Oct. 7, 2001
Game No. 6San Diego State (2-3, 1-1 MWC)
at UNLV (1-4, 0-1 MWC)
Oct. 13, 2001 n 4:05 p.m. PDT
Sam Boyd Stadium
Capacity - 36,800
Las Vegas, Nev.
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Television: The San Diego State at UNLV game will be televised live regionally by ABC. Sean McDonough will call the play-by-play with Ed Cunningham providing the analysis. Leslie Gudel will serve as the telecast's sideline reporter.
Radio: All San Diego State football games can be heard live in southern California on XTRA Sports (690 AM). Jim Stone calls the action with "The Coach", John Kentera, handling the color. Mike Costa provides sideline reports.
The Records: San Diego State enters the game with a 2-3 record after dismantling Eastern Illinois, 40-7, Oct. 6 in San Diego. UNLV is 1-4 after defeating Nevada, 27-12, in Reno for its first win of the season, Oct. 6.
The Rankings: Neither team received votes in either the AP or ESPN/USA Today poll last week.
SDSU Coach Ted Tollner: Aztec head coach Ted Tollner (Cal Poly '62) is in his eighth season at San Diego State and has compiled a 42-43-0 (.494) record on The Mesa. Tollner's overall career mark stands at 68-63-1 (.520).
UNLV Coach John Robinson: John Robinson (Oregon '58) is in his third season at UNLV and 15th overall. Robinson has amassed a 12-17 (.413) record with the Rebels. His overall collegiate mark is 116-52-4 (.686), including a 104-35-4 record while at USC.
The Series: Saturday's game in Las Vegas will be the 11th all-time between SDSU and UNLV. The series is tied, 5-5. The two team have also split their four games at Sam Boyd Stadium, 2-2.
The Big Three
The San Diego State Aztecs, 2-3 overall and 1-1 in Mountain West Conference play, begin a critical three-week period on Saturday when they journey to UNLV to take on the Rebels, 1-4, 0-1, in a Mountain West Conference showdown. Kickoff is set for 4:05 p.m. The UNLV contest will be followed by a trip to Ohio State and a return to Qualcomm to face Brigham Young.
The ABCs of Football
Saturday's game will mark San Diego State's second appearance on ABC this season. The initial telecast showcased the Aztecs' first victory of the season, a 14-7 win at Colorado State. In fact, San Diego State has appeared on ABC five times since 1993 and all have resulted in good showings. In 2000, SDSU blasted Wyoming 34-0 on ABC and in 1999 the Aztecs dropped a 24-21 nailbiter to No. 17 USC. In 1996, with ABC watching, San Diego State whipped San Jose State, 49-20, while the 1993 appearance resulted in one of San Diego State's biggest comebacks ever - a 38-31 win at Air Force.
More TV Talk
The UNLV game will mark San Diego State's 32nd appearance on national cable, network, or regional network television since 1990. Sean McDonough will call the action with Ed Cunningham providing analysis on Saturday. Leslie Gudel is the sideline reporter. Cunningham and Gudel were on hand for SDSU's win in Fort Collins.
Next Week Is Columbus Day
Don't forget that San Diego State will travel to Columbus to meet Ohio State on Oct. 20th in a makeup of the game scheduled for Sept. 15th. It will be the first-ever meeting between the Buckeyes and Aztecs. Ohio State is scheduled to return the game in 2005.
The Coaches
Saturday's coaching matchup is an interesting one for southern Californians. It marks the third meeting between former USC bosses and staff mates, John Robinson and Ted Tollner. In November of 1992, Tollner was named the successor to Robinson at USC after spending one year as Robinson's offensive coordinator and running backs coach. Tollner also served as Robinson's quarterbacks coach with the Los Angeles Rams in 1992 and 1993. Each head coach has a win in the first two meetings.
Still Friends
Robinson and Tollner remain close. The two coaches and their families spent more than two weeks together over the summer on a European vacation.
