Coach G was great today

https://sandiegostate.rivals.com/ne...onfidence-kelly-not-happy-with-zero-turnovers

Good
Christian Chapman picked apart UNLV's zone scheme with some very accurate throws

CBs had great games and weren't beat downfield

Defensive line keeps getting better and better

UNLV had a few chunk plays but the Aztecs kept them from sustaining any long drives

Antonio Rosales returned and even got some rest in the fourth quarter

Mikah Holder didn't get ejected

Rashaad Penny's truck stick seemed to pump up the entire offense in the second half

Bad
Armani Rogers 45 yard run. I knew Rogers wasn't going to break any long runs but all it took was one bad read against the option to let him run to a wide open field.

Parker Baldwin getting beat in the end zone

Pope/Bawden didn't return following their hand surgeries.

Since Isaac Lessard played so well last night, the staff may take a conservative approach with Nick Bawden (hand) in terms of his return. I'm not saying Lessard will start again next week, but Bawden won't be rushed back to pactice.

Ryan Pope should return yo practice this week.

I'm guessing it will be between 6.5-7.5.

Over/under around 48.

Boise State Broncos Blue Turf Board message board are not very confident over beating us this weekend. Apparently they realize they have digressed and we have significantly improved. Boise always concerns me due to trick plays and our recent issues of making stupid mistakes. Also our health is a concern. Need Bawdin and Rosales healthy. Remember to wear your Red! Go Aztecs beat the donkeys!

Are they the cream of the mountain div?
They the ones we meet in the CCG?

Expecting a lot of recruits to show up but one that I have confirmed already is a local freshman:

Bishop's QB Tyler Buchner, a 14 year old who is committed to Michigan for Lacrosse and already has a UCLA football offer. You may have to reread that sentence a few times but it is legit. He's a really good (young) athlete.

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Injured guys to watch for during the first drives:

Antonio Rosales/Dominic Gudino
Ryan Pope/Joe Salcedo/Kyle Spalding

Nick Bawden/Isaac Lessard/John Carroll

Parker Baldwin/Darren Hall

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Also offered by Ole Miss this afternoon. You can tell the different excitement levels between the tweets lol

Subject of this thread, score from last night, says it all to make me grin from ear to ear. BYU is now 1-4 on the season with only win on the season being vs Portland State.

This is first of six MW games on BYU's schedule this season by the way. Utah State isn't on SDSU's schedule this year.

From Athlon:
San Diego State at UNLV
San Diego State is mastering the art of the close win. The Aztecs have defeated Stanford by three, Air Force by four and Northern Illinois by six in the past three weeks. This trip to UNLV shouldn’t be as stressful.San Diego State 34, UNLV 20

I hope he's right, but I have no warmth and fuzzies. Hang in there, Matt

What do you see as his strengths and weaknesses?

Nathan Mensah is now on board.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/nathan-mensah-52809

The two Mensah's have been at the top of their wish list for quite some time. These are great gets considering SDSU began to recruit several other bigs just in case the Mensah's didn't pan out with commitments.

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Practice was closed but I could tell right away that Rocky Long was not happy about whatever happened back there today. He actually refused to talk about practice at one point.

Trying to get something out of him, I asked if there's anything the players can do better during Thursday's final practice, but he again refused to talk about practice. That was strike two. I didnt bother taking another swing after that. The tension was too much to handle.




Heading home now. I'll post up some injury updates in a bit.

Thought this was a pretty nice article and it's always good to spread publicity in the LA area.

Rocky has an interesting quote about it taking 3 years for the San Diego NFL fans to get over there Chargers.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/more/la-sp-san-diego-state-football-20171005-story,amp.html

Will our Vegas commits be there? Any other recruits there to see us?

