AZTECS PREPARING FOR COLD EVENING
Temperature of 20 degrees expected at kickoff with BYU
Saturday’s forecast in Provo, Utah, calls for a 70 percent chance of snow showers during the day with an evening temperature of about 20 degrees.
San Diego State running back/kick returner Jordan Byrd welcomes the prospect of a chilly reception when SDSU (4-3) travels to No. 18 BYU (9-1) for the nonconference game.
“I miss the cold,” Byrd said. “I’m from New Mexico. It’s always snowing there, so it’s going to be a really good game in the cold.”
Byrd earned Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week on Monday for his performance in SDSU’s win over Colorado State.
He sparked the Aztecs in the second quarter with a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Teammate BJ Busbee followed that with a 90-yard punt return TD the next time SDSU got the ball.
SDSU would welcome a similar effort from its special teams against the Cougars.
This isn’t Byrd’s first trip to BYU. A standout on the track who won seven state high school sprint titles, Byrd said he came to the campus while competing for a travel team called Big Red.
“I just remember running around their blue track,” Byrd said.
He also recalled that while it wasn’t the middle of December there was “that breeze coming down from the mountains. There was still snow in the mountains.”
Snow could be falling at LaVell Edwards Stadium when Byrd and his teammates step on the field Saturday night.
How will that impact the elite speed that makes Byrd a threat to go the distance whenever he gets his hands on the football?
That remains to be seen. “I’ve actually played in the snow, up to my ankles,” said Byrd, recalling a game he played for Albuquerque’s Manzano High. “It was bad. I was a quarterback at the time. It was rough, but it was cool. It was a fun experience to have.”
This could be the coldest game for SDSU since playing Wyoming in 18-degree weather four years ago in the 2016 Mountain West championship game at Laramie, Wyo.
The only colder experience in Aztecs history was a 2014 game at Boise State that was 9 degrees at kickoff.
Neither of those games was played in snow, however.
“I think San Diego (players) will have fun in the snow,” Byrd said. “A lot of kids from California haven’t really seen snow, so it’s really cool for them to see that.”
BYU Who?
SDSU head coach Brady Hoke would be all for seeing BYU regularly on SDSU’s schedule — as a member of the Mountain West.
What about playing the Cougars in future nonconference contests?
That, he’s not so sure about.
“When they left the league (after the 2010 season), that, obviously, was tough on everybody,” Hoke said. “The opportunity to have them in the league, I thought it was great.
“They, obviously, feel they’ve got to do what’s right for their university and their program. We’d like them to be a league member and playing them.”
If SDSU AD John David Wicker came to Hoke and asked him about putting BYU on future schedules — yes or no — what would he say?
“Good question,” Hoke said. “I don’t know what I’d say.”
You don’t have an opinion one way or another? “Not right now,” he said. Former SDSU head coach Rocky Long suggested a year ago that SDSU and other Mountain West teams should stop scheduling BYU in order to get the Cougars to come back to the conference.
“I think that BYU, if they came back to our conference, would be a positive,” Long said before SDSU’s 13-3 win over the Cougars. “They have a national audience, and they have history that proves they are a good football program. I think it would be a positive for our league.
“I think they’ll come back
if people don’t schedule them. If we will not schedule them, so that they have an unbelievably hard time developing a schedule, that might make them come back into the league. I don’t have anything against BYU. … But the way to get them back is to not schedule them. Make them hunt and peck and try to find a schedule.”
Upcoming game plans
SDSU had been aiming to get the Mountain West’s fourth bowl berth, but cancellation on Monday of the LA Bowl dropped to three the number of bowls with MW tie-ins.
Given such circumstances, Hoke was asked if the Aztecs had looked into scheduling an opponent for Dec. 19 in order to get in another game before the season concludes.
“We have not,” he said. “At this point, we have not.”
What about continuing to practice next week and remain ready as a last-minute replacement in the event a COVID-19 outbreak prevents another bowl team from playing?
“I think right now, we’ve just got to worry about BYU,” Hoke said. “All the, ‘What’s going to happen with the bowl process?’ and those things, that’s for next week.”
Matthews nominated
Sophomore receiver Jesse Matthews is a Burlsworth Trophy nominee for the second straight season.
The award goes to the nation’s most outstanding player who began his career as a walk-on.
Matthews was a walk-on from Christian High who earned a scholarship last season.
“He has very good hands and feet,” said SDSU cornerback Darren Hall, who gets a good look at Matthews each day in practice. “I’ve seen his work and his talent has just progressed seemingly every year.
“Just seeing him out there and the work he puts in, translates to Saturdays and the plays he makes out there.”
Matthews leads the Aztecs this season with 19 catches — including a 51yarder in the season opener against UNLV — for 275 yards (14.5 ypc). He had an 8-yard touchdown catch last week against Colorado State.
Matthews also has returned 11 punts for 100 yards (9.1 ypr) with a long of 29 yards. He ranks third in the Mountain West and 19th in the FBS in punt return average.