Aztecs have hands, minds full vs. Air Force

As often as they have played service academy teams, and as much success as they’ve had against them, you might think the San Diego State coaching staff goes to a drawer in the office, finds the tab “option team,” and pulls out a blueprint for a victory.

Not really, even if they do have seven straight wins combined against Air Force, Army and Navy, tying them for tops in the country, with Rocky Long as a head coach owning 10 victories against the academies.

“You can’t defense them the same every time,” Aztecs safeties coach Danny Gonzales said this week. “If you do really good against them one year, and then you come back with the same game plan, they will torch you up. They’ll know where to block and they’ll cut your guys down like trees.”

Thus, the Aztecs have been urgently developing a strategy to stop a resurgent Air Force team that visits Qualcomm Stadium at 6:30 p.m. on Friday as a five-point underdog. It wasn’t the ideal time for a short week coming off a string of games against spread offenses, including a tough loss at Boise State on Saturday.

“To properly prepare for it, it’d have to be your opening game, or a bowl game,” Gonzales said. “Shoot, two weeks might not be enough, but one less day (than a regular week) … that’s makes it really tough.”

That is SDSU’s reality, though, with a bowl berth hanging in the balance. Air Force, the Mountain West’s comeback team of the year, already has clinched a bowl with an 8-2 record, while the Aztecs (5-5, 3-3 in MW) need to win one more game to become bowl eligible for a fifth straight season, and take the last two games to keep alive slim West Division title hopes.

For Gonzales’ safeties, Air Force is a particularly daunting team to deal with this season. Falcons quarterback Kale Pearson, explosive on the ground, has been an effective passer, deftly pulling up on running at times to throw passes to surprisingly wide-open receivers – to the count of 13 touchdowns.

That’s the problem, Gonzales said, when too many defenders abandon too early their own responsibilities and bite on the run. Wait too long, though, and if Pearson keeps it or hands off to fast and shifty back Jacobi Owens, a breakaway touchdown run can happen in the blink of an eye.

“We gave up a long one in practice today looking at the wrong thing,” Gonzales said on Tuesday.

“The speed they move at is so much faster than any of the stuff we see,” he added.

The pressure is on a group of young safeties who have progressively performed better as the year wore on.

“I think the safeties on our team have made the most improvement of any position,” Long said. “I thought the first two weeks were really, really shaky, but they’ve continued to get better as we’ve gone on.”

The two Warrior safety positons have been manned a majority of the time by sophomore Malik Smith and redshirt freshman Trey Lomax. At Warrior safety, sophomore transfer Na’im McGee and sophomore Brandon Porter have almost equally split time, though Porter made his first career start against Boise as McGee recovered from a shoulder injury.

Porter, from Monroe, La., was praised for an end-zone pass breakup that forced Boise into a field goal and a great backfield tackle for a loss. But Gonzales said there were four possible “big-time” plays that he didn’t make, including being beaten on the same end-zone play he earlier defended.

“I’m proud of him. I think he’s doing a great job,” Gonzales said.

Said Porter, who also contributes significantly on special teams, “My aggressiveness and toughness, that’s what I’ve progressed on the most.”