The Series
The San Diego State-UNLV series is brief and tied, 5-5. The visiting team has won five of the 10 games, including two in a row (one by each team). San Diego State is 2-2 all-time at UNLV and was a 37-7 winner in 1999, its last visit. San Diego State has scored at least 30 points four times in the 10 meetings.
Steady Improvement
A confidence builder entering perhaps the biggest three weeks of the season for SDSU is the offensive improvement over the last month. The following is a quick capsule of the past four games.
Opponent Rush Yds Pass Yds Tot. Offense PointsArizona St. 88 102 190 7Colorado St. 170 200 370 14Air Force 204 199 403 21E. Illinois 356 273 629 40
Road Trips
San Diego State will head to UNLV with a certain amount of confidence. The reason is simple. San Diego State could be the best road team in the Mountain West Conference. In the third year of Mountain West play, San Diego State is 6-2 in conference road games, including two wins at two-time champ Colorado State. In fact, dating back to the last year of WAC membership, San Diego State is 9-3 in 12 conference road games with five wins in its last six games.
Last Season In San Diego
San Diego State nursed a 24-17 lead through three quarters, but UNLV scored 10 points in the fourth quarter for a 31-24 win. The winning points for the Rebels came as SDSU appeared to be driving for the potential winning score. Amar Brisco intercepted a Lon Sheriff pass and returned it 72 yards for a score with just 52 seconds left in the game. Sheriff ended the game with 328 passing yards. Derrick Lewis caught a 68-yard touchdown pass and ended the day with 153 receiving yards. San Diego State won the total-offense battle, 418-368. Jason Van had a career-best 78 rushing yards and scored the only two touchdowns of his career.
Last Time In Vegas
San Diego State rolled to a 37-7 win over UNLV in its last visit to Sam Boyd Stadium. The Aztecs rolled up 501 yards of total offense. Larry Ned ran for 75 yards and two touchdowns in his only career appearance against the Rebels. J.R. Tolver hauled in a 14-yard TD pass as a freshman.
Defensive Heroes
While the San Diego State offense spent much of September finding itself, it was the SDSU defense that allowed the Aztecs to stay in contention. SDSU enters the UNLV contest with the league's best defensive team, allowing just 304 yards of offense per game, nearly 40 yards less than the next best defensive unit. Overall San Diego State is 28th nationally in total defense.
Mendoza Line
In college football, it is the 300-yard mark that serves as the Mendoza Line in total offense and three of the Aztecs' five opponents have been held below 300 yards in total offense, including 212 yards of total offense by two-time defending league champion Colorado State and 231 yards by Pac 10 foe Arizona. The stress on the defense has been increased by SDSU's early struggles with turnovers. The Aztecs are averaging -1.80 turnovers per game to rank 110th nationally in that category.
Instant Replay
The similarities between the 1998 and 2001 seasons are beginning to draw an eerie comparison. Both squads entered the season coming off of sub-.500 seasons (1997: 5-7, 2000: 3-8) and both squads returned a majority of their letterwinners (1998: 31, 2001: 43).
As in 1998, the 2001 Aztecs were scheduled to open the season against two teams from the Pac-10 and a school from the Big Ten.
In 1998, San Diego State opened the season at home against Wisconsin. The Aztecs took a 14-7 lead on a fumble recovery by Jerome Haywood, but Wisconsin scored the last 19 points to win 26-14. In 2001, San Diego State opened the season at home to Arizona. The Aztecs went up 10-0 on a touchdown set-up by a botched punt attempt that resulted in San Diego State getting possession on the Wildcat one-yard line. Arizona scored the last 23 points to win 23-10.
In the second game of the 1998 season, San Diego State went on the road and was defeated at USC 35-6. The Aztecs trailed in all major statistical categories including first downs (25-11), rushing yards (232-137), passing yards (239-94) and total yards (471-231). In the second game of the 2001 season, San Diego State went on the road to Arizona State and was defeated 38-7. The Aztecs trailed in all major statistical categories including first downs (24-11), rushing yards (154-88), passing yards (271-102) and total yards (425-190).
