When: 6 p.m. Friday
Where: Stanford Stadium
TV: FS1
Line: Stanford (-14 1/2)
The Stakes
San Diego State looks to extend its 3-game Pac-12 winning streak and jump from receiving zero votes in the polls to probably being ranked this time next week. Is this a particularly likely outcome? Welllllll.
Look, don’t worry too much about that.
A road loss to the No. 13 Cardinal wouldn’t be the end of the world for the Aztecs — it probably wouldn’t even disqualify them from the New Year’s Six conversation. As the Aztecs learned last year, big Power 5 wins don’t matter so much when you stumble in conference. I’ll take a West Division title over another Stanford upset, if I have to choose.
That said … both would be fine. Maybe do both?
The Opponent
I’ll admit, my hopes for the upset fell off a cliff when I learned star running back Bryce Love had returned to Stanford for his senior season. Alas, it turns out the Heisman hopeful valued obtaining a Stanford education more than NFL riches or even making himself available to sit on a dais in a track suit to answer a bunch of “talk about” questions from middle aged men in New Balance sneakers. So selfish. Ever heard of priorities, Bryce?
The Aztecs will also have to face dangerous quarterback Not Keller Chryst. Not Keller Chryst threw for 14 TDs and only 4 INTs last year, and impressed coaches with his uncanny ability to be extremely Not Keller Chryst. On defense, Stanford has a young defensive line. Does this mean running back Juwan Washington will run for 250 yards, or just 200? It will be interesting to find out!
Other Factors
I wouldn’t call Stanford Stadium a hostile environment, exactly. They have a nice stadium that holds 50,000, but they rarely fill the place (and never with their own fans). Also Stanford students aren’t the most lit group of people in the world. They’re basically just UC San Diego students whose parents own vacation homes in the Seychelles instead of Big Bear.
Don’t be surprised if the Cardinal faithful are collectively stuffed into a locker by the couple thousand Aztecs fans sure to attend/party/puke on CalTrain.
Film Study
This is tough. If only there was a relevant video pertaining to a matchup of San Diego State at Stanford. Man, nothing comes to mind.
Ah, well, I suppose this one will do:
This video has been viewed 4,439 times. Roughly a third of those views are mine.
Staff Predictions
AttemptedChem @attemptedchem
SDSU has a very good team with many big strong players who hit very hard and run the ball down your throat. Stanford is a great team with more big, strong players who hit very hard and run the ball down your throat. We got the W last year. We should all be comfortable splitting the series.
Stanford 24, Aztecs 13
Advisory Columnist @EgosAndDespair
Editor’s note: David wrote about the impending EPIC UPSET at length in his season prediction. Go read that.
Aztecs 17, Stanford 16
AztecsKillingHim @akh_blog
The Stanford student body may be full of twerpy class enemies, but the Cardinal football team is decidedly not. Everything pretty much had to go right for the Aztecs to win by 3 last year at STADIUM. That doesn’t bode will for the rematch on The Farm.
Stanford 31, Aztecs 20
lemonverbena @kabeerthirty
The smart blue-chippers won’t look past us this time. State keeps it close for a while, then STAN beats the Tecs deep a couple times in the second half to pull away.
Stanford 28, Aztecs 17
KABEER THIRTY 