The 2016 New Mexico State Aggies football team represented New Mexico State University as a member of the Sun Belt Conference during the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Led by fourth-year head coach Doug Martin, the Aggies compiled an overall record of 3âÂÂ9 with a mark of 2âÂÂ6 in conference play, placing in a three-way tie for eighth in the Sun Belt. New Mexico State played home games at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Tyler Rogers was the team's starting quarterback.
New Mexico State had a coaching shake up prior to the season, when Martin hired defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani, whom Martin served as offensive coordinator for at Boston College in 2012. Spaziani replaced Zane Vance who served as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2015. Vance was retained and promoted to Assistant Head Coach, Defensive Ends coach and Special Teams Coordinator.
New Mexico State's recruiting class consisted of 23 recruits. New Mexico State's recruiting class was ranked 114th by Scout, 129th by 247Sports.com, not rated by Rivals and not rated by ESPN.
New Mexico State Aggies announced its 2016 football schedule on March 3, 2016. The 2016 schedule consists of 5 home and 7 away games in the regular season. The Aggies will host Sun Belt foes Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, LouisianaâÂÂLafayette, and Texas State, and will travel to Arkansas State, Idaho, South Alabama, and Troy. New Mexico State will skip out on two Sun Belt teams this season, Georgia State and LouisianaâÂÂMonroe.
The team will play four nonâÂÂconference games, one home game against New Mexico from the Mountain West Conference, and will travel to three road games against UTEP from Conference USA (CâÂÂUSA), and Kentucky and Texas A&M both from the Southeastern Conference (SEC).