If the San Diego State football team played at Army any other weekend, this game wouldn’t be nearly as special.
But this isn’t just any other weekend. Not only does it mark the first time SDSU will face Army, but the Aztecs travel to West Point, N.Y., to play the Black Knights on Sept. 10, 2011 — a day before the 10-year anniversary of the unforgettable terrorist attacks of 9/11.
“I think it’s an honor and a privilege that we’re going to be there on that weekend,” head coach Rocky Long said. “I want (our team) to enjoy it, to embrace it, to experience the whole atmosphere at West Point and especially on this weekend.
“But I also want them to concentrate once the game starts and play well,” Long continued. “So it’s going to be a good test for our team to see if we’re mature enough to embrace the situation and enjoy the situation as is, because it’s a great honor to be there on this weekend, but then see how mature we are that we can buckle down at game time and still play well.”
At Tuesday’s press conference, senior middle linebacker Miles Burris and senior quarterback Ryan Lindley reminisced about where they were that fateful morning.
“I was in seventh grade,” Burris said. “I remember seeing it all over TV, and I was so young that I didn’t really understand the severity of it. I think I flipped the station to cartoons. I figured that I see explosions all the time, I’m watching those kind of movies. But then I got to school and we had a moment of silence and our principal came into our classroom … I realized this is a really serious thing. I’ll never forget that day, never forget where I was and how I felt about it.”
“You went to school and everyone knew somebody or knew somebody that had a family member involved,” Lindley said. “So it was definitely something that you’ll never forget.”
When the Aztecs visit West Point this weekend, they’ll face the triple option for the second week in a row. Black Knights’ coach Rich Ellerson, who beat SDSU twice as head man at Cal Poly, has several weapons at his disposal. Junior scatback Malcolm Brown rushed for 92 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries in Army’s season-opening loss to Northern Illinois. Junior quarterback Trent Steelman returns for his third year as the starter and already ranks among the Black Knights’ career leaders in total offense. And the Aztecs are expecting four quarters of gritty, grind-it-out running football. But, after facing (and destroying) another triple option team in Cal Poly last week, SDSU has a good idea of what the team will see at West Point.
“It’s nice to be able to play two weeks in a row of the triple option and have a base under our feet right now of what we’re going to be going against this week,” Burris said.
And even though trying to stop a triple option offense is tough enough as is, the Aztecs will be facing a pumped up Army team motivated to notch a win on the weekend of the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.
“I’m sure they’ll be emotionally charged up and play well,” Long said.
