By Mick McGrane, GoAztecs.com Senior Writer
(@MickOnTheMesa)
Over the years, associate head coach/offensive coordinator/running backs coach Jeff Horton has referred to them as Nos. 1 and 1A.
If 1B ever becomes a regular part of the conversation — and San Diego State's football team is entirely capable — the Aztecs may turn the clock back on modern football until the springs are sprung.
Evidence Saturday night's bullying of No. 23 Arizona State, where SDSU, minus starting quarterback Christian Chapman, hitched up its britches and left the Sun Devils pleading for leniency.
With Juwan Washington — designee No. 1 — and Chase Jasmin — appointee 1A — combining for 249 rushing yards, the contest again set in motion the lethal one-two punch that has become SDSU's calling card in the Rocky Long era.
There was Adam Muema and Chase Price. Price and Donnel Pumphrey. Pumphrey and Rashaad Penny. Penny and Washington.
Now comes Washington and Jasmin, a duo that on Saturday merely combined to average 5.5 yards per carry against the top rush defense in the nation, one that had allowed an average of 32.5 yards on the ground in its first two games. Washington, who has rushed for more than 100 yards in his first three games, gashed ASU for 138 on 27 carries (5.1 yards per carry). Jasmin, meanwhile, who had run the ball eight times this season, finished with a career-high 112 yards on 19 attempts.
And what to say of an offensive line comprised of three sophomores, a junior and one senior? If SDSU is en route to cementing its status as Tailback U, it's fast earning a reputation of attracting offensive linemen who love nothing more than grinding defenses to dust.
"After awhile, you can see it in their eyes," former SDSU and now Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman Nico Siragusa once told me. "(Defenses) don't want any part of it."
It's like that Indiana Jones movie where Harrison Ford is trying to escape the boulder. It just keeps coming. The ridiculous part — and ASU was coming off a win over No. 15 Michigan State in which it held the Spartans to 2.3 yards per carry — is that opponents know what's coming. First down, second down, third down, it's all the same. A serving of maulball that destroys desire and wilts the will.
None of this, of course, is to distract from the outing enjoyed by junior quarterback Ryan Agnew, who in his first career start was seemingly impervious to intimidation against a defense that also led the nation in sacks. Showing off his athleticism by rushing for 36 yards and at one point delivering seven straight completions, a run that enabled the Aztecs to tie the game before intermission, Agnew became the first Group of 5 quarterback since 2009 to defeat a Power 5 ranked team in his first start.
But it's the running game, the one that comes in waves, the one piled high with tailback talent, the one scarier than Stephen King with an ax to grind. The Aztecs had multiple 100-yard rushers in the same game for the 29th time, a feat accompanied by 18 straight wins and an overall mark of 28-1. SDSU outrushed ASU by 275 yards and won its 38th straight game when rushing for more than 200.
"I mean, that's a credit to the two running backs, but it's also a credit to the offensive staff by their design," Long said. "It's also a credit to the offensive line. I didn't think the offensive line played very well (the previous week against Sacramento State).
"Well, guess what? They played pretty darn good. If you look at Arizona State's defensive line, they're the real deal now. They're all 6-foot-4 or taller, they're all 300 pounds or bigger and they can bench press the world. And they got blocked. So that means our big boys did a pretty good job."
A good enough job that SDSU featured a 100-yard rusher for the eighth straight game. The Aztecs have had at least one running back rush for 100 or more yards in 25 of their last 30 games since 2016 and 34 100-yard rushers in the 44 games since Horton became the offensive coordinator in 2015.
And don't think for a minute that ASU defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales didn't know what was coming. Gonzales, who spent 17 years beside Long before moving to ASU this season with Aztecs recruiting coordinator Tony White, is attempting to employ the same 3-3-5 scheme that has become Long's trademark. The Aztecs hammered it to bits, running 82 plays for 440 total yards. Of the 82 plays, SDSU ran 58 times, averaging 5.4 yards per rush.
ASU, conversely, averaged 1.5, leaving the master 1-0 vs. the prodigal son.
"About a quarter and a half of the first half, I was calling the defense and using signal guys," Long said. "And because they're smart coaches on the other side, they started going up-tempo. We had some miscommunication between the signalers and the guys on the field that led to them driving the ball down the field and scoring a touchdown. So, I said the heck with it, and started calling the signals."
Had he signaled to the ASU bench that another run was coming from his offense, Long could have used a neon sign. Asked about the Sun Devils entering the game with the top rush defense in the country, Washington all but shrugged.
"Something I noticed a lot this week was everyone taking pride about going out there and being able to run the ball on them," he said. "All week we'd heard about them being the number one defense in the NCAA, so it was something we took pride in. We want to establish the run and be the most physical group out there. I think that really shows, and it starts up front. Those guys did a really good job of establishing the line of scrimmage."
So much so that SDSU won its 28th straight game (45-7 in the Long era) when amassing more than 400 yards total offense. Aside from Nos. 1 and 1A, the Aztecs also averaged a whopping 8.3 yards per carry on three rushes from true freshman running back Jordan Byrd and redshirt freshmen wide receivers BJ Busbee and Ethan Dedeaux.
Come one, come all. And if you're intent on stopping it, you'd be wise to pack a lunch. Chances are you're in for a long day.
"I think it just shows that we can play with anybody," Washington said. "A lot of people may not think that we can compete with the top level teams that are out there, but I honestly think we can compete with anybody in front of us on our schedule. We've just got to prove it week by week so that we can get to the conference championship game and hopefully win it."
Said ASU coach Herm Edwards: "Going into the game, (the Aztecs) knew what they wanted to do. They wanted to run the football and they did run the football. They ran it for 311 yards. When a team can control a clock and play good defense like they did the second half, not allowing us to score in the last minutes of the game, that's never good."
Seems to work just fine for the Aztecs.
McGrane: Aztecs Again Have Defenses Seeing Double