In week three of the 1998 campaign, San Diego State faced a nationally-ranked Arizona team, falling to the Wildcats 35-16. Arizona finished the '98 season with a 12-1 record and a number four national ranking. The Aztecs were scheduled to face 21st-ranked Ohio State in week three before the recent national tragedies resulted in a postponement of that game.
In week four of the 1998 season, the Aztecs went on the road and defeated Tulsa, 24-14. The Aztecs got a big game from Larry Ned, who carried 32 times for 167 yards in the contest. In week four of the 2001 season, Larry Ned rushed 40 times for 177 yards as San Diego State defeated two-time defending league champion Colorado State on the road 14-7.
After opening 0-3 in that 1998 season, the Aztecs rallied to win seven of their last eight regular-season games, winning the WAC Pacific Division title.
Individual Streaks
The Aztecs enter Saturday's game at UNLV with the following streaks:
3 - San Diego State running back Larry Ned has rushed for over 100 yards in each of the last three games. In fact, Ned has topped 175 yards in each of the last three contests. Prior to his 177-yard outburst at Colorado State, San Diego State had gone 13 games without a 100-yard rusher.
19 - Junior receiver J.R. Tolver and senior wideout Derrick Lewis each extended their consecutive games with a reception streak to 19 versus Eastern Illinois. Tolver, the Mountain West's leading receiver in conference games a year ago, hauled in five receptions for 127 yards for his most productive outing since catching seven balls for 146 yards versus the Colorado State last season. Lewis had one reception for 14 yards.
39 - Senior defensive tackle Jerome Haywood has started every game of his three-plus year career and enters Saturday's contest at UNLV with a string of 39 consecutive starts. Other notable double-digit starting streaks include strong guard David Moreno (16), safety Will Demps (16), cornerback Ricky Sharpe (16), and quarterback Lon Sheriff (14).
Run Larry, Run
Running back Larry Ned's may just have taken himself from fringe national honors candidate to serious contender with his rushing performances over the past three games.
Ned, who has gained 640 yards over the last three outings and now leads the Mountain West Conference and ranks third in the nation in rushing with 154.2 yards per game, cracked the 150-yard mark for the third straight contest, rushing for a career-high 285 yards on 30 carries against Eastern Illinois. It is the best three-game rushing performance since George Jones broke 150 yards in three consecutive games and for a total of 696 yards during a three-game stretch in 1995.
Ned's 285 yards versus the Panthers is the best rushing performance in the nation this season. It also stands as a Mountain West Conference record, eclipsing BYU's Luke Staley's 207-yard performance just 24 hours earlier against Utah State.
In the SDSU record book, Ned's 285 yards is the fourth-best single-game rushing performance in school history and the most by an Aztec since Marshall Faulk ran for 300 yards on 43 carries versus Hawaii Nov. 14, 1992.
Notable Ned Numbers
Though San Diego State has played just five games, Larry Ned appears to well on his way to becoming the Aztecs' first 1000-yard rusher since Jonas Lewis gained 1,021 in 1997.
With 771 yards on 134 carries for the season, Ned has already posted the second-best single-season rushing performance of his career. He needs 124 yards to surpass his 1999 season, when he gained 894 yards.
What A Difference A Year Makes
What does a fully healthy Larry Ned mean to SDSU? After struggling with a knee injury early on and later going down for the year with a season-ending shoulder injury, Larry Ned averaged just 2.6 yards per rush. Now at peak performance and running behind a significantly more experienced line, Ned's production has more than doubled to 5.8 yards per pop.
