Las Vegas, New Mexico - After an off week, the New Mexico Highlands Cowboys open Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play as they host South Dakota Mines on Homecoming Saturday. Kick-off at Sanchez Family Stadium is at 1:00 pm.
The Cowboys are 2-0 on the season after beating Eastern New Mexico 44-28 in Portales to open the season and claiming a La Batalla Bowl win over Western New Mexico 69-55 in their home opener two weeks ago. South Dakota Mines is 0-3 overall and 0-1 in RMAC play with losses to nationally ranked CSU-Pueblo (43-0), Michigan Tech (45-9), and Upper Iowa (58-14).
COACH KURT TAUFA'ASAU: 2025 marks the second season at the helm for Coach Taufa'asau at the helm of the NMHU football program after being named head coach on May 29, 2024. Taufa'asau earned his first career win at NMHU when he led the Cowboys to a thrilling 33-30 win on October 12th of last season in front of raucous Home Coming Crowd in historic Las Vegas. NMHU scored two touchdowns in the last 6:54 of that game to earn the win. Prior to coming to New Mexico Highlands Taufa'asau was the head coach at New Mexico Military Institute where led the Broncos to the 2021 NJCAA Division I National Championship. 2025
RMAC PRESEASON POLL: New Mexico Highlands University, 2-9 overall and 2-7 in the RMAC a year ago, was picked to finish tied for 7th, with Chadron State, in the poll with 31 points in voting by the ten conference football coaches. The Hardrockers were tabbed for a fifth place finish in the Preseason Poll.
Sophomore running back
Tevita Valeti, the 2024 Freshman Offensive Player of the year in the RMAC, was named to the Preseason All-RMAC Team. Valeti finished second among all RMAC backs last season with 880 rushing yards on a league-high 166 carries and eight touchdowns.
LAST TIME OUT: The Cowboys jumped out to a big lead early and then out slugged Western New Mexico for a 69-55 win in the 2025 La Batalla Bowl at Sanchez Family Stadium on September 7th. The Cowboys led 28-7 after the opening quarter and then scored the final two touchdowns of the game to seal the victory. Tavita Valeti scored on a 15 yard run with 5:24 remaining in the game to put the Cowboys up 62-55 and then
Jeffery Jones sealed the win with his 52 yard run with 1:45 to go. As a team, the Cowboys rushed for 537 yards on 45 carries (11.9/carry) and seven touchdowns.
NEW MEXICO!: For the first time since the 2012 season, the Cowboys defeated Western New Mexico and Eastern New Mexico in the same season.
Once again this season Coach Taufa'asau and his staff diligently recruited their home state as the 2025 New Mexico Highlands football roster features 45 players who played high school football in the state of New Mexico.
SCOUTING THE HARDROCKERS: South Dakota Mines brings a record of 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the RMAC to historic Las Vegas for Saturday's game. Charlie Flohr is in his sixth season as the Hardrockers head coach where he has a career record of 26-25. The Hardrockers topped the Cowboys a year ago 40-19 in Rapid City in the opening game of the 2024 RMAC Campaign. AThe two teams went back and forth during the first 30 minutes with South Dakota Mines leading 20-19 at the halftime break. 20 unanswered second half points from the Hardrockers was the difference in the contest.
HARDROCKER/COWBOYS SERIES NOTES:
South Dakota Mines leads the series 7-1
Last Hardrocker win September 21st, 2024, 40-19 in Rapid City
Last Cowboys win October 20, 2018 53-52 in Las Vegas
South Dakota Mines won the first game in the series 44-17 in Las Vegas on October 8, 2016.
HOMECOMING: Saturday is Homecoming 2025 at New Mexico Highlands and for the third time in the last ten seasons, South Dakota Mines is the opponent.
Last 10 Homecoming Games:
2024 Beat Chadron State 33-30
2023 Lost to Adams State 21-14
2022 Beat Fort Lewis 27-3
2021 Lost to Chadron State 46-16
2019 Lost to Dixie State 55-0
2018 Beat South Dakota Mines 53-52
2017 Beat Texas Wesleyan 42-7
2016 Lost to South Dakota Mines 44-17
2015 Lost to Fort Lewis 49-7
2014 Beat Western New Mexico 59-38
"Homecoming is always a busy week," said Head Coach
Kurt Taufa'asau. "It's nice to see the Alumni who come back to Las Vegas and we are looking forward to a big crowd on Saturday."
JEFFERY JONES: For the second week in a row,
Jeffery Jones was named the RMAC Offensive Player of the Week on September 8th after the Cowboys win over Western New Mexico. He added D2 Football's National Offensive Player of the Week honors as well. In the win over Western New Mexico on Saturday night, Jones exploded for 385 yards on just 24 carries (16.0 yards per carry). He scored on touchdown runs of 27 yards, four yards, 80 yards, and 52 yards, with the final run coming with 1:45 left in the game to seal the NMHU win. The 385 yards by Jones is a new NCAA Division II freshman single game rushing record as he broke the record previously held by Garrion Corbin of Tiffen University against Quincy on November 16, 2002.
"Congrats to Jeff again! Being named Player of the Week is a hard thing to do," said Cowboy Head Coach
Kurt Taufa'asau. "It's a testament to what we're building and the type of kids we've got in our program. Credit to our whole offense for blocking and creating holes for Jeff to run through."
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: Through two games this season the Cowboys are averaging 51.5 points and 573.0 yards per game which ranks them first in the RMAC in both categories. Nationally, the Cowboys are first in Total Offense and second in scoring.
Senior
Mike Jones is fourth in the nation in Yards Per Reception (31.3/per catch).
Sophomore
Tevita Valeti is fourth in the nation in Yards Per Carry (8.33/carry).
Freshman
Jeffery Jones leads the nation in All Purpose Yards Per Game (310.5/game), Rushing Yards Per Game (304.0/game), Yards Per Carry (14.14/carry) and Scoring Per Game (21.0/game).
Freshman
Jaden Montalvo is fifth in the nation in Kickoff Returns (37.4 yards/game)
KICKING GAME: The Cowboys' kicking game has played a large part in the team's first two games this season. Nationally, they are fourth in Net Punting (44.0 yards). NMHU is 2-2 on field goals with makes of 25 and 40 yards and they have converted 13 of 14 point after attempts.
UP NEXT: The Cowboys travel to Gunnison, Colorado, next Saturday for the first conference road game of the season at nationally ranked Western Colorado. Kick-off is set for 1:00 pm.
RMAC NETWORK: All nine of the remaining games on the schedule will be broadcast on the RMAC Network with New Mexico Broadcaster of the Year Scott Galetti returning as the Voice of the Cowboys for the games in historic Las Vegas this season. Visit
RMACNetwork.com for information on purchasing a subscription so you can follow the Cowboys all season long.
SEASON TICKETS: Individual game tickets for the Cowboys' remaining home games are on sale now…purchase your tickets at
NMHUAthletics.com/Tickets!
CLEAR BAG POLICY: NMHU has implemented a Clear Bag Policy for all on-campus events.
