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Photos and story by Liz Alper
Quotes courtesy Jamie McConeghy, Assistant Athletic Director - Media Relations
October 4, 2016 (San Diego) - With the University of Nevada-Las Vegas looming on Saturday night and with that, the beginning of Mountain West conference play, San Diego State Aztecs football head coach Rocky Long, senior safety Malik Smith, and junior running back Rashaad Penny took the media's questions today.
Coach Long says he's seen an improvement in UNLV. "They’re playing pretty good defense and on offense they’re running the ball really well," he said. "I think they’ve settled on a plan and are getting better as they go. They had a big win last week against Fresno State. We expect a very competitive football game.”
Last week, freshman quarterback Dalton Sneed scored on a 91-yard touchdown run. Coach Long commented on this and the other abilities of the QB. “Dalton Sneed is a great athlete that throws well on the run and can make things happen himself. If the receiver’s not open, he takes off with it. He makes a lot of people miss, he breaks a lot of tackles and he’s hard to bring down. After I saw that play, I thought that was one of the most amazing plays I’ve ever seen. He should have been tackled probably two or three times behind the line of scrimmage and one for a safety, and then he outran everybody. That was pretty impressive."
Going along with the plan on offense that Long says UNLV has found, he had this to say about the running backs. "Their running backs are quality guys. You give them a gap, a hole or a seam, they’re going to get real positive yards. Both of them are fast enough that if they get out in the open field they’re probably going to take it the distance."
Long was again asked about going undefeated and how the loss to South Alabama ruins that perfect season and once again, he had a lot to say about it. "...there wasn’t one person on our team or one person on our coaching staff that said, ‘We’re going to go undefeated.’ We said that we want to and that’s our goal, but every college football team’s goal at the start of the season is to win every game. You didn’t hear one of our players or coaches say, ‘We’re going to win every game.’ What you heard from the media is if they don’t win every game, it’s an unsuccessful season and that is a ridiculous statement. There wasn’t one undefeated team in college football last year." Long also said that winning every game is an "unrealistic expectation."
The issue was raised that fans might not come to games now that SDSU is no longer undefeated. Long shot that one down quickly. “The games that we’ve played over the last calendar year have been exciting and fun to watch. Obviously we’re not going to get the fans who thought we should win every game, but most fans come to cheer for a team that is fun to watch and has a good chance to win. I think we are fun to watch and have a good chance to win, so most football fans will come and watch that. That’s the case at every sport at every level.”
Penny was asked how the team approaches Mountain West play as a type of new season. “We just keep doing what we do. Change a little bit up at practice and just prepare the same way. Our goals are still high. There’s nothing you can look back on. It’s already happened. We’re just focused on the future and just continue what we’re going to do.”
Now that SDSU is out of the AP Top 25 poll, Penny was asked if it's disappointing. He isn't fazed by it. “We’re still going to play with our edge. Now we’re going to play even harder. We just have to go out and continue to do what we have to do and just try to win. I know it hurts but we just have to play with an edge now.”
Smith said that the defensive backs had a meeting on Sunday to talk about how they've been playing. "...we spoke to each other and let each other know that we’re not playing very well and everybody agreed on that. We told each other we need to pick it up. It was a pretty brief meeting but it definitely got some things across and I think we’re going to be much better, for sure. Communication is not a big part of it. The other guys are making plays and we’re not making plays. We definitely have to work on just executing.”
SDSU plays UNLV to start Mountain West conference play on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
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