During a beach outing, then-5-year-old Terry Potter Hedden III — now "Trey" to NMSU teammates and fans — picked up a football and threw a perfect spiral to his stepmom. It was then Hedden was destined to be a quarterback with a supportive blended family. His parents and stepparents "made sure I made every tryout. They took me to camps. They helped me meet the coaches I wanted to learn from." And they attended every game, including during his two years at Furman and this season with the Aggies. After a 10-percentage-point jump in accuracy from his freshman season, Hedden entered the portal to "raise the ceiling a little bit" in pursuit of future pro opportunities. NMSU head coach Tony Sanchez's spread attack offered protection (312 pounds an O-lineman) and speedy targets. Slot receiver TK King has been GPS-clocked at nearly 23 mph and laser-timed at 20.74 seconds over 200 meters. "The biggest thing for me is I've got to remember that on game day, he's a little bit faster than he is in practice," Hedden said of King. "When he's running a route, you can throw it out there and he'll turn it on. We talk about it in the meeting room. Go make him run 100 meters to catch the ball." King's average target depth is 21 yards. He has catch-and-dashes of 46, 42 and 34 yards. The Aggies have sets of four and five receivers or up to two tight ends. Running back James Jones has no fumbles or negative-yard rushes in 30 carries. Jones also is an effective blocker who can roll into the flats. Hedden is 80% accurate on screens, hitches and check-down throws. "The quarterback in this offense is really a distributor," Hedden said. "We really focus on the things we're good at, and we repeat those things, and find new ways to do those things every week. It's really been a lot of fun to play in this offense with these coaches."
The Aggies' base is chaos, with shifts, movements and glove-to-glove combat in the trenches and running lanes. "When things get so cranky, like how many blitzes and stunts, it looks like Star Wars to us," weakside linebacker Sone Aupiu said. His first two NMSU seasons, Aupiu played middle linebacker. He moved to will linebacker last year but still trains at all second-tier positions, including jack, the stand-up edge defender. Helped by playing on the narrow side of the formation, Aupiu has freedom to jump lanes. "When it comes to gap schemes, that's what I love," he said. "Coming my way to the boundary, I'm looking to hit 'em." His father grew up in Samoa, his mother in New Zealand, where rugby was the favored sport. He said he aspires to play professional rugby. But for now, Aupiu said, "I chose a different route, which was football. Everybody else on my mom's side chose rugby." Aupiu received a few college offers. But after an official visit to Las Cruces, he decided to be an Aggie. He said he had to adjust to the culture change from Long Beach, Calif., such as green chili served with everything. And to fatherhood — he and his wife have a 3-yea