A fellow named Longfellow famously said nearly 200 years ago that \u201cinto each life some rain must fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is fine. And true.<\/p>\n
But did it have to fall here. And now?<\/p>\n
The stage was set for San Diego State\u2019s biggest football game in four years, a first-place Mountain West showdown with Boise State, on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium. The winner would have a direct path to the conference\u2019s regular season title as well as hosting its title game.<\/p>\n
A sizeable crowd at the 32,500-seat stadium was expected after SDSU moved more than 5,000 tickets with a two for $40 promotion and had a donor purchase another 3,000 tickets that were given to members of the military.<\/p>\n
Then the rains came. Showers began Friday, continued Saturday morning and into the afternoon. The rain was reasonable, though, subsiding several hours before kickoff. It allowed for pregame tailgating in relatively pleasant conditions. It was football weather is what it was.<\/p>\n
The condition of the field was good when the tarp protecting it was removed three hours before kickoff. There was a slip here and there during warmups, but footing otherwise appeared solid.<\/p>\n
Kickoff arrived as scheduled. The Snapdragon crowd did not. The stands were maybe 20 percent full.<\/p>\n
This was the very definition of fair-weather fans. Forecast said rain, so thousands decided they weren\u2019t budging from the Barcalounger. Even if the halftime drone show was going to be presented as scheduled.<\/p>\n
That included a student section with room for 5,000 that was maybe a third full at kickoff.<\/p>\n
It certainly looked worse than it was, with many fans choosing to stay inside suites or under the cover of areas along the east and south concourses.<\/p>\n
One longtime former season ticket holder said only four of the 10 people in his group \u201cbraved\u201d the weather \u2014 59 degrees and cloudy at kickoff. The rain returned as the first quarter was coming to a close.<\/p>\n
There were those who saw this as a viewing opportunity. One SDSU alumni reported getting tickets for $4 apiece on the secondary market a few hours before kickoff.<\/p>\n
We are in the midst of four days and four nights of rain in the region.<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t imagine what 40 days\/40 nights looks like, but convinced few here would venture outdoors to find out.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t say it<\/p>\n
Mention sun or rain in connection with Snapdragon Stadium and it quickly has fans using the C-word \u2014 canopies.<\/p>\n
The former Mission Valley stadium had overhangs from the Loge, Press and Upper levels that created natural cover from the elements.<\/p>\n
Such is not the case at Snapdragon. But the cost \u2014 estimated at $50 mililon \u2014 didn\u2019t justify the expense at the new stadium because extreme heat or inclement weather is so rare in San Diego.<\/p>\n
It became a discussion topic when Snapdragon\u2019s debut came on a record 100-degree day. The fact is, only three of SDSU\u2019s past 100 home games have been played in 90-plus-degree heat.<\/p>\n
How rare is rain at an SDSU home game? This was only the fourth time in the past 100 home games for wet weather.<\/p>\n
Rain games<\/p>\n
A glance at the three previous rain games:<\/p>\n
Nov. 19, 2010 \u2014 Utah blocked a fourth-quarter punt inside SDSU\u2019s 5-yard line and turned it into a touchdown for a 38-34 victory. Aztecs quarterback Ryan Lindley completed 36 of 54 p[asses for 528 yards and four touchdowns in the game.<\/p>\n
Nov. 26, 2016 \u2014 Colorado State ended SDSU\u2019s 10-game home winning streak with a stunning 63-31. The Rams scored 21 points in both the first and second quarters and rushed for nearly 300 yards. SDSU\u2019s defense allowed 56 of the pointsafter allowing 69 points in the Aztecs\u2019 previous seven MW games combined. SDSU beat Wyoming for the Mountain West championship a week later and defeated Houston two weeks after that in the 2016 Las Vegas Bowl, where running back DJ Pumphrey set the NCAA career rushing record.<\/p>\n
October 12, 2018 \u2014 SDSU quarterback Ryan Agnew\u2019s 29-yard touchdown pass to tight end Parker Houston midway through the fourth quarter delived a 21-17 victory over Air Force in a game that not only was wet but interrupted by a 98-minute lightning delay.<\/p>\n
Say what?<\/p>\n
As the first quarter ended and the second quarter began, you had to wonder how many fans turned to the person next to them and quoted noted groundskeeper Carl Spackler: \u201cI\u2019d keep playing. I don\u2019t think the heavy stuff is gonna come down for quite awhile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up<\/p>\n
The Aztecs are home again Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (Fox Sports 1) against San Jose State (3-7, 2-4 MW), which suffered a 55-10 loss to Nevada.<\/p>\n
According to the long-range forecast, the rain is supposed to stop the night before. It is supposed to be clear and 56 degrees at kickoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fellow named Longfellow famously said nearly 200 years ago that \u201cinto each life some rain must fall.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55311,"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-55310","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\/55310","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=55310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}