By JEFF NATIONS / jeff.nations@bgdailynews.com

Western Kentucky football coach Tyson Helton doesn’t need to consult his calendar to confirm the day of the week anymore this season.

With the end of October’s mid-week football games in Conference USA, the Tops head into a traditional Saturday game for the first time in a month when WKU takes on New Mexico State at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Game time is 5 p.m. CT, with ESPN+ set to broadcast.

Helton is happy for the renewed sense of normalcy, but he’s always been a fan of the televised mid-week matchups since league instituted them last season. Considering that WKU (6-2 overall, 4-0 CUSA) just went 3-0 over that stretch only provides positive reinforcement for the Tops’ sixth-year head coach.

“It’s nice to be back to the normal schedule, but I’ll be honest with you – October was great, too,” Helton said. “The weekday games were great exposure, we did get some days off in between that helped us. I feel like at this time of year, every team’s banged up. For this time of year, I think we’re as healthy as we can be. But it’s nice to get back to that normal routine – you know what day it is again.”

The Tops and Aggies are both coming off a 10-day break since last playing on Oct. 30, with Saturday’s matchup serving as homecoming for the hosts.

While WKU has soared to the top of the CUSA standings this season, New Mexico State (2-6, 1-4 CUSA) has struggled under first-year head coach Tony Sanchez. The departure of former head coach Jerry Kill, who led the program to the CUSA championship game last season, prompted massive roster turnover for the team this season.

New Mexico State did win its last time at home with a 33-30 double-overtime decision against Louisiana Tech, but dropped a 34-13 decision at Florida International its last time out after getting within 20-13 in the fourth quarter before allowing back-to-back touchdowns.

“You fight your tail off, you’re right there in the fourth quarter where you want to be and then we just watch it kind of disappear,” Sanchez said. “It’s happened to us a couple times.

“ … We’ve kind of been in these situations where we’ve done well, then we just have those three- or four-minute moments where we just kind of watch it unravel.”

The Aggies, who have used four different quarterbacks this season, rank seventh in scoring with 19.6 points per game. Brandon Nunez, who rallied the team to the win against Louisiana Tech, got his first start but could not replicate that success with a dismal 5-of-15 passing day for 12 yards in the loss to FIU. Sanchez said either Nunez or Santino Marucci could get the start Saturday, with both likely to see time.

None of New Mexico State’s current crop of quarterbacks have approached the play of last year’s starter, Diego Pavia, who led the team to a 38-29 win against WKU at Houchens-Smith Stadium a season ago. Pavia is one of the many who transferred out and is the starting quarterback at Vanderbilt who led the Commodores to a huge upset win against then No. 1-ranked Alabama this season.

“No matter who’s playing, they do what they do,” Helton said. “There’s a new wrinkle here and there for every game and we have to adjust to those things. But they’ve got a couple big running backs that run extremely hard. I’ve been very impressed with those guys, so we’re going to have to do a great job of stopping the run game.”

The Tops have been rolling in all phases. In the Oct. 30 home win against Kennesaw State, redshirt sophomore quarterback Caden Veltkamp threw for 276 yards and three touchdowns, running back Elijah Young ran for 114 yards and WKU piled up 462 yards of total offense.

“I thought we had good balance,” WKU offensive coordinator Will Friend said. “I thought we played well up front. I thought our runners ran really hard. I thought our quarterback was accurate and made some really good throws. We went into the game and we wanted to be the most physical team and we wanted to start fast and I thought the guys did that. We were able to make some explosive plays because of some of the things we were able to do in the run game. Those were all big pluses.”

Since a season-opening 63-0 blowout loss at Alabama, WKU has been remarkably consistent on defense by allowing 21 points or less in seven consecutive games – the Tops are 6-1 in those contests.

“We’re trying to play to a high standard and we’ve got a high standard of people in the room,” WKU defensive coordinator Tyson Summers said. “Like I’ve said all year, we’ve got amazing young men. It’s the most fun I’ve had coaching in a long, long time. We’ve got a great staff on defense. I think the culture and the characteristics of the people that are in there kind of show. The beauty of football, though, is nobody cares what you did last week. It’s only what you’ve got coming next.

“We’ve just talked a lot about being able to hold ourselves to a high standard, whether that’s each rep, whether that’s each meeting, each practice, and then we’re trying to do that from game to game. Incredible group of young men and we’re trying to kind of still strive for that high standard.”

LONG TIME, NO SEE

Saturday’s game is a chance for Helton to reconnect with one of his former players at WKU who now works for the opposing coaching staff.

New Mexico State tight ends/special teams coordinator Nelson Fishback, a former WKU quarterback from 2013-15, spent two seasons working closely with Helton during his time as Tops’ offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach (2014-15) under then-head coach Jeff Brohm. Fishback appeared in 11 games during his WKU career, including a start against Troy in 2013. Primarily a backup, Fishback finished with 20 career completions for 244 yards and a touchdown, plus had a rushing touchdown for the Tops.

Fishback got his coaching career started at WKU as a graduate assistant in 2016 and spent two seasons on staff before later stops at Louisville, Snow College (Utah), Missouri State and now New Mexico State.

“He’s a really young, talented coach who’s done well, so it’s going to be good to see him,” Helton said. “He’s already been at a couple places and got to experience some things. I enjoyed coaching him while I was here, so it’ll be great to hug his neck and say hello when we play.”