San Diego State is not the only Mountain West football team off to a disappointing start.
Misery apparently does love company.
Almost the entire conference is struggling out the gate. All 12 teams in the league already have at least one loss and we are barely 3 games into the young season.
The only programs that sport winning records are Air Force, Boise State, and Hawaii. The Falcons might be the best of the bunch as they only lost to then-4th ranked Michigan State by a score of 35-21.
In the previous two weeks alone, Mountain West schools are a combined 2-20 against non-conference opponents.
In week 2, the MW went 0-10 vs non-MW schools, with the lone victory belonging to Air Force after the Falcons thrashed San Jose State 37-16.
With all the teams stumbling in the early going against non-conference foes, no clear favorite has really emerged as an impressive squad in the first month.
SDSU is coming off its 5th consecutive winning season and 5 straight bowl appearances. This squad was (and still is) expected to compete for the conference title. But there’s a good chance the Aztecs could be 1-3 heading into conference play.
Since cruising in their season opener over the crosstown San Diego Toreros, the Aztecs dropped back-to-back outings in disappointing fashion.
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They battled California to a 7-7 tie at halftime, only to see the Bears outscore them 28-0 in the 2nd half and lose 35-7.
Then last weekend, SDSU had a chance to earn its 10th straight home game against visiting South Alabama but could not close it out. The Aztecs wound up losing in overtime to a team that was a double-digit underdog.
That loss ended in heartbreaking fashion as talented junior tight end Daniel Brunskill dropping a potential game-tying touchdown in Qualcomm Stadium.
Rocky Long’s squad is now sadly 1-2 as it prepares for a long flight out to Happy Valley to face Penn State.
While the MW appears to be down this year, the Big Ten is trending upward. The #1 Ohio State Buckeyes and the newly anointed #2 Spartans give that conference its 1st 1-2 punch in the AP Top 25 poll since 2010.
History doesn’t play football games but it can tell us that the Aztecs are 2-and-11 when they play in the Eastern time zone.
They dropped decisions at Ohio State and North Carolina the past couple of years. Perhaps this is a good time to mention that the Aztecs have also never played a game before in the Keystone State.
San Diego State and Penn State are set to kickoff Saturday at 12:30 PT. It’s about 2,500 miles or roughly 38 hours from the Q to Beaver Stadium if you’re making the drive.
Let’s just hope the Aztecs aren’t stuck in reverse after their first ever road game in the state of Pennyslvania.
