SCENE SETTER
* San Diego State and San José State meet for the 42nd time on the gridiron Saturday night in San Diego for Homecoming Weekend.
* The Aztecs have the edge on the all-time series, 20-19-2, and have won each of the five meetings since San José State joined the Mountain West in 2013.
* SDSU has limited the Spartans to single digits in each of the last four meetings, outscoring San José State, 162-24 (40.5-6.0).
* San Diego State has won three of its last four homecoming games and is 3-0 in homecoming games against SJSU since 1976.
RECAPPING THE AIR FORCE GAME
* San Diego State won its fifth consecutive game overall, tied for the 11th-longest active streak nationally.
* The Aztecs won their sixth straight Mountain West game, tied for the seventh-longest active win streak in conference games in FBS.
* SDSU won its sixth straight home game, tied for the 15th-longest active streak in FBS play.
* San Diego State won its fifth straight game when playing a team exactly six days after another game (9-1 in last 10 games).
* The Aztecs claimed their eighth straight victory over Air Force, which is longest active win streak in the nation against the Falcons and longest win streak against AFA since Notre Dame won eight straight from 1986-95.
* SDSU won its 11th straight Friday home game (last home Friday loss was Nov. 20, 1970 against Long Beach State). San Diego State improved to 14-3 in the Division I era in games played on Friday.
* Rocky Long now has 12 career victories against Air Force, which is the most wins against the Falcons by any active coach in FBS, six more than any other active coach.
* This marked Rocky Long's 99th game as the head coach at San Diego State. He is 69-30 (.697) since taking over the program in 2011 and amazingly 44-13 (.772) in conference play (46-13 (.780) if you count the conference championship games).
* Rocky Long recorded his 20th second-half comeback victory since he took over in 2011, the most in school history (No. 2 is Claude Gilbert at 13).
FROM THE FILM ROOM (through games of Oct. 13; all Film Room numbers provided by PFF)
* Junior tight end Parker Houston scored the go-ahead TD vs Air Force in the fourth quarter and had a perfect NFL passer rating when targeted in the game of 158.3. Houston has played 29 career games for San Diego State and this was just his sixth contest with more than one pass target. Houston caught both pass targets vs Air Force and recorded career-highs in receiving yards (37) and yards after the catch (28). On the season, Houston has caught 8 of 9 targets for 109 yards, 47 coming after the catch. Houston has a near perfect NFL passer rating when targeted this season of 156.7 which ranks No. 1 among Mountain West tight ends and No. 6 in the FBS (min 5 targets).
* Sophomore left tackle Tyler Roemer allowed no QB pressures on 29 pass block snaps vs Air Force. He was the only SDSU offensive lineman to not allow a single pressure. This was Roemer's first clean sheet performance (0 pressures allowed) of the season. Additionally, Roemer has impressed as a run blocker this year. His run block grade ranks No. 2 currently in the MW among left tackles.
* Junior linebacker Kyahva Tezino recorded his second straight game with nine defensive stops. Tezino's nine defensive stops were tied for the most in the country last week. Over the last two weeks, Tezino's 18 defensive stops are the most in FBS, regardless of position. Tezino's 2018 overall 16.8 run stop percentage ranks No. 1 among linebackers in FBS, while his 18 QB pressures ranks second.
* After allowing runs of 27 and 42 yards (the longest runs allowed by SDSU this year) in the first half vs Air Force, the run defense got back into form in the second half. In the first half: SDSU allowed 142 yards (5.0 per attempt), 65 of which came AFTER contact (2.3 yards AFTER contact per attempt). In the 2nd half: SDSU allowed just 72 rushing yards (3.1 per attempt), 58 of which were earned AFTER contact. The San Diego State run defense in 2018 has been very strong, especially on first downs. On 97 first down runs faced, the Aztec defense has allowed just two rushes that have gained more than 10 yards with the longest first down rush going for 12 yards (Air Force).
* Redshirt freshman cornerback Darren Hall was the highest graded SDSU defender vs Air Force and was especially dominant in run defense with three defensive stops. After only playing one snap over the first three weeks, Hall has played in 75 pct. of his team's defensive snaps over the last three games. His 83.4 overall grade between weeks 4-7 rank second among Mountain West cornerbacks. During that time, Hall's run stop rate of 4.1 pct. ranks third among MW cornerbacks.