He Can Score, Too
Larry Ned not only notched a career high in rushing yards against Eastern Illinois, he also set a career-high in touchdowns with three. Ned's first quarter touchdown run was his sixth of the season and the 27th of his career. The senior added a pair of third-quarter scores for the 28th and 29th touchdowns of his career (No. 7 and 8 of the year). Ned has now had at least one rushing touchdown in 4-of-5 games this season and 19-of-31 games in his career, including three straight games with at least two scores - a feat he has now accomplished eight times during his career.
With 48 points on eight touchdowns, Ned continues to lead the Aztecs in scoring. His eight touchdowns ranks third in the Mountain West Conference, while his 9.6 points per game are fourth in the league and 17th nationally. In the SDSU record books, Ned's 174 career points is tied for eighth all-time.
Ned's March Toward History
San Diego State running back Larry continues his ascent up the charts in the Aztec record book.
Rushing: Ned's 285 yards last week versus Eastern Illinois vaulted him past Norm Nygaard (2,619 from 14952-54) into fourth place all-time in career rushing yards. He enters the UNLV game with 2,784 yards and needs 27 yards to overtake No. 3 George Jones (2,810 yards from 1995-96) and 57 yards to overtake SDSU's No. 2 all-time rusher, Jonas Lewis (2,843 from 1996-99). Marshall Faulk (1991-93) is San Diego State's career leader in both yards and attempts with 4,589 yards on 766 carries.
Rushing Attempts: With 588 carries, Ned is third all-time at SDSU. He needs just two more attempts to move past No. 2 Jonas Lewis (589).
Scoring: Ned also moved into SDSU's top 10 in scoring last week with 18 points against Eastern Illinois. He enters the UNLV game with 174 career points, tied for eight all-time at SDSU. The senior needs 30 more points to move into a three-way tie for sixth with Art Preston and Paul Hewitt at 204.
More Chart Watching
Two other Aztecs could move into SDSU's all-time top 10 this season:
With 97 career receptions, wide receiver J.R. Tolver needs 25 catches to tie Webster Slaughter (1984-85) at No. 10 on the Aztecs' career reception list at 122.
Lon Sheriff could move into the top 10 in total offense, passing yardage and completions by season's end with a repeat performance of 2000, when he connected on 155-of-290 attempts for 2,163 yards. The junior needs to accumulate 1,836 yards of total offense, 1,611 passing yards, and 110 completions, respectively, to move into SDSU's top 10 in each category.
Boom Ball
Ray Guy Award watch list award candidate Brian Simnjanovski continues to make huge strides as San Diego State's punter. Simnjanovski, who had never punted prior to last season, is averaging 44.8 yards per boot this season to lead the Mountain West Conference and ranks 11th nationally.
The junior may have had his best back-to-back games at Arizona State and Colorado State, averaging 47.4 yards on eight kicks versus the Sun Devils and 46.8 yards on nine punts against the Rams. Of those 17 punts six traveled over 50 yards. He also showed off his increased skill at the discipline, dropping six of the kicks inside the 20-yard-line.
Simnjanovski only had three attempts last week versus Air Force and placed two of the three inside the 20.
Clutch Catches
J.R. Tolver continues to be the Mountain West Conference's most consistent receiver. After leading the league in reception in league games last year averaging 6.57 receptions per game, Tolver is right back near the top of the charts once again.
San Diego State's leading receiver, Tolver has hauled in 26 catches for 430 yards and a pair touchdown. Those numbers account for 46 percent of SDSU's total aerial yardage and 34 percent of the Aztecs' total number of receptions and are more than double the Aztecs' next leading receiver, Derrick Lewis (12 catches for 176 yards).
Tolver owns SDSU's longest pass reception of the season, a 45-yarder versus Eastern Illinois and the Aztecs' lone touchdown receptions of the season (a 40-yards hookup with Lon Sheriff and a 21-yard reception from Adam Hall versus Eastern Illinois).
Tolver is the MWC's leading receiver in both yards per game (86.0) and yards per conference game (105.5). The junior also ranks third in receptions per game (5.4) and second in receptions in league contests (6.5).
