SCENE SETTER (entering bowl season)
* San Diego State extends its school-record bowl streak to nine seasons when the Aztecs face Ohio in the 2018 DXL Frisco Bowl on Wednesday, Dec. 19 in Frisco, Texas.
* SDSU's active consecutive streak of nine straight bowl games is tied for the 12th-longest streak nationally. San Diego State joins Stanford as the only football teams in the state of California - college or pro - to play in the postseason each of the last nine years.
* SDSU is one of 14 schools and one of two Group of 5 schools in the nation to play in a bowl game following the last nine seasons.
* Since the start of the 2015 campaign, San Diego State's 39-14 record and 73.6 percent winning percentage is tied for the 10th best in the nation and the Aztecs are tied for the sixth-highest winning percentage in the nation since Oct. 3, 2015.
* Head coach Rocky Long, the all-time winningest coach in Mountain West history, has guided San Diego State to a bowl game in each of his first eight seasons as head coach. He is one of only six active coaches to lead their current team to a bowl game in each of the first eight seasons.
* Long is one of five coaches to lead his current team to a bowl game in each of the last eight seasons. That list: Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Nick Saban (Alabama), David Shaw (Stanford), Dabo Swinney (Clemson) and Rocky Long (San Diego State).
* San Diego State may be ahead of schedule with the success it has enjoyed this season. The Aztecs have just 14 seniors on the 2018 squad and average starting just 6.4 seniors.
* The Aztecs had 10 players named to the all-Mountain West team. Of those 10, only four are seniors (DB Parker Baldwin, PK John Baron II, DL Noble Hall, OL Ryan Pope). SDSU placed four juniors (P Brandon Heicklen, LB Kyahva Tezino, RB Juwan Washington, TE Kahale Warring) and two sophomores (OL Keith Ismael, DB Tariq Thompson) on the teams.
* Both Ismael and Tezino were named to the conference's first-team.
* Ismael, a sophomore, started 11 of the team's 12 games, including six times at center and five times at right guard. A three-time honoree for the Pro Football Focus Mountain West Team of the Week this year, Ismael graded out as the second-best center (per PFF) in the league despite playing 294 of his 759 snaps at right guard. The Oakland, Calif., native, who has the best run blocking grade in the league (per PFF), committed just two penalties.
* Tezino, a sophomore, put together one of the most prolific defensive seasons in recent memory, totaling 120 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks and 15 quarterback hurries, all marks which lead the team by a wide margin. Tezino, was one of only two athletes to win the MW Defensive Player-of-the-Week award multiple times this season, led the MW in solo tackles per game (5.58, 20th in FBS), while ranking in a tie for second in tackles for loss (14.5) and sacks (8.5).
* San Diego State has played 10 consecutive games decided by single digits. That is the longest consecutive streak by any FBS team since at least 1980 (last 39 seasons).
* The last time SDSU lost three straight games, it went on to win its next 13 games (final 10 of 2015 and first three of 2016).
Football Ready for Ohio at DXL Frisco Bowl
