Hawaii
3 Thoughts: Aztecs 27, Hawaii 24 … on learning to win, ‘valuing’ the football and good things that come in threes
Three thoughts after San Diego State’s 27-24 win over Hawaii on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium.
1. Flipping the script
The Aztecs dropped to 1-4 this season on the coin toss.
SDSU coach Sean Lewis has worked in practice this season to, among other things, increase the offense and decrease the penalties.
How do you improve your record on the coin toss?
Unsolicited advice: Call heads.
Scientific American reported this year on exhaustive research conducted at the University of Amsterdam in which a coin was flipped 350,757 times.
Citing “same-side bias,” it came up heads 51 percent of the time. Hey, wherever you can get an edge.
That being said, it was more important that SDSU avoided seeing its record drop to 1-4 for the first time since 2008, when the Aztecs lost 10 of their first 11 games on the way to a 2-10 finish.
That season, the last under the wrong Long, included a seven-game losing streak. SDSU avoided the possibility of a similar toboggan run by ending a three-game losing streak with the victory over the Rainbow Warriors.
Most important, the Aztecs learned how to win with the game hanging in the balance.
“We’ve talked all along about how important the work is and that work works,” Lewis said. “We need to be committed to our process and our conviction with how we’re going to do it and that the character of the club and the attitude we bring would show up tonight.
“Tonight is a byproduct of the way that our guys have pulled together through all the adversity, putting the blinders on, leaning and relying on one another.”
After a last-minute, one-point loss at Central Michigan in which SDSU led for most of the game, what would losing in similar fashion have done to the Aztecs’ collective psyche?
SDSU had a 20-10 lead midway through the third quarter against Hawaii, then watched the Rainbows put together 12- and 14-play touchdown drives for a 24-20 advantage with less than 10 minutes to play.
The Aztecs responded with their second-longest touchdown drive of the season, an eight-play, 87-yard march. It was keyed by quarterback Danny O’Neil’s 48-yard pass to wide receiver Nate Bennett and capped by running back Marquez Cooper’s game-winning 2-yard touchdown run.
Said Lewis: “We were able to get critical stops, we were able to get scores when needed and special teams did a great job of flipping the field and getting points all on their own. … To get that shot of life and for these guys to be able to celebrate and do things the right way, that’s big.”
2. ‘Valuing’ the football
A concern with O’Neil during spring football and training camp was being a little fast and loose with the football. SDSU defenders let him know in practice and scrimmages, picking off several passes.
It wasn’t recklessness, necessarily, but perhaps trying to do things O’Neil could get away with in high school that won’t fly in college.
Apparently, O’Neil got the ill-advised throws out of his system. His college career has started with 113 straight passes without an interception.
O’Neil is barely halfway to the 209 in a row Robert Griffin III threw without a pick when he was a freshman at Baylor, but his start is notable nonetheless.
O’Neil completed his first 10 passes against Hawaii, finishing 24-for-33 for 224 yards and a touchdown. Obviously, he listened to Lewis’ pregame instructions.
“I told him before we went out there that we’re wearing black tonight, so throw it to the guys in the black shirt,” said Lewis, before getting serious. “He does a great job knowing and understanding what is open at this level.
“I think that’s something that young quarterbacks have to learn and they have to feel on their own. He’s done a very good job of that with his film study and the actual application of what he’s been able to do.”
Lewis said going against SDSU’s defense, especially an experienced secondary, quickly helped O’Neil learn “this is open, that ain’t open.”
“We get to compete against that on a daily basis,” Lewis said. “When you go against another opponent … you have a good feel for where you can fit a football and where you can’t.”
It has to be tempting at times to air it out, but O’Neil hasn’t allowed himself to get carried away.
“Being able to protect the ball on Saturdays is my main job,” O’Neil said. “Just being able to put the ball in playmakers’ hands, distribute the ball and not have any turnovers, that’s my goal every week.”
3. Trey sacks
SDSU edge Trey White had three sacks two games ago at Central Michigan. It wasn’t enough to prevent a frustrating, painful loss.
So White went out and repeated the feat against Hawaii.
“I just wanted to come up big for our team,” said White, a sophomore from Eastlake High School. “We didn’t want to have that feeling of a loss again. I hate that feeling, and I know our whole team does.
“The look on our faces after that Central Michigan game was terrible, and I never want that to happen again.”
White has nine sacks on the season, giving him a share of the national lead with Boston College’s Donovan Ezeiruaku. White’s 1.8 sacks/game would be a national record if maintained throughout the season. Terrell Suggs averaged 1.7 sacks a game (24 for the season) in 2002 at Arizona State.
Lewis credits White for bringing the “same relentless approach that he has every single day.”
“We’ve been talking about him and buzzing about him ever since we got here,” said Lewis, who repositioned White from linebacker to edge this season. “It’s a testament to the belief our staff had in him to bring him closer to the ball. With his skill set, with his ability, we knew that he was going to be a great fit in what we were building.
“He’s the standard for what it looks like in terms of the approach and the discipline and the character and the conviction that’s required to show up and produce on a weekly basis the way that he does.”
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