Only 8 players. Hemsley,Tiki,Narain and Seiko absent. Flu,hurt back didn't hear about Hemsley.
Rooks has skinny legs and is slow on defense.Not much of a shot blocker.But has a few moves down low.Maybe we can toss it inside to the post with a chance to score-something we have not had for years.Will open things up.
Can't coach 7'1" If he can play 20+ minutes and stay healthy will make us better than last year.
Watson is tiny but smart and fearless and can score the ball.High basketball IQ.Maybe we have a true point guard,sees the floor way better than Hemsley,at least we will get a shot in crunch time. Definite upgrade from last year.
Pope seemed to be moving OK-no wraps.Again if he can play 25+ for a full year, we will be better than last year.
Kell is a little less fat but still not shooting any better.Still Rooks,Watson,Pope and Kell are starters for sure.If Kell takes it to the hoop and lets Watson take the 3, again we will be better at the end than last year.
Mitchell has a man's body,doesn't look like a freshman.Not sure where or how he fits but has skills and is ready to play. Maybe he takes Tiki's minutes?
Max has ditched his knee braces-in my top 7,can rebound and shoot.If he stays healthy and gets a little more confidence in his knees, he could really help us.He would be my 5th starter.
20 or so of his minutes I would share between Kell,Watson and Hemsley. OR switch between big and small lineups?
The "pipe stem" RFR claimed to be 20 lbs heavier but looks as spindly as ever to me.Not sure where he fits. Short relief for Rooks,Pope,Max.
The true FR wing looks like a freshman,about 16. Be very surprised if he doesn't red shirt.Needs to get stronger.Not sure who he could guard.
Can't see where any time would come for Seiko and Narain unless someone gets hurt.
Lot of teaching going on-Hudson most active.Dutch mostly watching his assistants work.Trying to run more.For a big guy Rooks gets down and back pretty well.
Velasquez handed me a copy of the detailed plan for practice.Everything timed.Enjoyed the taking a charge drill.Something new.Shelton plays a lot with the scout team.

Go Aztecs

So on Tariq Thompson's game changing interception, he did exactly what I would have done, sit down, play it safe so there couldn't be any more stupid penalties, like blocking in the back. But wouldn't you know it, Mr Hall had another unsportsmanlike penalty.

The first one really got to me. I thought Rocky should have pulled his ass right then and there.

I really hate STUPID penalties. I know it's a win but It felt like we regressed.

Hero:

https://sports.yahoo.com/brewers-pr...rts&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social

Color analyst for Saturday’s game:

http://506sports.com/ncaaf.php?yr=2017&wk=6

Two starting OL were out during today's open portion.

Antonio Rosales limp (ankle) still looks horrible when he runs. He was mostly watching OL drills but he also worked on his get off. Looked like he was testing out his ankle but it still looked bad.

Rosales also shadowed Dom Gudino on the side during reps. Again, he didn't look comfortable.

Tim Wilson (Thumb) and RT Ryan Pope (pinky and ring) had wraps on their hands and didn't stretch with the team. Wilson didn't have a helmet and he left after warmups.

Pope was likely lmited since he did have his helmet and remained with the OL. Joe Salcedo was the first team right tackle because of this. Kyle Spalding also had some reps there at RT. Spalding has improved.

I'm not sure about the status of Wilson but Pope definitely has a broken finger accrding to Long.

As expected, DB Trenton Thompson wasn't at practice (surgery).

LB Temerick Harper and FB Grady Vasquez are still with the injured group.

Rashaad Penny's visor is still on.

Kam Kelly huddled the team up again. This week's theme sounded like "dominate"

The coaches gave Ethan Dedeaux a hard time because he kept dropping punt returns. When he finally caught one, Rocky gave a sarcastic 'yaaaay' at the freshman.

Team did a lot of punt coverage drills to start practice. Coaches were cheering on the scout team who were doing a great job blocking against the first team punt coverage unit. Giving the first team a good challenge since they have been inconsistent during games.

Also saw some 1v1 action:

Kam Kelly lost to Mikah Holder on a back shoulder completion.

