San Diego State is hoping for a big crowd when it hosts Boise State this Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium. The winner takes sole possession of first place heading into the final two regular-season games, making the stakes massive.
But first, the Aztecs need to shake off a dismal 38-6 loss at Hawaii in a game where almost nothing went right.
"We didn't play to our standard and we're going to fix those mistakes this week," junior running back Lucky Sutton admitted earlier this week.
Sutton spoke after the Aztecs were run off the field in Honolulu, failing to reach the endzone against the Rainbow Warriors while watching the defense allow over 300 yards in the first half alone.
Still, head coach Sean Lewis didn't express too much concern despite his team's poor performance.
"We're a good team, that again, had a bad night out on the island. We traveled back, had time to lick our wounds. We'll clean up the mistakes, get out of it, and move forward. We've got a great opponent with a sense of urgency that we need to prepare for this week to get us right and get us refocused," Lewis said.
Lewis has reason to be confident. The Aztecs followed up their only previous loss — a 36-13 setback at Washington State in September — with a 34-0 win over a Cal team that just knocked off 15th-ranked Louisville last week.
"The last time we had a moment and a night like that, we responded accordingly, and I look forward to us doing that again," Lewis said.
It won't be easy. Boise State remains the gold standard for football in the Mountain West and the white whale for Aztecs junior defensive end Trey White.
"This is basically like a championship game type of mindset for us. We've got to come out, and we know the challenges that Boise gives us. I haven't beaten Boise since I've been here so that's definitely one of my goals," White said.
With so much on the line, coach Lewis is hoping to see the biggest crowd of the season at Snapdragon Stadium.
"We get 1% of San Diego County to show up, that's a sellout. We're talking about 1%. We have 300,000 living Aztecs alums in all of San Diego County. The stadium holds 32,500 people, so yes, we've done a lot of different things to make it accessible and affordable for people to come," Lewis said.
To help generate a larger crowd, San Diego State is offering fans a chance to buy two tickets for $40 on select seats by going to their website, go-aztecs.com. Kickoff on Saturday night is at 7:30.
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