As I have mentioned several times, one of the games I drew to attend this season ended up being a contest between the Rams of Colorado state and the Aztecs of San Diego State. they played on Saturday, providing the basis of my road trip this past week. I’m not going to lie, the game was tremendously ugly. San Diego State turned the ball over 5 times and had the ball for only 4 minutes in the first half…. and they still won. Colorado State somehow had the ball the entire first half and couldn’t move the ball, and in fact the first touchdown they scored was on a fumble recovery, returned about 90 yards. The Aztecs would have destroyed Colorado State had they played the second half the way they did in the first, but it ended up being a fairly close game, where the Rams scored their first offensive touchdown with 2 and a half minutes to go, bringing the game to within 5. A few stories and observations from the game and the events surrounding.
– As soon as we checked into our hotel, which was right down the road from Qualcomm Stadium, football home of the San Diego State Aztecs, and immediately found out the hotel was home to the Colorado State team and traveling party. Before we went to the game, my friend Joel and I stopped at the hotel bar to take advantage of Happy Hour (the wings were excellent). Joel must have a pleasant disposition, because out of nowhere, a gentleman named Norris came up to us and started talking to Joel about the upcoming game. Turns out, he was the father of the Rams’ starting free safety. After Norris introduced himself to Joel, he had to ask how to get to the stadium, and then Norris got to know Joel, even introduced us to his family. Naturally, come game time, we kept our eyes peeled for #22 Elijah-Blu Smith. He ended up recovering one of the Aztecs’ fumbles in the 4th quarter, but his efforts were not enough.
– Ronnie Hillman can really run. He is only a freshman, otherwise he would get some attention in the NFL draft this year. He ran for 151 yards and didn’t seem to break any big runs, he was just incredibly consistent. This must be the way he always is, because he already has over 1000 yards in his freshman campaign. Excellent recruit for SDSU.
– After we got there and got our tickets, Joel decided he wanted some SDSU apparel. We stopped at one of the San Diego State shops inside of Qualcomm and he got himself a sweatshirt. Joel must have a pleasant disposition, because a woman and her college age son asked to bother him him. “Look at him, Jack, isn’t this a nice sweatshirt?” The son looks horribly uncomfortable. “Yeah… great.” “But isn’t it nice? Look at it, Jack!” Son looks uncomfortable. “Yeah, it’s nice”. Then they thanked us and moved on.
– Colorado State QB Pete Thomas has the weakest arm I’ve ever seen in person. If his passes were animals, they would be ducks. I don’t think he through a single hard, tight spiral on the evening. I have no idea, then, howe he kept connecting on so many long third down passes.
– Every team has a big third down chant or cheer or something. The Aztecs used this from 300, followed by a big cat growly screech. Let me tell you, Colorado State reached third down a lot. And they always played that damn sound effect on third down at Qualcomm. It never worked.
– I complain about uniforms a lot. This is what Colorado State wore.
– All the Chargers stuff around the stadium was pretty funny. Everything had lightning bolts, even the beer cups at the game. And there were an absolute ton of Philip Rivers pictures littering the stadium. Loser.
– There seemed to be a lot of people just wearing red shirts in order to show their support for the Aztecs. We saw Indiana, Wisconsin and Nebraska. At the end of the game, Nebraska must have thought Joel had a pleasant disposition, because he stopped to vent about the Aztecs inadequacies in keeping the ball, Joel just smiled and nodded, and guy in the Nebraska shirt felt like he made a friend. Everyone came out a winner.
– A group of Colorado State female fans got a little rowdy (I’ve heard things about Fort Collins) and were giving the SDSU fans the finger and hollering. Meanwhile, behind them, Ronnie Hillman was running for a 30 yard touchdown. Justice.
I really enjoyed my time in San Diego. Mostly, fans of each team were enthusiastic but very friendly. Tomorrow, I’ll chat a bit about the rest of the trip
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