CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- San Diego State has won only one game this
year and isn't supposed to be much of a threat to Wyoming.
Joe Glenn and his players aren't taking chances.
"I can't sit here and tell you we're playing the Chicago
Bears," he said Thursday. "But there's a lot of things about San
Diego that, you know, don't meet the eye."
A 26-3 loss at TCU last week ended a three-game winning streak
for Wyoming (4-5, 3-2 Mountain West Conference). The Pokes had just
over half their usual yardage, including a meager 28 yards rushing,
and even their vaunted defense proved no match for the Horned
Frogs.
Last year, Wyoming had four wins in a row before a 28-14 loss to
TCU opened the maw of a six-game losing streak. So if Glenn is a
little wary this week about a struggling, injury-ridden San Diego
State (1-6, 1-2), forgive him.
"I mean, they've got a guy who leads the league in rushing,"
he said. "Plus, the guy behind him put a couple hundred yards on
us as a freshman."
Atiy Henderson leads the conference with better than 81 yards a
game rushing. Lynel Hamilton had 213 yards rushing in a 25-20 win
over Wyoming in 2003.
Glenn also pointed out that in the conference, the Aztecs are
first in red-zone defense, third in pass defense and third in time
of possession.
"They've just had trouble getting it into the end zone," he
said. "They have enough talent that they can make big plays on
you. And we can't let them start now."
First-year San Diego State coach Chuck Long said he's still
breaking in his program.
"I've spent a great deal of time doing that and that's OK. I
expected to do that this first year," he said.
"Of course we'd like to win more," he said. "But I think we
are setting a good foundation for the future. You have to do that.
Otherwise you're just patch-working all the time in your program
and we don't want to do that."
Long has a young team. But he hopes that's a long-term
advantage.
"The big reason I took this job is we have a
junior-sophomore-freshman football team," he said. "We don't
graduate a lot of seniors and not a lot of seniors are starting,
anyway."
He said that even the injuries lately have helped in a way by
giving younger players more game time. Quarterback Kevin O'Connell
might finally return to action this weekend after a damaged thumb
ligament kept him out of five games. Hamilton hurt his knee and
missed three games before last weekend's 16-14 loss to Cal Poly.
The Aztecs' only win this season was the weekend before that, a
19-12 victory over Air Force that occurred on a field goal and
touchdown in the final 2 minutes.
The Mountain West Conference race is still largely up in the
air. Although BYU dominates at 4-0, three teams besides Wyoming
remain in the mix at 3-2: Air Force, New Mexico and Utah.
Glenn was also looking for at least an even record and bowl
eligibility.
"If we can regroup and put a little run together here at the
finish, we anticipate doing just that," he said.