Aztecs can still hurt opponents with run game
Mountain West Conference defenses, here’s a Penny for your thoughts.
Sure, San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey, last year’s national leader in rushing, is gone. He’s now a Philadelphia Eagle and he can’t hurt you anymore. Rashaad Penny most definitely can. Penny, a senior from Norwalk, Calif., is best known for the kick-return talents that have made him the Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year the past two seasons.
But, in relief of Pumphrey last fall, Penny rushed for 1,018 yards. His average yards per carry, 7.5, was better than Pumphrey’s (6.1).
He’s looking forward to his role as the next star Aztec running back in the tradition of Marshall Faulk, Larry Ned, Adam Muema, Ronnie Hillman, and, of course, Pumphrey.
“It’s big,” he said late last month at the Mountain West Media Summit in Las Vegas, Nev. “I’ve got a big role to take on being the featured back. I’m excited. I’m just trying to do the same things (Pumphrey’s) done. I want to become a better leader first and then go from there.
“But our number one goal as a team is to win championships.”
In that regard, can the Aztecs, two-time defending MWC champions, go back-to-back-to-back? Their standing in the league’s preseason West Division media poll, in which SDSU garnered all 27 first-place votes, suggests they can. Not so fast, says seventh-year Aztecs coach Rocky Long. This is a relatively young SDSU team, he pointed out. And Long disputes the commonly held notion that his team is head, shoulders and cleats better than its West Division competition.
“The target on our back just got bigger (after the poll was released),” the former New Mexico player and coach said. “So, we’re gonna get (every league opponents’) best.”
Those opponents will get Penny’s best, as well. Much bigger than Pumphrey at 5-foot-11 and 220 pounds, he’s almost as fast.
Long compared Pumphrey to Rodney Ferguson, the Manzano graduate who rushed for 3,516 yards and 33 touchdowns as Long’s starting tailback at UNM from 2006-08 — but with one major difference.
“Rashaad’s a power guy,” Long said. “He’s gonna look like he’s going really, really slow, and then he’s gonna see a hole and he’s gonna dart through that hole. You’d better put your whole body in that hole, or you’re not gonna slow him down.
“Then if he gets out in the open, he can outrun you. Rodney was a lot like that, but Rodney couldn’t outrun you.”
As prolific as the Aztecs were on the ground last year, they’re not hurting at quarterback, either. Junior Christian Chapman threw for 20 touchdowns in 2016 with just six interceptions.
On defense, Long’s career-long calling card, SDSU is without 2016 all-league performers in linebacker Calvin Munson and cornerback Demontae Kazee. But linebacker Ronley Lakalaka (73 tackles last fall) and “Aztec” safety Parker Baldwin (66 stops, 7½ sacks, 13 tackles for loss) return.