COLUMBUS, Ohio — DeWayne Walker may never rival Patrick Henry or John Paul Jones when it comes to stirring rallying cries.

When his New Mexico State Aggies — who are 44-point underdogs — take the field on Saturday at No. 17 Ohio State, Walker hopes his players are inspired by his somewhat tepid words of encouragement.
“Both of us, players and coaches really have something to prove to say maybe we’re not as bad as maybe you guys think we are,” Walker said this week.
Don’t look for Walker’s words to be engraved on a monument in Las Cruces, N.M. The Aggies are coming to Ohio Stadium not so much to prove or test themselves as to add $850,000 to the athletic department’s budget.
Asked what improvement he’d like to see his Aggies (3-5) make before 105,000 partisan, boisterous fans in the Horseshoe, Walker said he’d like to see the defense grow and the offense — which is last in the nation among the 120 FBS teams — score some touchdowns.
Then he added, “It may not be the perfect team to really have these positive notions, but we’re still trying to build and we can’t worry that it’s Ohio State.”
For what it’s worth, the Buckeyes (6-2) aren’t that excited about playing the Aggies, either. They would rather be continuing their quest for a fifth consecutive Big Ten title instead of playing a who-cares game.
“I don’t like taking a break from the Big Ten season,” Ohio State tight end Jake Ballard said. “I can’t remember the last time we did that. I definitely would like to continue the Big Ten season week to week, but since that’s not the case this year, we just need to go out there and play a good game and continue to improve.”
New Mexico State is hoping to test its young and improving team against a ranked team in an unfriendly environment.
“I can’t talk to you about playing in that atmosphere because I’ve never played in anything like that before,” Aggies defensive tackle Chris Romero said. “It’s a great opportunity. I expect it to be crazy. There’s going to be tons of people screaming at the top of their lungs.”
Ohio State wants to win, not lose anyone to injury and to get ready for three major games looming on the horizon: at No. 12 Penn State, home with No. 7 Iowa, at archrival Michigan.
Just two weeks ago the Buckeyes overlooked Purdue — a two-touchdown underdog which had won just one of its first six games — and came away with a stunning 26-18 defeat.
Now they’re on high alert for an upset.
“Any given day can be your day when you lose and we definitely don’t want that,” Ohio State defensive end Thaddeus Gibson said. “So we’re going to approach this game as if it was the national championship game. Because every game counts and every game matters.”
Doug Worthington, one of Gibson’s linemates, disregarded the oddsmakers.
“If we win by 2 or we win by 40, that’s fine,” he said. “We just want to make sure we get the W.”
The balance certainly swings more toward a 40-point margin. New Mexico State has a winning record against only one school from a Bowl Championship Series conference — and that’s a 1-0 mark against Iowa State. Since the program began in 1894, the Aggies have played two Big Ten teams and lost 69-13 to Wisconsin in 1962 and 59-21 to Iowa in 1995.
Even though they score just 13.2 points a game, the Aggies have a running threat in Seth Smith, who averages 88 yards rushing per game — 30 more than anyone for the Buckeyes. But Ohio State’s defense is seventh in the nation in points allowed (13.1 per game) and 10th against the run (92 yards per game).
Ohio State’s offense has been stumbling most of the year, but quarterback Terrelle Pryor hopes to build on a three-touchdown day last week against Minnesota.
“Even though it’s out of conference we’ve got to treat it as a conference game,” Pryor said. “This game could mean anything — lower our confidence, give us higher confidence. We need to take care of this game and then move on.”
Coach Jim Tressel has stressed that the New Mexico State game is preparation for the Buckeyes’ tough games that lie ahead.
“I think they want to become a good football team and the neat thing about it is we’ve got a 22- or 23-day period to find out if we can do that,” he said. “And we can use each day.”
Walker searched his brain for inspirational talk at the start of the week.
“I always try to have a teachable moment for every team meeting,” he said. “I think it’s something like David versus Goliath. I just think the main thing for us is to play hard for four quarters. You never know. We may catch them sleeping a little bit.”