ByDan HayesSenior Staff Writer
Lon Sheriff earned his badge this week.
The sophomore quarterback was named the Mountain West ConferenceOffensive Player of the Week after Saturday’s 19-of-27, two-touchdownperformance at Wyoming.
“I was able to stand there, drop back, look at my receivers andmake the throws,” Sheriff said. “I didn’t really get hit the wholegame. The only time I got sacked was when I failed to pick up acorner blitz.”
After facing two tough defenses, (Arizona, Oregon State) in hisfirst two career starts, Sheriff had 280 passing yards and sixinterceptions. A key difference in Saturday’s contest was the play ofSan Diego State’s receivers, who helped Sheriff to a career-high 317yards and one interception.
“It’s really nice to drop back, throw a ball and know that youhave a really good chance of coming down with it,” Sheriff said. “Ithrew a lot of balls that didn’t have the best accuracy on them, butmy receivers went out and made the plays for me.”
High noon
There’s nothing like sitting back before the football game andchugging a few beers. Unfortunately for those who partake in thisevent before every Aztecs game, chug time starts at 9 a.m. Saturday.
The opening kickoff for this weekend’s home game versus Utah hasbeen slated for noon; the earliest start time for an Aztecs gamesince Sept. 5, 1997 when they played Navy at 11:30 a.m because of ascheduling conflict with the Padres.
“I love it, I like day games,” said free safety Brian Russell.”Hopefully we’ll have a great game. It feels like college footballwhen you play during the day.”
Afteraveraging only 28,000 fans and losing the first two games, the teamhas to be wondering how many fans will show up. Considering moststudent alarms don’t get set before 1 p.m. on weekends, the crowdcould be dismal, though the team remains hopeful.
“We get a lot of fans and we appreciate it,” said defensive tackleJerome Haywood. “But, we’d like to get more students and facultysitting in the student section cheering us on because we hear themthe most.”
It’s the Pitts
Chester Pitts had been one of SDSU’s most durable starters on theoffensive line this year. Pitts had been just one of two lineman tostart the first three games, and he hadn’t allowed a sack.
Then came Oregon State, where Pitts suffered a concussion in thefinal minutes of the fourth quarter. That forced him to miss theremainder of the game.
Even after practicing with the team all last week, doctorsremained cautious and held Pitts out of the Wyoming contest.
“The doctors felt there was still something wrong with me beforethe game and they held me out,” Pitts said.
This week Pitts is rearing to go, especially after missing theteam’s first victory.
“I’m feeling just fine,” Pitts said. “It was the first time we gota win and had a really good game and I wasn’t a part of it.”
In his absence the team was able to give both redshirt freshmanBrendan Darby and sophomore Raul Gomez huge chunks of experience.
“We made a lot of progress in terms of playing together,” saidoffensive line coach Damon Baldwin. “Brendan Darby and Raul Gomez gota lot of game-time experience which is going to help us.”
Quotable
“I think it’s just an emergency deal. I think they don’t want tolose those guys’ (Armstrong and Stoner) redshirts in case Lon goesdown for a play or two. You don’t want two young quarterbacks to losea year because of one or two plays.”
— SDSU’s Brian Russell on being the team’s No. 2 QB
Notes
It’s official, Russell is now pulling double-duty. Russell, the team’s starting free safety will now also be listed as the No. 2 quarterback behind Sheriff. The Aztecs now own a three-game win streak in the MWC and are 4-4 all-time in conference play. This Saturday’s meeting with Utah will be the 20th between the two teams, with SDSU leading the all-time series, 10-8-1. The last time Wyoming was shutout at home was Oct. 6, 1984 when it fell to the Aztecs, 21-0. Running back Larry Ned scored the 17th and 18th touchdowns of his career in Laramie, Wyo.
