![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SUT-L-azfoot-110226.jpg\")
Students cheer for the Aztecs as they play against Wyoming at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Saturday, Nov. 01, 2025. (Hayne Palmour IV \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n3. Drawing a crowd<\/p>\n
Three thoughts after San Diego State\u2019s 24-7 Mountain West win over Wyoming on Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium:<\/p>\n
1. Defense, defense, defense<\/p>\n
Any ideas the Aztecs had for their fourth shutout of the season went out the window when Wyoming scored 4 1\/2 minutes into the game.<\/p>\n
It was one and done.<\/p>\n
After driving 75 yards in eight plays for a touchdown, the Cowboys collected 110 yards over their next 14 drives. SDSU limited them to 47 yards in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just stuck to the game plan,\u201d said SDSU edge rusher Trey White, who had two sacks. \u201cWe just had to settle in as a defense. They, obviously, scored on that first drive, which is really unacceptable on our defense. We have a really high standard for that. \u2026 We\u2019ve got each other\u2019s backs and we know that\u2019s unacceptable. Once we settled in, we just locked in, and gave up zero points after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
SDSU tacklers were waiting for Wyoming running backs as soon as they touched the ball. On the rare occasions when a back avoided the rush, a second wave of Aztecs was there to greet him. Linebacker Owen Chambliss seemed like he was in on every tackle. Chambliss had a game-high 13 tackles, giving him a team-high 71 this season. Aztecs defensive lineman Malchi Finau applied one of the biggest hits of the evening when he popped Wyoming wide receiver Michael Fitzgerald and forced a fumble.<\/p>\n
White noted that SDSU forced Wyoming into some third-and-long situations favorable to the Aztecs.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, Dwayne McDougle tipped and intercepted Wyoming quarterback Kaden Anderson on a third-and-9 in the second quarter. But interceptions also came on second-down plays when the rush was coming and Anderson was off target with his efforts. That\u2019s when cornerback Bryce Phillips and Chambliss came away with interceptions.<\/p>\n
It seems the only thing SDSU\u2019s defense lacks is a cool nickname. Defcon 1 Defense? This is a military town. Snap, Crackle and Pop Defense? Perhaps Kellogg\u2019s does NIL. Red & Black Hole Defense? Maybe they can workshop that this week.<\/p>\n
2. Perseverance pays off<\/p>\n
SDSU running back Byron Cardwell Jr. is proving to be a weapon out of the backfield.<\/p>\n
Catch or carry, Cardwell has shown some wiggle when he gets his hands on the ball. He had only one carry for four yards against Wyoming. It was 24-and 25-yard catches that had people talking. He scored SDSU\u2019s first touchdown and the first reception.<\/p>\n
When quarterback Jayden Denegal didn\u2019t have time to locate his primary receiver because of a blitz, Denegal dumped the ball to Cardwell over the middle behind the line of scrimmage. The 6-foot, 220-pound senior Cardwell did the rest, eluding two tacklers to get into the open field, then beating two more to the right corner of the end zone before diving across the goal line for the score.<\/p>\n
It was Cardwell\u2019s second touchdown of the season. The first TD was on a 20-yard carry against Colorado State. An emotional Cardwell went to his knees and raised his arms to the sky after that score. It had been a couple years since he carried a ball into the end zone.<\/p>\n
Cardwell was a 2,000-yard career rusher during a prep career spent mostly at St. Augustine. He attended Oregon out of high school and made an immediate impact for the Ducks, rushing for 417 yards as a true freshman and leading the Pac-12 with 6.84 yards per carry.<\/p>\n
A high-ankle sprain limited Cardwell to two games for the Ducks during the 2022 season. He transferred thereafter to Cal, where a knee injury forced him to miss the entire 2023 season. Cardwell played in nine games last season for the Golden Bears, carrying 24 times for 75 yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like my contribution is definitely noticed during the flow of games. I can feel it when I\u2019m in there,\u201d Cardwell said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s a few carries or a lot of carries, I make an impact with what I get. It takes all 11 on each side of the ball and special teams to win a game. What I\u2019ve learned from my freshman year of college to now, my graduate year, you just do what\u2019s best to help the team. With that, you\u2019re also going to get your individual accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cardwell gives opponents something else to think about when he subs in for starting running back Lucky Sutton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I bring a unique skill set,\u201d Cardwell said. \u201cJust being able to catch out of the backfield. Running the ball. Blocking. Every aspect of my game, I feel I bring something to the team and help contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students cheer for the Aztecs as they play against Wyoming at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on Saturday, Nov. 01, 2025. (Hayne Palmour IV \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\n3. Drawing a crowd<\/p>\n
Winning was supposed to solve SDSU\u2019s attendance issues at Snapdragon Stadium.<\/p>\n
So explain how a team riding a five-game winning streak (now six) gets only 17,109 people to show up in the stands (tickets distributed was 24,325).<\/p>\n
Part of it was a student section that had the lowest turnout of this season\u2019s four home games.<\/p>\n
More disturbing is the lack of attendance from the general public. There were nearly 8,000 unsold tickets for the Wyoming game. That\u2019s almost 25% of Snapdragon\u2019s 32,500 seats<\/p>\n
There is one other thing at play here. Passion, or lack thereof. Is that a SoCal thing or a failure to connect with the public? Probably a combination of both. Attendance wasn\u2019t very impressive during more than a decade of winning from 2010-22, either.<\/p>\n
SDSU announced last year that the 2024 graduating class boosted the university to 500,000 living alumni. An estimated 300,000 of them still live in San Diego County. And SDSU is struggling to get more than 3% of them to attend football games.<\/p>\n
If the Aztecs return from Hawaii with their winning streak at seven games, a showdown sellout for the Nov. 15 game against Boise State seems reasonable.<\/p>\n
Or does it? The TicketMaster website currently lists more than 6,000 tickets available for the Boise State game. That doesn\u2019t include those held back for opponents\u2019 fans, student overflow and other promotions that could be released for sale.<\/p>\n
Fewer than 300 tickets (all on the visiting side) are at the lowest price point \u2014 $62.55. Prices for the other tickets are $115.60, $156.90, $180.50, $209.95 and $298.45.<\/p>\n
SDSU officials have said that surveys were conducted before Snapdragon Stadium opened to determine appropriate pricing. No one ever said the surveys were accurate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three thoughts after San Diego State\u2019s 24-7 Mountain West win over Wyoming on Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium: 1.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-35593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}