No. 19 Ranked Aztecs Face Boise State in MWC Matchup

San Diego State vs Boise State

On Saturday, October 14, San Diego State will host the Boise State Broncos in their third conference game of the season.

The game is at 7:30 pm and will be televised on the CBS Sports Network.

The Aztecs have now won three straight games as a nationally ranked team. They hope to make it four straight come Saturday. I’d say they have a fairly strong shot at doing so.

San Diego State supporters were outraged when, after a 41-10 victory against UNLV, the Aztecs did not climb the AP top 25. For a second straight week the Aztecs find themselves ranked 19th in the nation, according to the Associated Press. To pour salt on San Diego State supporter’s wounds, the voters felt the need to bump up Notre Dame five whole spots to ultimately overtake San Diego State with their win over a now 1-5 North Carolina. A convincing win like that sure validates a large jump like that, right voters?

The 6-0 San Diego State Aztecs are now behind eight teams with a loss in their season. And they say there is no such thing as Power 5 and east coast bias.

Boise State and San Diego State seem to always play each other very well. In fact, every Mountain West team seems to play each other competitively. Some would even say that Boise State and San Diego State are rivals. SDSU head coach, Rocky Long, recently said that he doesn’t consider it to be a rivalry. He states that teams have to play each other a lot in order to be considered rivals. Long suggests that Fresno State is San Diego State’s main rival at the moment.

Boise State is known to have a high-powered, high scoring offense. That has not changed this year. The Broncos have played two quarterbacks this season in Brett Rypien and Montell Cozart. Rypien has been getting the snaps more consistently as of late, so expect him to be the signal-caller on Saturday. Boise State has not been running the ball often nor have they been running it effectively. One may be the result of the other, but regardless, it looks like they won’t be running the ball too often against the Aztec defense. And if they do, the defensive line is sure to give running backs trouble. Their leading rusher, Alexander Mattison, only has 284 rush yards on the season.

Boise State is an “air-it-out” type of team, so if the SDSU defense can get to the quarterback, he might throw some errant passes, and that may lead to some takeaways for San Diego State. I see big games coming from junior defensive lineman Noble Hall and senior defensive lineman Sergio Phillips. I predict at least one sack by each of them on Saturday night.

San Diego State’s offense is one that strikes fear into their opponents. The funny thing is, they have not even had their best game yet. Many people, including coach Rocky Long and quarterback Christian Chapman, have said that we have not seen the best game from Heisman hopeful, Rashaad Penny. I expect Penny to potentially have his best game against a struggling Broncos defense.

Christian Chapman is not a name to scoff at either. Like I said in previous articles, Chapman is no longer a game manager who only throws little dump-offs to the halfback. The junior quarterback makes the plays he needs to get the Aztecs that elusive win each and every week. This shows, as Christian Chapman has a .813 winning percentage as the San Diego State starter.

If Rashaad Penny and Christian Chapman are on their game, this San Diego State offense will be a nightmare for Boise State. They are the two difference makers on offense and their play should determine the outcome of the game.

I see San Diego State having a very good game against a tough in-division team. In fact, I think this game may be the breakout game for the team and a few specific players on both sides of the ball. This game will dictate how the rest of the season goes and if they win, it is quite possible that San Diego State could run the table and reach a very prestigious bowl game. That may be too far to look ahead though. Rocky Long and his players always stress the “one game at a time”, narrative so I’ll roll with that too.

If San Diego State plays like we know they can play, they will beat this Boise State team pretty handily. Now they just have to execute the game plan that coach Rocky Long lays out for them.

Campbell Doyon

Campbell is a senior in High School. He has been a San Diego sports fan all his life and forever will be. Fan of the Padres, Chargers (undecided), Aztecs, Lightning, Bayern Munich, USMNT, and the future San Diego MLS club. He hopes to spread his knowledge and love for San Diego sports to as many people he can.