SAN DIEGO — It’s Wednesday, as the San Diego State football team gets ready for its second straight week with a Friday night game when they welcome the New Mexico Lobos to Snapdragon Stadium on Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m.
The Aztecs (3-5, 2-1 Mountain West) will finally face an opponent on shorter rest, as New Mexico (3-6, 2-3) dropped a 49-45 result to Wyoming at home on Saturday, Nov. 2.
SDSU’s loss to Boise State last Friday was the third time this season they were facing an opponent with more rest, as the Broncos had played the previous Friday at UNLV and had a full seven days between games. Hawaii was coming off a bye for the Oct. 5 game, as was Wyoming for Oct. 12.
The Scarlet and Black are 2-1 in those contests, and are 0-2 in both of the games where they’ve had more rest (both Central Michigan on Sept. 28 and Washington State on Oct. 26 were after byes) than their opponents.
“(New Mexico head coach) Bronco (Mendenhall) has been doing this much longer than I, he's gone through many short weeks during his time,” said head coach Sean Lewis.
“There's no doubt that everyone in that locker room has bought into our process and what we're doing… because for our seniors that only have four guaranteed opportunities left, we need to maximize each and every single day and every single opportunity and every single moment that we have for them.”
Here are some of the story lines heading into Friday night:
Preparing for a potential high-scoring affair
While SDSU has topped the 30-point plateau once this season (the season opening 45-14 win over Texas A&M-Commerce) and allowed more than 30 points twice (at California and last week), the Lobos have played in significantly more high-scoring games.
New Mexico ranks third in the Mountain West with an average of 34.78 points per game and second by averaging 480.11 yards of total offense per game, powered by the third highest rushing (230.89) and fourth-highest passing (249.22). Conversely, they’ve allowed an average of 40.78 points and 492.33 yards of offense against, both second bottom in the conference.
UNM has topped 30 points in six of their nine games, with three straight games scoring 50 or more from Sept. 28 to Oct. 19. However, they’ve given up more than 30 in eight games and allowed more than 40 five times.
Sophomore quarterback Devon Dampier powers the offense, averaging 249.2 yards passing and 82.8 yards rushing per game while accounting for 23 touchdowns (10 passing and 13 rushing).
"It's amazing on some of these long runs, the way that (Dampier is) able to maintain full speed or even gain full speed while he's changing directions,” Lewis said. “It's almost like he's like rolling down a water slide at times.”
Lewis also noted the number of explosive play touchdowns the Lobos have generated, with 12 touchdowns on a run and two scores on a pass of longer than 20 yards. Dampier had a UNM quarterback record scoring run of 85 yards against Wyoming, one of his five explosive scoring runs while running back Eli Sanders has also broken off five long touchdown runs.
Conversely, the Aztecs will have opportunities against a Lobos defense that presents “a lot of different fronts, a lot of multiple different pictures” if the pre-snap communication understands how the calls fit to each defensive structure.
“We've shown over the course of time that when all 11 guys are tied together and are aligned and know their jobs, that we can have success,” Lewis said. “We've also shown that if there's a breakdown and New Mexico has shown that they can exploit a breakdown.
“We gotta do a great job again throughout the course of the week, working our process at a really, really high level and then taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.”
Adjusting to altered field conditions
In recent weeks the playing surface at Snapdragon Stadium has been in the news, with fellow tenants San Diego Wave FC moving their final match of the NWSL regular season to Louisville, Ky. due to concerns about the field.
“It's challenging (getting traction),” said defensive back Bryce Phillips. “But, it's something that we played on for a few weeks now, so it has to be an advantage for us at this point.”
The issue has been discussed since the Washington State game, where there were several bare spots on the field and instances where sand was seen being kicked up by the players.
“I switched to screw-in (studded cleats) last week, our equipment guy did a good job making a transition from warmups right into the game, just having everything we need,” said tight end Michael Harrison. “After that, I didn’t really notice it too much, so hopefully (it’s) the same thing this weekend.”
Phillips mentioned that it could be an advantage for the Aztecs defense against an explosive New Mexico offense. Lewis saw that as an extension of the team embracing the conditions as another way to say ‘so what now’ as it’s out of their control and focus on influencing what they can.
“I don’t have any concerns safety-wise at all,” Lewis said. “There's been a full rundown and a full plan that again, guys who know a heck of a lot more about grass than I do, that I'm leaning on them…
“I know I have an agricultural journalism degree, but I couldn’t tell you how to grow grass. So I'm going to leave that to the experts the same way I don't want the field crew telling me what to call on third down.”
History of bouncing back after big losses
SDSU’s 32-point loss at Boise State was the largest since a 49-10 loss at Air Force last season, and was the eight time since the 2014 season that the Aztecs have lost by four scores or more.
“I think everyone would agree that we didn't respond the way we need to and the way we have in other games previous to Boise State,” Harrison said. “You gotta respond the right way.
“We’ve got four games in front of us now that, how are we gonna respond…. How are we gonna respond to that and, you know, try and steal four more out of the next four?”
Over the past decade, the Aztecs have posted a 5-2 record in those “response” games and are 1-1 when the next game is at home. They notched a win over Toledo after falling by 28 at Utah in 2022 and lost in overtime to South Alabama after a 28-point loss at California in 2015.
“The growth and mastering skill and building the culture can be pretty messy, and sometimes that means getting punched in the face and taking a good old American ass whooping the way that we did (against Boise State),” Lewis said.
“We came back with the right mindset, leaned into the corrections… Guys had an energetic and spirited practice, really leaned into a really good opponent and the need to flip the page and move forward to protecting our home turf on Friday night here at Snapdragon.”