-Long said eye discipline will be key on defense.

"The staff will tailor some plays for Christian [Chapman] to take advantage of what he does best.

Translation: simpler reads and rollouts.

-Air Force blitzes a lot and play a lot of man coverage.

-Christian carries himself a lot more confidently than he did during the spring. Was pleased with how he handled stepping in when Maxwell went down.

-Long on Roberts: makes the reads correctly most of the time and his pitches are accurate. Also doesn't miss wide open receivers.

"He does not miss 'em. Puts it where they can catch it and keep running."

Air Force has had 11 rushers earn over 100 yards in games this year. Long not focused on one in particular other than Owens running the dive plays.

-Long said Noble Hall probably won't play (abdomen inflammation).

SDSU down to six d-linemen.

Sanchez/Barrett/Kelley
Watson/Jackson/Phillips/Rochelin.

Long says that's more worrisome than Maxwell Smith's absence.

We're all aware how good of a player Jake Fely has been (not to mention his absence vs. South Alabama), and with that said, there's no question who replaces him next season will be huge.

Lakalaka can be the guy, as can Tezino, Thayer or even Carroll. But in order to be safe, SDSU is still pursuing a couple second level linebackers to help man the position.

The obvious prospect is Carlsbad LB Troy Cassidy, who is also being pursued by Boise State.

SDSU is also taking a look at San Bernardino Valley College linebacker Temerick Harper, a former Fresno St. player. Harper has changed his body over the last year and is in much better shape and can cover more fluidly. Check out his film below. Offer worthy?

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/61327/highlights/286178375/v2

I made a note about Ryan Dunn chasing the pitch man instead of defending FB dive on Monday and Long was worried his team wouldn't be ready.

Today, Long said there was a play where both ends took the tackles outside shoulder to go wide and the fullback beat them up the gut.

He said he's just as worried after Wednesdays practice about the triple option as he was following Monday.

Also said to look at the New Mexico Air Force score and total yards. Those teams know the triple option inside out but still struggled against it because the players have faced different styles week to week.

Donnell Greene just let me know that he decommitted today.

http://sports.yahoo.com/sandiegostate/football/recruiting/player-Donnell-Greene-178030

This was likely a mutual decision because of academics.

Maxwell Smith has a torn MCL not ACL (Rocky misspoke and said he's too old to remember those things). Smith actually told the staff he may try to play in a bowl game and wait to have surgery after the game. Doctors said it would be fine because you can't tear it anymore anyway. He would play with a brace on his left knee.

"That's his plan right now."

Crazy if he does play.

you really have to tip your cap to both of these guys....I think Rocky has been doing a great job for yrs in terms of building the program and it all came together this yr...most of us expected State to have a good yr.... New Mexico on the other hand really suprised me. theyve both done a great job and I'm a big fan of Rockys....but i think Davies results were much less probable.

I know that they cant give them access to a bowl but i dont know about the Championship game.

I'm not a big fan of them because you can't build programs around a guy that comes in for a single year. That being said, I know a lot of you know the QB situation a lot better than myself. If Maxwell doesn't come back for a 6th year and you don't think Chapman can do the job, who do you suspect that SDSU would go after as a Sr transfer?

I saw the Louisville QB is graduating and wants to transfer. He had pretty good numbers before he got hurt.

http://espn.go.com/college-football...lle-cardinals-qb-gardner-transfer-father-says

Who else is out there? It be a shame with such a senior laden returning class to have an under-performing QB. And don't get ruffled, I'm not saying Chapman can't do the job, I'm just regurgitating some of the doubts I've heard on here.

A couple of players SDSU looked past in recruiting will take on the Aztecs in the pyramid tonight. Should be a very good test...

SDSU offered Hillsboro (Oreg.) Liberty ILB Kaelin Himphill tonight.

