SAN DIEGO – It’s Wednesday, ahead of the San Diego State football team’s first trip to the Cowboy State since 2016, as they prepare to face the Wyoming Cowboys for just the second time since winning the Mountain West Championship game eight years ago.
The Aztecs (3-2, 1-0 Mountain West) earned a gritty, comeback win over Hawaii in their conference opener, while Wyoming (1-4, 1-0) will be fresh off a bye following their 31-19 win over Air Force on Sept. 28. The Cowboys have a pair of losses to Power 4 schools — at Arizona State and to Brigham Young — as well as a home loss to FCS Idaho and a road loss to North Texas.
Trey White was named the Mountain West Conference’s Defensive Player of the Week after another three-sack game in which he also set the Snapdragon Stadium record with 4.0 tackles for loss. Danny O’Neil earned Freshman of the Week honors, completing a career-high 24 passes on 33 attempts for 224 yards and a touchdown.
“It’s a great weekly honor, it means we’re doing things the right way,” said head coach Sean Lewis. “When you buy into the process and ‘be the alpha’ mindset, that's all well and good — you’ve got to improve and compete today.”
With the Aztecs set for another bye next weekend, the opportunity to position themselves for a challenging closing stretch to conference play will be of utmost importance.
Here are some of the storylines heading into the first SDSU-Wyoming game since 2019, which kicks off from War Memorial Stadium on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and will be televised by CBS Sports Network:
Passing game getting more fancy
A big part of O’Neil’s first individual accolade with the Scarlet and Black was the performance of the receiving corps, which saw five players with multiple catches for the first time since the season opener against Texas A&M-Commerce.
The increasing feeling of connection between the offense reminded wide receiver Ja’Shaun Poke of how the FAST offense performed when he was at Kent State from 2019-2022.
“Everybody’s gotten accustomed and adjusted to how coach Lewis calls his plays and how the offense is supposed to be run,” Poke said.
It has led to more of the chunk plays between 15 to 25 yards, which SDSU racked up four of against Hawaii. Prior to that, the offense had five plays in that 15-25 range to go with 10 completions of 25-plus yards.
One such play stood out to quarterbacks coach Matt Johnson, who recalled how quick recognition opened up a key 19-yard pass to Nate Bennett that kick-started the two minute drill scoring drive before halftime against Hawaii.
“We knew that they were a big, single-high team, and they came out and they were in two high, and (O’Neil) saw it,” Johnson said. “For them to come out and give us a wrinkle that he was able to see, digest it and then get off of his primary read to get to his secondary read, it was really good.”
Johnson credits the continued growth of O’Neil within the offense to opening up those throws.
“A lot of it has to do with him not forcing the ball… going through his reads and being able to sometimes hit a check down,” Johnson said. “If you let the offense work through you, it'll work.”
With Wyoming showing as very physical up front with multiple different looks in the secondary, including movement and rotation, Johnson emphasized the importance of taking what the defense will allow and take shots when they present themselves.
For Poke, who has thrived off of short yardage receptions with chances to create after the catch, there should be plenty of opportunities.
“You gotta have that nasty work mentality, making sure that you just do everything you need to do in order to help your team win,” Poke said.
“(I’m) just making sure I'm making the plays when they come to me and making sure that I'm being a great teammate to my teammates whenever they need me.”
Relentlessness from the linebacker room
Kyle Moretti and DJ Herman didn’t begin the week against Hawaii atop the depth chart, but an injury to Tano Letuli meant that the Aztecs played the Rainbow Warriors without their captain strongside (SAM) linebacker.
The senior Central Michigan transfer Moretti and junior Herman, who had the majority of his experience on special teams, combined for six tackles — with Herman recording a tackle for loss and a pass breakup.
“Those guys took it personally that they wanted to fill (Letui’s) shoes and do a good job for the team and make sure there was no letdown at all at that spot,” said defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Eric Schmidt.
The change this week comes in the form of a Wyoming offense that has run the ball on 58.8% of their plays and averaged 100.6 yards per game. 6-foot-5, 245-pound junior quarterback Evan Svoboda has the Cowboys’ second-most carries (51) scoring four times on the ground.
“They’re a tough team… a nasty group,” Moretti said. “(Running the ball) is their pride… we’ve just got to prepare well for that and with every call, make sure that we got that sorted out.”
Junior running back Sam Scott had the most rushes last week, carrying 19 times for 97 yards with a touchdown and is the team leader with 180 yards.. North Carolina graduate transfer D.J. Jones leads the team in carries (57) and is second in yards (162), but did not play against Air Force and is on the two-deep for this week.
Another key piece is 6-foot-5, 247-pound tight end John Michael Gyllenborg, who after missing the first two games has had all nine of his catches for 126 yards in the last two.
“(Gyllenborg’s) a guy we have to do a good job of knowing where he’s at and understand the tendencies when he’s in the game,” Schmidt said.
“Being able to find some of those intangibles and handle the guys that really feel like are the guys that are going to handle the ball that (Wyoming) are going to look for in crucial situations is going to be important for us to be able to make sure we recognize and mark those guys.”
Elevating play at higher altitude
“At the peak” is more than just a marketing slogan for the Mountain West Conference, as it includes six of the top ten highest-altitude DI programs in the nation, with former members Utah and BYU also ranking.
Wyoming tops the list at 7,220 feet, with Air Force slotting second followed by New Mexico at fourth, Colorado State fifth, Utah State sixth and Nevada ninth at 4,615 feet. Boise State, who SDSU will face on the road on Nov. 1, ranks 14th at 2,698 feet..
SDSU famously has their student athletes consume beets before high-altitude contests, as detailed earlier this week by the San Diego Union Tribune. Instead of going for multiple juice shots, the football team has elected to go with supplement pills.
Whether or not the earthy root vegetables have played a role, SDSU is 8-9 in games played at over 4,600 feet since 2014, including a 1-1 mark against Wyoming.
“That altitude is real,” said Moretti, who is from Denver and attended camps in Wyoming while being recruited in high school. “You can't really simulate that kind of stuff, so we’ve got to make sure we're on top of our sleep and hydration.”
The Aztecs are already used to regular substitutions on both sides of the ball, which will help with some of the impacts.
“We tell guys all the time, ‘Hey man, your number is going to get called at some point here and you’ve got to work while you wait,’” Schmidt said. “That mindset and that approach is what leads those guys to be able to be successful on the field.”
As a whole in the Mountain West era (since 1999) the Aztecs are 31-32 in games played above 4,600 feet, which includes a pair of 1-6 records at BYU and Utah as well as a pair of losses at Colorado.