Game Details

Date: Saturday, September 16, 2023

Time: 12:30 pm PT

Channel: Fox Sports 1

Betting Line: OSU -24.5, O/U 48.5 (BetMGM Sportsbook)

Location: Reser Stadium (Corvallis, OR)

Records: SDSU 2-1 (0-0), OSU 2-0 (0-0)

Series: OSU 3-2

The San Diego State Aztecs play their first road game of the season against No.16/17 Oregon State this week. After suffering their first defeat of the season to UCLA by 25 points this past Saturday, the Aztecs competition gets even tougher as they close out their four-game non-conference schedule before beginning Mountain West Conference play.  

SDSU head coach Brady Hoke spoke Tuesday about evaluating the performance against UCLA and learning from the mistakes. 

“There are some positives, and there’s much more negatives from the other night, but there’s a lot we can learn,” Hoke said. “If you watched practice yesterday, I thought our guys went out there and had a good work ethic.”

“We’ve just got to come back together and play better; there’s not a whole lot of secrets,” he added later.

The Beavers, led by sixth-year head coach Jonathan Smith, come off two blowout wins to start the season, one on the road at San Jose State (42-17) and the other at home against UC Davis (55-7). 

After winning the first two matchups in series history (1972 and 1975), the Aztecs have lost the last three to the Beavers, including a home-and-home series in 2013 and 2014. In the last matchup, Donnel Pumphrey’s TD on the opening drive of the game were the only points the Aztecs would score.

SDSU has lost 65 of its 75 games all-time against AP Top 25 teams but has won three of its last six.  

The Beavers are scheduled to travel to San Diego to play the second game of this home-and-home series on September 19, 2026. With the possibility that the teams could be in the same conference as early as 2024, that game may need to be canceled.  

When SDSU has the ball: Advantage – OSU

Offense

The Aztecs’ offensive performance against UCLA (10 points, 259 total yards, 3.6 ypp, 3 turnovers) left much to be desired. The 115th offense in the country (322 ypg) has failed to produce consistency in either the passing or rushing game through three games.

Against UCLA, the team held the ball for nearly 35 minutes, 10 minutes more than the opponents, but two dropped touchdowns, and a failed 4th down conversion cost the Aztecs anywhere from 14 to 18 points. 

“We had some opportunities to make some plays,” recalled Hoke. “We are a young team in some of those spots; we haven’t played much at some of those spots, and we just have to grow up fast.”

RB Kenan Christon (27 carries, 112 yards) reiterated on Tuesday the importance of winning the time of possession and keeping the defense off the field and fresh, but admitted scoring points is the key to the game. 

“We want to try to score a point a minute,” Christon stated. “We just have to be better, finishing our drives, finishing in the red zone, and scoring more points.”

QB Jalen Mayden (50/84, 445 yards, 3 TD, 3 INT) went the first 10 quarters of the season without an INT but threw three against the Bruins in the second half. He continues to lead the team with 184 rushing yards and 2 TDs, although the majority of that damage was done against FCS Idaho State. 

During his Monday press conference, Smith talked about how impressive the Aztecs are on film and the physicality they bring at the line of scrimmage. In order for the Aztecs to compete against the Beavers on the field, it is imperative for the offensive line to use that physicality to open lanes for the running backs to produce yards and explosive plays. 

Jaylon Armstead (27 carries, 147 yards) leads the running back room with 5.4 ypc. He has the same number of carries as Christon in 55 fewer snaps (42 vs 97). 

TE Mark Redman (2 TDs) and WR Mekhi Shaw (1 TD) are the only players with greater than 100 receiving yards and TD catches. Phillippe Wesley made his first appearance of the season against UCLA, catching 2 passes for 25 yards. Josh Nicholson will be remembered for his dropped TD catch in the 2nd quarter, but adds a speed dimension that the offense lacks. 

In last year’s first road game at a packed and raucous Utah stadium, the offense struggled with pre-snap penalties and miscommunication. At least three false start penalties were called. Both Hoke and Christon vowed to be better in that area this time around in another loud stadium. 

“Every game we play, we really focus on communication, but going on the road where we know the crowd is going to be loud, we game plan for that,” said Christon. “We have a lot of things that we work on in practice, like nonverbal cues, so that we can all keep in good communication with the loud noise going on.”

