It’s a battle of struggling Mountain West programs on the gridiron in the Silver State. The San Diego State Aztecs are on the road as they make the trip to face the Nevada Wolf Pack Saturday night. San Diego State comes in off a bye week they last. The Aztecs squeaked out a 16-14 win over Hawaii at home in their previous contest back on October 8. Nevada was drubbed 31-16 on the road by Hawaii in their previous contest last Saturday night. In the all-time series between the teams, the Aztecs own an 8-4 advantage, including a 23-21 home victory in the most recent meeting back on November 13, 2021.
San Diego State managed to scratch out a win over Hawaii at home in their previous game and had two weeks to prepare for this contest. The Aztecs enter this game 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the Mountain West’s West Division as they look for their second straight win here to climb over the .500 mark. Against Hawaii, San Diego State led 3-0 after the opening quarter, 10-7 at the half, 10-7 after three quarters and 13-7 early in the fourth quarter. The Aztecs gave up a touchdown to trail 14-13 with 1:19 to play before going 56 yards in seven plays to set up the game-winning field goal from 26 yards away with seven seconds to go. San Diego State held a 417-342 advantage in total offense, rolled up 22 first downs while allowing 17, dominated time of possession 36:10 to 23:50 and forced the game’s lone turnover.
On the year, the Aztecs are 127th in the nation in passing offense as they average 108.3 yards per game through the air while they are 46th in rushing offense with 176 yards per contest on the ground. San Diego State is 119th in the FBS in scoring offense with an average of 18.5 points per game while they are 49th in scoring defense by allowing 23.8 points per contest. Jalen Mayden has completed 24 of 36 passes for 322 yards plus a score while adding nine rushing yards. Braxton Burmeister (36 of 72, 263 yards, two TD, three INT, 185 rushing yards, TD), Kyle Crum (five of 17, 53 yards, TD, INT), William Haskell (three of seven, 12 yards, 19 rush yards) and Liu Aumavae (zero of seven, zero yards) have all seen action under center as well. Jordan Byrd leads the team on the ground with 52 carries for 307 yards and three scores. Jaylon Armstead (18 carries, 190 yards), Chance Bell (22 carries, 105 yards), Cam Davis (28 carries, 104 yards, TD) and Kenan Christon (32 carries, 98 yards) have all been involved in the run game. Jess e Matthews leads the team with 16 receptions for 162 yards this season. Tyrell Shavers (15 catches, team-high 214 yards, two TD) is the only other player with more than 76 receiving yards. Jack Browning has hit all 12 extra point attempts and nine of 10 field goal attempts with a long of 50.