Nov. 6, 2016
2016 Mick McGrane Features
Continuity Makes a Comeback (Jan. 15)
SDSU Hits its Stride in Recruiting Race (Feb. 4)
Aztecs Knock Down Doors on Recruiting Trail (Feb. 9)
Ernie Lawson Comes Home to New World (March 17)
Washington now has Room to Roam (March 21)
Peer Pressure? Not for Chapman (Aug. 8) Penny is Worth Every Cent to Aztecs (Aug. 18) Football has Never Been More Fun for Siragusa (Aug. 19) Nobody is Perfect, but Barrett is Closing Fast (Aug. 28) Aztecs Force Future with a Premium on Past (Sept. 1) Chapman Earns More than Passing Grade (Sept. 4) Aztecs Have Put Critics in Their Corner (Sept. 9) College Football Makes Comeback in San Diego (Sept. 11) Veteran Leadership is Treasured Commodity (Sept. 15) SDSU Shuns Fence in Favor of Fortress (Sept. 22) Life is neither Necessarily Easy nor Fair (Oct. 7) Pumphrey, Penny and Pick your Poison (Oct. 9) For Hauck, Teach Outweighs Turbulence (Oct. 13) Aztecs' Defense in State of Denial (Oct. 22)
McGrane: Aztecs Taking No Prisoners in Homestretch
By Mick McGrane, GoAztecs.com Senior Writer (@MickOnTheMesa)
Statistics are misleading. They are often overblown, skewed, inflated and fudged, grand illusions designed to deceive.
And then there are the ones founded in fact.
If, as suggested by Aztecs head coach Rocky Long, Hawai'i represented one of the Mountain West's most improved teams, teams less fortunate would do well to seek sanctuary --- ASAP.
Because what San Diego State's football team is doing at the moment, other than reopening its case for a place in the polls, borders on brutality and abuts abuse.
Forget about the Aztecs' 16 straight league wins. Never mind that SDSU hasn't trailed in a MW regular-season home game in nearly two years (Nov. 21, 2014). Nice, certainly notable, but far from this:
In their last five games, the Aztecs, who are making clobbering cool, have outscored the opposition 180-26.
180-26. Who does this sort of thing? More to the point, who's gonna stop it?
In bidding aloha to Rainbow Warriors to the tune of 55-0 Saturday night, SDSU posted its largest margin of victory in a shutout in its Division I history (since 1969). Only a 65-7 win over UC Santa Barbara in 1970 ranks as more lopsided. In every way, it was a beat-down, a blow-by and a cover-your-eyes battering, with defensive players who had never even seen the field preserving the team's second shutout of the season, a feat not accomplished in 13 years.
Worthy of note here is that Hawai'i, under first-year coach Nick Rolovich, had already won more games this year (four) than it did during the entire 2015 season. The Rainbow Warriors were averaging 33.0 points in their five MW games.
Yet doing business with the Aztecs right now is akin to walking into a lion's den in a sirloin suit.
"I think at the end of last season, we were one of the top 25 teams in the country and right now I think that we're trying to prove to everybody that we are still one of the top 25 teams," Long said. "We were voted one of the top 25 teams last year at the end of the season, but I thought (we deserved to be). I think that we're as good as some of the teams in the top 25 right now."
To be sure, they couldn't be clearer in arguing their point. The Aztecs, who entered the week at No. 28, have outscored the opposition during their streak of 16 straight league wins by a count of 564-161. That's a difference of more than 25 points a game. Try making up that deficit against a defense that has not allowed a league opponent 400 yards total offense in 21 consecutive games (the longest streak in the FBS), and, well, you can do the math.
"I think earlier in the season we got big-headed a little bit and it bit us in the butt," quarterback Christian Chapman said of a team that climbed to No. 19 in the AP Top 25 in late September. "It's definitely an attitude; it's how you approach the week. I think now we have an identity. We are a threat; we're big and we're physical. That's what we like to be known for and, hopefully, that's what we'll continue to show the rest of the season."
Presently, there's scant reason to believe otherwise. Though the Aztecs now must wade through consecutive road games at Nevada and Wyoming before closing out the regular season at home against Colorado State, their demeanor currently consists of equal parts domination and destruction.
In capturing its second straight MW West Division title after New Mexico beat Nevada, SDSU Saturday night hit Hawai'i with everything in its bag. In addition to having two 100-yard rushers in the same game for the third straight outing (Donnel Pumphrey 118; Rashaad Penny 109), the Aztecs returned a pair of interceptions for touchdowns and continued to get outstanding kicking from John Baron, who before missing a career-long 51-yard attempt ran his streak to 10 straight with field goals of 30 and 45 yards.
SDSU, which will open the week ranked No. 5 nationally in total defense, has allowed 19 offensive points (3.8 average) in MW play. Statistics. Ridiculous.
"We're playing very well right now, but we're not satisfied," said sophomore linebacker Ronley Lakalaka, who got the better of his brother, Steven, a senior running back for the Rainbow Warriors. "We have a great defense because we feed off of each other, and game after game we get better."
Even without all of their pieces. Redshirt freshman cornerback Ron Smith, who made his first career start, wasted little time introducing himself when he returned an interception 14 yards for a touchdown on Hawai'i's opening possession of the second quarter. Smith finished with seven tackles, one fewer than senior linebacker Calvin Munson's team-high eight.
"It's helpful that we come into every week with the same mindset, setting the same goal to make big plays on offense and keep the offense on the other side out of the end zone," Smith said. "We just have that mantra every time we go out there. The coaches preach it, the seniors preach it and we just feed off of them and make the plays."
"I think the main thing is preparation," Smith added. "We've been preparing the right way by getting in film and making sure that we can be the best team on the field. We come in with the mindset that we're going to play well, and as competitors we always want to be the best people out on the field. We just come in, respect our opponents and make sure that when we come to play we also come to compete."
Apparently, with no intention of making it a competition at all. The Aztecs, whose 55 points were their most since 1996, are averaging 33.4 points while allowing an average of 17. No other team in the league is yielding fewer than 22.7.
Nonetheless, Long isn't about to be mesmerized by numbers. After 17 years as a head coach in the Mountain West, the counting isn't done until all the marbles are collected.
"It bothers me at night, every night, that our players will be satisfied and not prepare the same way every week," Long said. "I'm counting on the maturity of our senior class to not let that happen. It didn't happen last year, and hopefully the maturity in our senior class won't let that happen (this year). The seniors, in their mind, have bigger and better things to do. If we want to do bigger and better things, then every game has got to be just as important as the last game.
"(The players) will only believe what they want to believe. No matter what I say, they will believe what they want to believe. It has to come from within, it has to come from the players, and that's why our seniors are the leaders. You've got to count on their maturity for that to happen. We meet with them every day we practice. We talk about it; we talk about it almost daily. My sense is that they're a very mature, motivated group. We might get beat, but it won't be because we're not ready to play."
Or plunder.