Defense

OSU defensive coordinator Trent Bray took over the reigns midway through the 2021 season. Since then, the Beavers’ 324 total yards allowed per game ranks 20th in the country. 

In Bray’s first full season in 2022, the Beavers finished 1st in the Pac-12 in total defense, scoring defense, and rushing defense. They were 1st in the country in red zone defense, only allowing scores on 67% (28 of 42) of opportunities.

“You know their defense is fast,” said Hoke. “They play fast … they’re going to be aggressive with what they do.”

Through two games in 2023, they are 11th in the nation in total defense (227 ypg) and 6th in rush defense (51.5 ypg). 

Their 8.5 TFLs per game is 14th overall, led by DL Isaac Hodgins, who recorded 3 against UC Davis. 

In his first full year as a starter, LB Easton Mascarenas-Arnold leads the team with 10 tackles and has their lone INT. 

Senior safety Kitan Oladapo leads the secondary once again with his rangy ability to play sideline to sideline. Last season, he recorded 80 tackles, 6 pass breakups, and 4.5 TFLs and earned AP All-Pac-12 First Team honors. He had 17 tackles in one game against Oregon. 

On Monday, Smith praised CB Jaden Robinson for his high level of play and for taking a big step this year. Robinson ended 2022 with a bang, collecting 7 tackles and a sack against Florida in the Las Vegas Bowl. So far this year, the junior has 8 tackles (t-3rd) and 3 pass breakups (t-1st).

Key matchup: Kenan Christon, RB, vs. Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, LB

Against UCLA, Christon appeared to be the only offensive skill position player on SDSU that could compete athletically with a Power 5 team. As a former Pac-12 athlete, Christon is well aware of the talent level across the conference. His speed, agility, and explosiveness were expected to be fully utilized and leaned on in OC Ryan Lindley’s offense. To date, that has not materialized. Christon’s 35 touches (pass and run) have yielded only 156 yards and a long gain of 20. Mascarenas-Arnold mans the interior of the second level for OSU’s defense. If SDSU’s offensive line can open holes for Christon to get to the next level, he could be in a position to break a big play by making Mascarenas-Arnold miss in the open field. 

When OSU has the ball: Advantage – OSU

Offense

The Beavers’ explosiveness on offense is clearly depicted by their 48.5 ppg (10th), 233 rush ypg (14th), and 461.5 ypg (33rd). They have scored on 14 of 20 drives (not including two drives that ended at the half or the game). 

Perhaps the most impressive statistic is being one of only nine teams in the country yet to commit a turnover. Smith acknowledged that is not a byproduct of being cautious or conservative in their approach. 

“We have a mindset that we want to be aggressive,” he claimed. 

The offensive line returned 4 players who started a combined 85 games entering the season, including All-Conference Second-Teamers Taliese Fuaga and Joshua Gray.

The biggest acquisition in the offseason was Clemson transfer QB DJ Uiagalelei (6’4, 252), the top high school quarterback in the Class of 2020. Uiagalelei played in 36 games (28 starts) in three years at Clemson, passing for 5,681 yards, 36 TDs, and 17 INTs before transferring to OSU. 

In his first game as a Beaver against San Jose State, Uiagalelei became the first OSU QB since 1996 to throw for 3 TDs and run for 2 in the same game.

“Well, he’s a big quarterback, obviously,” Garret Fountain said when asked about the QB’s strengths. “He’s got a good arm. He’s got a good line up front. He’s a tough guy that can sit in the pocket and make throws.”

Overall, Uiagalelei has completed 28 of 38 passes for 346 yards and 5 TDs. He has rushed for 3 TDs as well. Given the lopsided nature of the first two games for OSU, he has given way to backup QB Aidan Chiles (11/16, 111 yards, 1 TD) for late-game snaps. 

Six different receivers have caught TD passes, led by Silas Bolden (10 rec, 118 yards). Smith praised the distribution among the receiving units but also cited the development of the younger players who may be counted on later in the season to step up.

Ultimately, the offense goes as sophomore RB Damien Martinez (6’0, 232) goes. The class of 2022 commit who held an offer from SDSU rushed for 982 yards and 7 TDs on the way to Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and All-Pac-12 First Team honors.  

This year, he has rushed over 100 yards in both games (8 total in his career), averaging 10 ypc. Against UC Davis, he only needed 7 carries to reach the century mark. 

