Jacksonville State has eight wins already in 2023, but could be playing its season finale on Saturday at New Mexico State.

As an FBS transitional team, the Gamecocks are technically ineligible for the postseason. However, if all 82 bowl slots go unfilled, Jax State (along with also ineligible James Madison) would be allowed to fill one of the slots.

It’s an interesting state of limbo as the Gamecocks (8-3 overall, 6-1 Conference USA) get set to meet the Aggies (9-3, 6-1) at 3 p.m. Saturday at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, N.M. New Mexico State, of course, is coming off one of the more-shocking wins in the country this season, a 31-10 rout of Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium this past Saturday.

“Obviously, it is a big ball game and it is our last one — we hope we get a bowl game, but we don’t know, so it could be our last game for the season,” Jax State coach Rich Rodriguez said. “It is against a very good team and basically to see who finishes in second place in the league. We know the challenge in front of us. They are coming off a big win over Auburn. They pretty much controlled the game and a it was a great win for them. Our guys will be focused and we will have to play really good football.”

For a brief time last week, it appeared this game might have very high stakes in the Conference USA race. Jax State appealed its postseason ban to the NCAA, which had they received a waiver, they would have been eligible to play in the Conference USA championship game.

That would have meant the game at New Mexico State would have been for second place, with the winner facing Liberty in the CUSA title game on Dec. 2. But the waiver was denied on Wednesday, and the Aggies have already locked up that trip to Lynchburg, Va., next weekend.

New Mexico State — led by veteran coach Jerry Kill — won last week despite being 25-1/2-point underdogs at Auburn. Quarterback Diego Pavia threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns and the Aggies defense held the Tigers to 209 yards in a victory that appeared in no way fluky.

“From what I saw on film, their pass rush was really good and they were getting to the quarterback,” JSU center Treylen Brown said. “They stopped the run game and I think Auburn had 15 plays in the first half, so they were getting three-and-outs really quickly. They made plays that led them to winning the game.”

Jax State is coming off arguably its most-dominant victory of the season, a 56-17 romp over Louisiana Tech on Senior Day at Burgess-Snow Field. The Gamecocks ran for a CUSA-record 522 yards, with quarterback Zion Webb and running backs Ron Wiggins and Malik Jackson all topping the 100-yard mark.

The Louisiana Tech game was the last at home for 11 JSU seniors, those who helped shepherd the program up from the FCS ranks to FBS. Brown, among others, was part of conference championships at the FCS level in 2020 and 2022 and will likely experience the Gamecocks’ first bowl game this year.

“It was an amazing feeling and obviously you had some nerves worrying about if we were going to play good and you had high emotions when you go out there,” Brown said of his final home game as a Gamecock. “We had to re-focus and go back out there to play the game.”

Given the Gamecocks’ immediate success upon moving up to the FBS level, it’s possible Rodriguez’s name might pop up in the ongoing coaching carousel. Along with his 17-5 record at JSU, he has a long history of success at several schools, most notably a strong run at West Virginia in the first decade of the 21st century.

Asked about his future on Tuesday, Rodriguez answered as he always does. He insisted “I didn’t take this job to get another job.”

“… My biggest concern right now is what we can do to win this game, and then what we’re gonna do to be better next year than we are this year — trying to upgrade our roster, get bigger, faster, stronger,” Rodriguez said. “That’s kind of where my focus is at.

“I haven’t heard from anybody. But if other schools are interested in myself or my staff, it’s probably a positive thing because we’ve had some success.”

• Jax State cornerback Kekoura Tarnue was named Conference USA Special Teams Player of the Week on Monday.

Tarnue, a junior from Monrovia, Liberia, blocked a punt and returned it 21 yards for a touchdown in the Gamecocks’ 56-17 win over Louisiana Tech last Saturday. Tarnue’s big play gave JSU a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.