Oct. 24, 2015
Past Mick McGrane 2014-15 football features
2014
Kaehler: A Thinking Man's Game (Aug. 5)
Whittaker: Long Time Gone, Never Forgotten (Aug. 6)
Life in the Weight Room: Hall's Strong Suit (Aug. 15)
Roberts: A Career Comes Full Circle (Aug. 21)
The Season's in Session, Take Your Seats (Aug. 29)
How Quickly we Forget (Sept. 7)
Looks can be Deceiving (Sept. 19)
O-Line has Aztecs' Running Game in High Gear (Oct. 23)
Falling Short is no Longer an Option for Aztec Football (Nov. 29)
Winds of Change: "Rise To 25" Fuels New Direction for Football (Dec. 23)
Pumphrey in Need of a Playing Partner (Dec. 24)
2015
Football no Longer Needs Sun to Sell Itself (Feb. 4)
Aztec Football is Flush with Experience in 2015 (Feb. 20)
Regardless of Road, Whittaker's Future is Flush with Success (July 23)
Gordon no Longer Wrestling with Football Future (July 30)
Kazee has the Corner Covered in Aztec D (Aug. 5)
Hageman has Given Boot to Aztec Kicking Woes (Aug. 14)
Life is a Snap for Aztecs' Overbaugh (Aug. 21)
Munson Shines upon Emerging From Shadows (Aug. 28)
Pumphrey Prioritizes Winning in Rush to Stardom (Sept. 2)
Aztecs Positioned to Take Next Step in '15 (Sept. 4)
Aztecs Look to Get Offense in Gear (Sept. 6)
Penny's Stock Rising on Rate of Returns (Sept. 7)
Sorry, No Apologies Forthcoming (Sept. 11)
Seeking a Solution at Quarterback (Sept. 18)
Aztecs, Hauck Have Something Special (Oct. 2)
Aztecs Positioned to Make Statement (Oct. 22)
McGrane: Aztecs Deliver Message to MW
By Mick McGrane, @GoAztecs Senior Writer (@MickOnTheMesa)
When Aztecs junior safety Malik Smith suggested earlier this week that Friday night's contest with Utah State would "be more than just another game," he proved a bit less than prophetic.
Turns out, it wasn't much of a game at all.
In a meeting that had been billed as a potential preview of this year's league championship, West Division leader San Diego State essentially detonated the Mountain side of the Mountain West, leveling the Aggies 48-14 in a game that was as one-sided as a bug under a boot heel.
So thorough and so dominating were the Aztecs through the game's opening 30 minutes that more than a few folks who have seen more than a few SDSU football games were struggling to recall a stretch in which the team looked better.
Utah State coach Matt Wells apparently had no such struggles.
Said Wells: "It's a college football game and we got our butt beat."
They got their butt beat by running back Donnel Pumphrey and an offensive line that turned the nation's sixth-best rush defense from rock steady to rubble. The Aggies, who were coming off a 52-26 pummeling of then-No.21 Boise State and were yielding 91 yards per game on the ground, surrendered 218 yards rushing in the first half and 336 on the night, with Pumphrey carrying 23 times for 181 yards and two touchdowns (7.9 yards per carry).
They got their butt beat by a defense that held a team averaging 47 points in its first three Mountain Division games to 239 yards total offense, the 11th straight time the Aztecs have limited a league opponent to 400 or fewer yards.
They got their butt beat because it was 24-0 with more than seven minutes left in the second quarter and 34-7 at the half. They got their butt beat by a team that has outscored its first four MW opponents 45-0 in the first quarter.
"We're looking like a championship team right now," said Pumphrey, who posted his fourth straight 100-yard game. "I'm excited and I'm happy to be on this team. It's fun to be out there."
It's not terribly complicated, mind you. With a running-back corps that goes four deep and a defense morphing into the monster many expected with the return of eight starters, SDSU is a load with a lead.
The Aztecs forced four turnovers in a game Friday night for the second time this season. Run the ball, run the clock, walk away with a win. So simple. So efficient.
"It was really important," junior safety Na'im McGee said of building an early lead. "We know they're a good team. We knew that they were going to come out prepared and excited to play, so we had to come out excited to play and dominate."
And so they did. After scoring 17 points in both the first and second quarters for the first time in its Division I history, and amassing more rushing yards than Utah State had allowed in a game in five years, SDSU is 4-0 in league play for just the fourth time since it began playing Division I football 48 years ago.
And if questions remain from a 1-3 start, posing them within earshot of Coach Rocky Long is to ask for a well-placed forearm to one's front teeth.
"I think this team has improved tremendously over the last four weeks, on both sides of the ball," Long said. "I think after the first half of the Penn State game that our offensive line got better. You can see the proof now. They're starting to gain some confidence, move some people off the ball and getting seams big enough for (Pumphrey) and Chase (Price) to make some people miss. What you don't see in the last two weeks is that our wide receivers are doing an outstanding job of blocking. I think that was missing in our running game."
"I think we do a decent job of coaching," Long continued. "I think we give our players an opportunity to play well. That's all a coach can do. But it's the players who are out there doing those things, not the coaches. That's them taking a pretty good scheme and making it work. The players are learning their assignments and learning the scheme. Then they can react correctly and be really aggressive."
While becoming the only Mountain West team unbeaten in league play.
"The bottom line is, hats off to San Diego State," Wells said. "They outplayed us."
In every way imaginable.