passing defense might be, the squad should still get more than its share of chances to take down Manley and stymie the Aggies in every way possible this weekend.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Minnesota 28, New Mexico State 14