Nationally, Tolver ranks 23rd in receiving yards per game and 48th in receptions per game.
Finding the End Zone
Tolver's two touchdowns versus Eastern Illinois were the first of the season through the air for San Diego State. They were also the fourth and fifth scores of Tolver's career and marked the first time the junior has recorded multiple scores in a single game.
Open All Night
After entering the season with just two career 100-yard receiving performance, J.R. Tolver has equaled that feat in the last two weeks, gaining 127 yards against Air Force and 137 yards versus Eastern Illinois.
Rock-Solid Safety
San Diego State strong safety Will Demps continues to lead the league in tackles with 50 on the season, but he also showed another talent last week versus Eastern Illinois, a nose for the ball. Demps, who has recorded two double-digit tackle games this season, nabbed his first interception of the year picking off Eastern Illinois quarterback Tony Romo during the third quarter and returning the ball 44 yards. The pick was the fourth of his career for Demps, who dating back to the end of last season has averaged 11.6 tackles per game over the last seven games.
Looking Sharpe
Cornerback Ricky Sharpe registered his second straight game with at least three pass break-ups against Eastern Illinois. The junior, who now leads the Mountain West in passes defended with eight, also notched his first interception of the season with a fourth-quarter pick versus the Panthers.
Sharpe registered his first double-figure tackle game of the season and just the second of his career last week versus Air Force, making 10 stops versus the Falcons to tie a career high for total tackles.
Butler Continues To Roll
Butkus Award watch list member Jomar Butler led the Aztecs in tackles for the second time this season, recording seven total tackles versus Eastern Illinois. Butler, who also led SDSU in stops at Arizona State, ranks ninth in the MWC and second on the team in tackles with 31, despite missing the Air Force game. Butler has recorded seven double-digit tackle performances in his last 11 starts, including a season-high 10 at Arizona State, and has five tackles for loss.
First Timers
Freshman linebacker Kirk Morrison made his first career start versus Eastern Illinois, finishing with six tackles and a pass break-up.
Josh Dean had his first career field goal block, knocking down and Eastern Illinois 47-yard attempt during the first quarter. The block was the by the Aztecs since Clarence Martin blocked an attempt by Hawaii's Chad Shrout on Oct. 10, 1998.
Sophomore quarterback Adam Hall connected on his first career touchdown pass against Eastern Illinois, hooking up with J.R. Tolver on a 21-yard strike during the fourth quarter.
Freshmen quarterbacks Jon Stoner and Danny Armstrong each made their first appearances behind center against Eastern Illinois. Both players also completed their first collegiate passes as Stoner finished the game a 2-of-2 for 18 yards, while Armstrong connected on his only attempt of the game, a 14-yarder.
Freshman wide receiver Lonnel Pennman collected his first career pass reception, catching two balls for 16 yards against Eastern Illinois.
Freshman Kyle Connerly also posted his first collegiate catch with a 16-yarder versus Eastern Illinois.
Gambling On Donte
Kick return specialist Donte Gamble may fly by the seat of his pants, but the senior has energized SDSU's kick return unit this season. Gamble, who had just five kick off returns in 2000, is averaging 22.1 yards per return this season to rank sixth in the Mountain West. Against Air Force, Gamble had six returns for 125 yards, including a career-long of 38-yard return on the game's opening kickoff.
Quick Hitters
Akbar Gbaja-Biamila recorded his third sack of the season versus Eastern Illinois and now ranks sixth in the MWC in sacks ... After having two sacks wiped off the books against Colorado State, Andrew Brigham finally notched his first of the season against Eastern Illinois ... Justin Green posted a career high on the ground versus Eastern Illinois, rushing for 73 yards on 11 carries ... Junior place-kicker Tommy Kirovski is 3-for-4 on field goal attempts, including a perfect 3-for-3 inside 40 yards. Kirovski was good on attempts of 22 and 23 yards against Eastern Illinois.