“He is very impressive,” said Hoke when asked about Martinez. “He’s a guy who’s very physical, but he’s quick, really good balance. Can get in and out of his burst really smoothly, and then he’s a physical guy, too. He’s not afraid to put it down and run through you.”

Defense

While a struggling offense has become the norm around the Mesa for the past several years, the team usually can count on its stout defense to keep them in games and give them a chance to win. Against UCLA, that was not the case. 

The defense gave us 358 yards and 4 TDs in the first half, including two 50+ yard TDs helped by missed assignments by defenders. 

“We gave up way too many big plays defensively, and that’s due to not tackling; that’s due to not leveraging the ball, as well,” Hoke mentioned. “I think there were six runs over 12 yards and seven passes over 15.”

He later added that while the defense played hard, they were not physical enough at the line of scrimmage to compete with the talent of UCLA.

“For starters, just some errors that we made mentally and then leveraging the ball,” Fountain said, echoing Hoke’s assessment of what went wrong. “We have to bring guys down. We just made a couple of mistakes, and we have to fix those this week in practice. I think what hurt us was really ourselves. We knew they were probably gonna go tempo, no-huddle, and so we had prepared for that. But mentally, we have to prepare better.”

Through two games, the defense led the nation with 6 INTs but had yet to force or recover a fumble. Against UCLA, LB Zyrus Fiaseu forced two fumbles the Aztecs recovered. The team’s eight turnovers is tied with Liberty for the most in the country.

Fiaseu’s Pro Football Focus (PFF) week 2 grade of 90.5 was the highest in the country among linebackers and third highest among all defensive players. 

His performance against UCLA propelled him to the top of the defense’s statistic board. He now leads the team with 18 tackles, 4 TFLs, 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and tied with 1 fumble recovery (Trey White). 

With a young and inexperienced defensive line, the Aztecs have had to generate pass rush by blitzing linebackers. The results have been mixed, only averaging 2.33 sacks and 4 TFLs per game, but a few of those blitzes have generated turnovers. 

They will have to be better at getting pressure on Uiagalelei without having to blitz. Otherwise, he will pick apart the defense if given the opportunity to buy time and wait for receivers to come open.  

Against Martinez, Fountain noted his strength and the importance of wrapping him up immediately. 

“We have to square him up and not try to make arm tackles on him because he has the ability to run through arm tackles,” he noted. “We just have to get all 11 Aztecs to the ball and get every Aztec tackling him. That’ll be a good way to stop him.”

Key matchup: Joshua Gray, LT, and Taliese Fuaga, RT, vs. Cooper McDonald, SAM LB

McDonald is 3rd in the country in QB pressures (14) per PFF. Although those pressures have only resulted in 1.5 sacks, his relentless pursuit occupying his older brother’s starting position from last year has helped SDSU’s defense through three games. No matter which side of OSU’s formation will be the strong side, McDonald will be matched up against an experienced All-Pac-12 performer. With the potent offensive weaponry OSU holds, it will be essential for the four-man pass rush to get home to Uiagalelei without requiring blitzers. McDonald possesses the best opportunity to pressure and take down the talented QB and disrupt their offense. Otherwise, it could be another long day for the Aztec secondary. 

Special Teams: Advantage – PUSH

SDSU specialist Jack Browning made his only field goal attempt against UCLA (5 for 6 on the season) but his punt average dropped again. After tallying 56.3 ypp in game 1, he has recorded 43.2 and 43 in the last two games on 12 punts. 

When asked on Tuesday whether the issue is mechanical, Hoke shook off the notion but said that he thought Browning was taking a little too long of a stride before kicking the ball away. 

Martin Blake’s 26.3 ypr (on three returns) continues to lead the team. Mekhi Shaw averages 8.0 ypr on four punt returns. 

Atticus Sappington is the placekicker, making both attempts (from 40 and 28). Josh Green averages 43.8 ypp with a long of 46.

Silas Bolden is one of six players to return a punt for a TD this season. He took one 65 yards for a score against UC Davis. For his career, he has returned 23 kickoffs for 26.8 ypr. 

Andre Haghverdian

Avid sports fan and historian of basketball, baseball, football and soccer. UC San Diego and San Diego State alumni living in America’s Finest City. Diverse team following across multiple sports leagues, but Aztecs come first in college athletics.