PROVO — After jump-starting a derailed college football season with five straight wins over a mixed bag of quality opponents and some not-so-great ones, the BYU Cougars say they have a lot to be thankful for this week as Thanksgiving approaches on Thursday.
At the top of the list: An opportunity to close out the regular season for the second straight year against a really good opponent, former conference rival San Diego State. The 7-4 Cougars take on the 8-3 Aztecs on Saturday at 7 p.m. MST at SDCCU Stadium, once the home of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers.
“It is going to be a fun opportunity for us to empty the tanks and just worry about this game and finish it off the right way,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said at Monday’s weekly press briefing.
So while SDSU coach Rocky Long said last month when the Aztecs were 7-1 and ranked No. 25 in the country that he wished BYU wasn’t on SDSU’s schedule, the feeling is obviously not mutual.
“I like it being the last game of the season. We already know we are going to a bowl game and we are going to have some time to recover. Really, you just give everything you’ve got and empty everything.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake, on facing San Diego State
“I think that them leaving the (Mountain West, in 2011) was the wrong thing to do and they went independent, and the only way they develop a schedule is the Mountain West Conference scheduling them,” Long told reporters in late October.
Having already defeated the MW’s Boise State and Utah State, the Cougars would love to pronounce themselves unofficial champions of the league they left behind — but can’t seem to forget about them. Sitake said all that matters to him is that BYU has a strong opponent to test itself against, after having been heavy favorites the past three weeks against Liberty, Idaho State and UMass.
Last year, BYU wrapped up the regular season against Utah, which is what the Cougars would like to see happen every year, but obviously won’t.
“I like (matchups with old conference rivals),” Sitake said. “It is football. I didn’t know (Long) said that, but that’s OK. We will play this weekend. I know Rocky. He’s a good man, and competitive. I am just looking forward to the game. It is going to be a lot of fun.”
It certainly beats getting ahead of a team 49-0, then having to watch backups play the entire second half, as BYU did last Saturday in that 56-24 win over UMass. San Diego State has one of the stingiest defenses in the country, and would have played in the MW championship game on Dec. 7 against Boise State if it hadn’t lost 14-11 to Hawaii on Saturday.
“They have had a really good season,” Sitake said. “They have been ranked. So they are a team that we are looking forward to playing. I like it being the last game of the season. We already know we are going to a bowl game and we are going to have some time to recover. Really, you just give everything you’ve got and empty everything.”
Quarterback Zach Wilson, who returned to his pre-injury form by completing 17 of 20 passes for 293 yards and four touchdowns against the Minutemen in the first half alone, said there is a different energy, a different vibe, this week because the Cougars haven’t been anywhere close to being an underdog for nearly a month.
Most oddsmakers are calling the game dead even.
“I think we play better when we are kind of the underdog, or when the game is evenly sided,” Wilson said. “I think the vibe this week is we gotta have that energy level high and that this team is good. I think the guys are going to be excited to have that energy and be ready to go.”
Conversely, BYU defensive tackle JJ Nwigwe said he has “no idea” of the history between BYU and SDSU, and it is just another game for him, aside from the fact that he might get to line up against his buddy, fellow Texan and former BYU offensive lineman Jacob Jimenez, who has played sparingly as a fifth-year graduate transfer at SDSU.
“I don’t think it matters if it is San Diego State or Boise State or UMass or Idaho State, we approach it all the same,” Nwigwe said.
It will matter to starting BYU cornerback D’Angelo Mandell, who is from the San Diego area and says he will need 100 to 200 tickets for all the friends and members of his adopted family he wants to see attend the post-Thanksgiving game.
“I am definitely going to try to play extra hard — not that I haven’t played hard all season, but play with extra juice in front of them,” said Mandell, whose name was D’Angelo Gunter when he shined at Del Norte High School in a San Diego suburb.
Rivalry or not, Wilson said teams tend to give BYU their best shot and he expects that same kind of effort from the Aztecs, who are also headed to a bowl game.
“For me, this is the first time I am ever going to play against them, so I have no idea if it is a rivalry or if people look at BYU-San Diego State like it is different,” he said. “I think the energy we brought to Utah State, Boise State, is going to be the same this week. I think the players are going to have that focus all week, that these guys are a good team and that they are going to give us their best shot and we are going to have that same energy as if it is a rivalry game.”
Sitake and the players acknowledged that having Thanksgiving come this week does change their Thursday practice schedule, but that is offset by school being out.
“You probably get to chill a little bit more and focus on just football,” Mandell said. “It is kind of nice, actually.”
And nice to have a bonafide, bowl-caliber opponent to match up against — even if its coach isn’t really happy to have the Cougars sitting at the dinner table.
Cougars on the air
BYU (7-4) at San Diego State (8-3)
At SDCCU Stadium
Saturday, 7 p.m. MST
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: KSL 1160 AM, 102.7 FM