SAN DIEGO — It’s Wednesday, after San Diego State began the 2024 season by equaling the margin of the 2016 opener when they blanked New Hampshire 31-0, which is the largest since a 37-3 win over San Diego to start 2015.
Marquez Cooper’s 27 carries for 223 yards and two touchdowns was bettered by only Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty (20 carries, 267 yards and six touchdowns) in Week 1 and across DI thus far. The senior’s characteristic confidence already perked up the ears of the media in Idaho, following comments during his postgame interview on truTV — as if the Nov. 1 contest at Albertson’s Stadium needed a bigger hook.
Beyond the big numbers for the ground game was a balance across the offense, which finished with 40 rushing attempts and 33 passing attempts which spread the looks around the wide receivers.
There were also the small numbers stacked up by the defense, as in holding Texas A&M-Commerce to the fewest yards of total offense in a game at Snapdragon Stadium.
With the first win of the head coach Sean Lewis era in the books, the Aztecs are now preparing for an Oregon State team that ran the ball 58 of 72 offensive plays for 362 yards rushing in a 38-15 win over Idaho State.
Here are some of the story lines heading into the 7:30 p.m. match up against the Beavers on Saturday, Sept. 7 at Snapdragon Stadium:
Immediate impact from what’s seen on screens
Amongst the key changes to college football rules — Lewis noted at his Monday press conference that pace of play has been slower and number of possessions fewer across the initial weeks — was the allowance for tablets to be able to review video near immediately on the sidelines.
Both sides of the ball were able to make in-game adjustments that lead to big plays for SDSU.
“In the trenches there’s a lot going on… sometimes things aren’t always as you remember, so being able to see it on the tablets I think you can make really effective corrections,” said defensive lineman Krishna Clay, who had a fumble recovery to go with 0.5 sack and 1.0 tackle for loss.
“I was in a five technique, I had a slant down and basically I left that B gap open because I read off the tackle where I should have just taken it because they ended up hitting that gap.
“Seeing that I was able to make the correction and later in the game I was able to fix that.”
It’s become part of the routine for when players come off the field.
“If we get a three-and-out we will come off, the coach will sit us down, look at a tablet and see the things that we need to work on if we miss an assignment or our alignment is not right,” wide receiver Louis Brown IV said.
With the emphasis that Lewis puts on communication, during games the coaching staff are all on tablets and regularly checking in with each other.
“As we're talking on the headset, coach Lewis may be like, ‘hey, this guy needs to do this next time’ or something like that, that communication happens a lot,” said receivers coach Lanear Sampson.
‘If I see something, I'll be like, ‘hey, coach Lewis, this is going on, what do you think about this?’ just giving them ideas as we go throughout the game.”
‘Stretch Gang’ wide receivers share the wealth
Of note from the Texas A&M-Commerce game was how evenly spread the catches were amongst the receivers, but how even Danny O’Neil was when it came to his targeting the group who have taken to calling themselves the ‘Stretch Gang.’
Ja’Shaun Poke (game-high six catches with 30 yards) and Brown IV (three catches for a game-best 91 yards and a touchdown) were the two favored targets, but all of the seven Aztecs that caught a pass in the game were targeted multiple times and six had multiple catches.
“When one guy makes a play or gets things going, then that fills other guys' energy up… other receivers feed off the next guy’s energy and all of our guys end up making plays,” Brown IV said.
Last season SDSU had six players with multiple catches in a game twice — in the opener against Ohio and at Colorado State — while there were five games where four or fewer got more than one grab in a game.
Even more, there were only a pair of games where six receivers were targeted three or more times in a game.
“It’s great for the room… as a receiver, we’re all selfish and we all want the ball and the glory behind it and to be in the papers,” Sampson said. “When you spread it around it brings more continuity to the team.”
The wide receiver coach went on to say that O’Neil’s passing distribution was in line with many of the other ways in which he carries himself like someone with significantly more experience.
“(O’Neil) definitely stepped up to the plate, we definitely have some things to work on during and later on in the season, but I definitely feel like Danny would be a good quarterback for our offense,” Brown IV said.
“I feel like our chemistry is getting better and I feel like during the season he will get even better.”
That also means to be on the lookout for more potential stretching of the field, as while Brown IV was the preferred deep target against Texas A&M-Commerce, the ‘Stretch Gang’ room has several players who are ready to take advantage when the matchup is right.
Going ‘blue-collar nasty’ against ground game
One of the standout stats last Saturday from the Aztecs allowing the third-fewest rushing yards (63) in a game at the venue is that they held TAMCU to minus-one yards rushing on 16 attempts in the second half.
The first major test of the season comes this week when Oregon State will bring a twin bill of trouble out of the backfield.
Running back duo Jam Griffin (20 carries for 160 yards with two touchdowns) and Anthony Hankerson (24 carries for 155 yards with touchdowns) shouldered the load for the Beavers in their win against the Bengals.
“(Hankerson and Griffin) are both dynamic, they hurt you in a lot of different ways,” Lewis said. “They both have short area quickness, they both find dirty yards and really help them stay on schedule.”
Interior defensive line coach David Lose said he saw an offensive line that plays with great pad level and gets to the point of attack quickly, taking advantage of a lot of movement up front.
“We’ve got a big challenge in front of us to play with the low pad level, beat the physicality head on and be blue-collar and nasty and, and duke it out with those guys,” Lose said. “It's a big challenge for us and it's a challenge that we're willing to gladly accept and take head on.”
Last season the balance was much more even for the meeting in Corvallis, as the Beavers leveled 32 rushes with 30 pass attempts. 201 of their 485 yards of total offense came on the ground.
Odds are they will not run the ball nearly 80% of the time like they did in Week 1 and it will be a good sign if OSU throws it more against SDSU. If so, the defensive secondary has been sharpening their attention for it.
“I’ve got to be a little more focused because the fact that they only throw 14 times means the times that they do throw are probably fairly important times,” said cornerback Chris Johnson.
“We're probably just real secondary guys, you know, filling where needed… we probably don't have a designated gap to fill, but we're behind everybody, we see everything, so we try to make everybody right.”
Still, these are the kinds of games that defensive linemen get especially excited for.
“That means that we get to eat a little bit more than normal,” Clay said. “It's always good for us to be able to get up there and step up to the plate — I think it will be a big game for us and for us to show what we have.”