Quest Truxton beat Trey Lomax on a nice move up the seam for a completion. It looked like Lomax was lined up at warrior during that rep.

Dwayne Johnson Jr was on the first rotation of 1v1s, indicating that Parker Baldwin (knees) will sit today's practice as well. It also indicates that they want Lomax at warrior and they believe Baldwin should be good to go this week.

The last rep I saw before getting escorted out was a nice comeback route and completion by Fred Trevillion against CB Tayler Hawkins.

Reports and video of semi-automatic weapons firing at Mandalay Bay. Shooter at front desk of NYNY. Heard "subjects down" at Zumanity. Swat teams. Active shooter at Tropicana. The Strip is on lock down.

I know this doesn't mean anything right now as things are still ongoing but SDSU plays in Las Vegas this weekend.

-Parker Baldwin had some wraps on his knees and didn't practice. During the open portion he watched the defense from afar with the DB coaches.

After getting it banged up against AFA, he tweaked it again on his own when Kam Kelly was running back his interception return.

-I have an idea of what it will look like if he can't practice much this week.

[EDIT: There was a scout team player that moved to warrior safety on defense. He looked very similar to Kelly and was wearing a No. 7 jersey but it wasn't Kelly.] I

The starting safety trio was freshman Tariq Thompson and redshirt freshman Darren Hall at the Warrior spots, with Trey Lomax at Aztec.

Kameron Kelly and Ron Smith were the first team corners.

My guess is that if Baldwin can't heal up in time Hall will likely start against UNLV.

The second team secondary was (from left to right) Hawkins, Israel Cabrera, Dwayne Johnson, Kelly and Kyree Woods.

-War safety Trenton Thompson (ankle) was in trainer shoes again. Didn't even run on it so I doubt he can help at safety this week. He's basically the only backup with legit experience so his absence could really hurt this week.

-Antonio Rosales had his left ankle heavily wrapped and he was limping very very bad again (when running). Dom Gudino was with the first team.

-Rashaad Penny had a visor on again.

-Darryl Richardson was on the sidelines doing stretches but practiced.

-Temerick Harper looked better today but didn't practice. Guessing he could be back soon.

-Dakota Turner practiced again, which hopefully indicating that his knees held up against NIU.

-Schmidt had the OL do explosion dtills against the team sled (on their knees). That's a big need for improvement with the o-line.

-DE Myles Cheatum had his right knee wrapped but practiced.

-I didn't see WR Tim Wilson practice (hand/concussion).

-Eagles and Titans scouts were at practice.

Last night, the play calling or more like the conservative play calling in the last quarter was terrible. Horton is a good OC but the attitude of not taking risk at the end was pretty sad. I know Penny is their bread and butter but it could be seen that the run up the middle to Penny wasn't going to happen. With freshmen in the interior of the offensive line, they were struggling.

NIU definitely had the size advantage and was pushing the interior line pretty successfully. They were definitely calling plays not to lose instead of playing to shut the door on the victory. I know the team won, but the next few opponents are going to watch this game film and are going to try to do closely to the exact game plan against the Aztecs.

As a recruit last night, I was far from impressed with the less than aggressive play calling. I saw an offense afraid to go for it and not willing to have a go for win type of attitude that has been impressive in these recent years.

Again, I know the team won, but what will happen next time? They might not be so lucky. I'm just saying, they need to play with the aggressive attitude that Rocky's teams have been so famous for and not regress to what they were playing yesterday.

The play calling was very predictable and in league play, that is going to hurt the team. I'm hoping this was just a bad night and the team makes their adjustments and not play so tight. Unfortunately, when the team is ranked, they just seem to play really tight and not play like the loose attitude they usual play with.

Hopefully, they will just play with the controlled recklessness (Not like Noble Hall yesterday... Wow), that has brought them back to the success that has earned them the last 2 championships. Just saying.