2018 College Football Team Previews: San Diego State Aztecs
San Diego State Aztecs
Location: San Diego, CA
Coach: Rocky Long (64-29 @SDSU, 129-98 overall) 8th Season
Stadium: SDCCU Stadium (Capacity: 70,561)
CSJ Projections:
3rd: Mountain West (2nd West Division)
6th: California
59th: FBS
57th: Division I
2017 In A Sentence: The Aztecs have become a dominant force in the Mountain West, although SDSU slipped a little last year in finishing second in the division to Fresno State but still finished 10-3 overall–its third straight season of at least 10 wins but an Armed Forces Bowl loss to Army soured the season a little.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: RB Rashaad Penny posted the top rushing campaign in school history (nation-leading 2,248 yards along with 23 touchdowns). He finished in a fifth-place finish in Heisman Trophy voting last year. He was selected in the first round of the NFL Draft this past spring by the Seattle Seahawks.
Key Player: RB Juwan Washington looks to be the next big running back in the recent history of the Aztecs–joining Penny and before him Donnel Pumphrey. After just two seasons in a back-up role, Washington already has 1,200 yards rushing so he likely will not be a drop-off at all to the production Penny.
Fearless Prediction: San Diego State has the talent to try for a third MWC title in four years especially since six starters return on defense. Two games in the first three against Pac-12 foes in Stanford and in Arizona State will really tell us how good this team will be. Expect SDSU to be in the MWC West title hunt and the game at Fresno State in mid-November will likely be the essential division title game.
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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