Really good film:

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3735404.../www.hudl.com/athlete/3735404/kaelin-himphill

On Smith, injury impact (w/ tidbit on Noble Hall) and tidbit on Ryan Dunn.

https://sandiegostate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1832340

Weird line. AFA opened as a 3.5 point favorite and it went to 5.5 favorite. Then over the course of 3 hours switched to SDSU being the favorite by 5.5 and has settled at SDSU by 7 points.

I have to believe they thought the game was mistakenly in Colorado for such a swing to happen. Vegas doesn't normally get it wrong like that.

Alex Barrett is at nose on depth chart. Kyle Kelley at DE.

Sergio Phillips is practicing at d-line.

111 yards from 1000 yard season. Have we ever had two 1000 yard rushers in one year? What a guy! ON top of that our top four rushers are all averaging over 5 yards a carry. What a Oline!!!

Heyward will wait 6 weeks for MCL to heal to have acl/mcl knee surgery. If his MCL is stronger by then that means his rehab won't be as long.

was tied with Kentucky at halftime 36-36 at Kentucky.

Reminder, this was SDSU's first opponent this year with Aztecs winning 71-60

I'm not sure if you guys recall but SDSU QBs coach Blane Morgan mentioned in our Q&A that Maxwell Smith was "dinged up" toward the end of camp and that explained why Jake Rodrigues was able to standout a little more, in my opinion, down the final stretch.

I found out recently that Smith actually sprained his thumb/hand and was indeed playing hurt/with irritation. Smith is now 100 percent, though, and it shouldn't be an issue during summer workouts/fall camp moving forward unless of course he reaggravates it. It's something to watch for moving forward, but it sounds like it shouldn't be an issue at least entering fall camp.

http://www.themw.com/news/mwfb-15-champ-site
http://www.themw.com/news/mwfb-15-champ-site

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - By virtue of its higher composite computer average in the rankings of Sunday, Nov. 29, San Diego State will host Air Force in the 2015 Sports Authority Mountain West Football Championship Game on Saturday, Dec. 5 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. PT and will be televised on ESPN2.
....
Tickets for the 2015 Sports Authority Mountain West Football Championship game are available through both the San Diego State (877-737-8039) and Air Force (719-472-1895) ticket offices.

anyone know how well they travel?
We likely to see a good group of fans for AF?

Just saw this pop up:

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Per SDSU:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- San Diego State football’s Malik Smith (Compton, Calif.) has been named the Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week, the league announced today. It is the first career award for the junior Warrior (safety) and the league-high seventh overall weekly award for the Aztecs this year.

Smith had eight tackles (seven solo), an interception and three pass breakups in SDSU’s 31-14 win over Nevada on Saturday, clinching a perfect MW season (8-0) for San Diego State. The interception (his fourth in five games) came in the end zone as the Wolf Pack was on the Aztec 8-yard line, keeping the score in a 14-7 favor for SDSU. His three PBU’s tied a career high and were one more than the rest of San Diego State and Nevada had combined (two). Smith ended up tying for the team lead with eight stops, while his seven solo tackles topped the team.

On the season, Smith has 64 tackles (34 solo), 3.5 tackles for loss, four interceptions, seven pass breakups, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a quarterback hurry, starting all 12 games.

The Aztecs (9-3, 8-0 MW) will play host to Air Force (8-4, 6-2 MW) in the 2015 Sports Authority Mountain West Football Championship this Saturday (Dec. 5), beginning at 4:30 p.m. PT.

Your thoughts please.
I've mentioned a couple of times that I'd like to see Chapman on the roll out/bootleg, and maybe a flanker screen or two, As to the first, Chapman is mobile and rolling out might give him better field vision. As for the flanker screens, we really haven't shown it that much and because we're running so well, I would think too opposing dbs would be backing off and maybe cheating towards the box a bit. Or is this throwing too much at Chapman. Let him stay in the pocket and make sure he gets the ball to Pumphrey.

What if we could trade Kansas for SDSU? Kansas come to the Mountain West and SDSU go to the Big 12? Wouldn't that be great?. Bring in Oklahoma every other year. Just a thought.