Spear Points: 3 Takeaways from Aztecs’ wild Pac-12 opening win over Texas State

For as much as October puts San Diego sports fans minds may be on the diamonds, San Diego State made a compelling case to make sure that folks are still paying attention to the gridiron. Trailing by 14 points at halftime, the Aztecs (2-3, 1-0 Pac-12) rallied to match the program's fourth-largest second half comeback in a 31-29 win over the Texas State Bobcats (2-3, 0-1) on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium.

Practically anyone playing a bingo card for plays during the contest got to check something off.

A blocked field goal? One ended Texas State’s string of scoring possessions after converting on their first three. A kick return for touchdown? Yep, it opened the second half.

A freshman rushing for 100-plus yards? A critical fourth down goal line stand? A game-deciding defensive touchdown? A last-second hail mary heave after replay showed there was one second remaining in the game?

Yes to all, as the announced crowd of 28,747 for the Pac-12 home opener braved 92-degree temperatures at kick off to watch the Scarlet and Black pick up a critical win to kick off their conference campaign.

“Being 1-0 in conference play, and to get up off the mat after what we've done the past few weeks is huge. It's important. It puts wind in our sails. It puts momentum back into the building,” head coach Sean Lewis said, after SDSU improved to 6-1 in games played in October under his leadership.

Here are three standout points to take from San Diego State’s second win of 2026:

Aztecs Fight

SDSU faced down a three-game losing streak and in the midst of another week of a reported mumps outbreak on the team, complete with a game day availability report featuring 14 game-time decisions and 13 players listed as out.

So, coming off getting wiped out at Toledo thanks to the Rockets slew of big plays, it could’ve been very easy to see things start to come apart with the Bobcats scoring on their first three possessions and getting three passing plays of 20-plus yards in doing so.

Instead, the Aztecs did what the university fight song implores them to do — they fought.

Junior linebacker Cameron Cooper blocked a 35-yard field goal attempt to keep it a two-score game with 3:59 before halftime. Redshirt freshman Jaylon Hawkins electrified the crowd with a 96-yard kick off return to start the second half.

Freshman running back Josiah Lucas rushed for 111 yards on 21 carries, filling in admirably for the injured Lucky Sutton and Javion ‘Chop’ Kinnard and becoming the first SDSU true freshman RB to top the century mark since Donnel Pumphrey in 2013.

“I wouldn't have done it without my O-line. Great blocking, great calls, great blocking on the perimeter. I couldn't have done without my teammates. It feels great though. We weren't really doing what we were supposed to, so we just came in at halftime, we got a little talk with the coaches, and we got our blocking assignments. We were kind of messing up our blocks, missing holes, so we watched a couple tapes, a couple clips. We got that right, and so we came out to have time to do what we did,” Lucas said.

The freshman did so rushing behind a starting offensive line that had redshirt freshman Ashdon Wnetrzak making his first career start, becoming the eighth different player to start on the O-line this season.

The defense put it foot in the ground in the second half and forced four consecutive drives that ended in either a punt or a turnover in the second half, and stopped Texas State on nine of their final 11 drives of the game.

“You're playing without your first-string center. You're playing without your first-string guard. You're playing with your third and fourth running back. You’ve got a three-time captain who goes down in the first half, and you have [Cooper] who steps up. There's no asterisks on it. The Aztecs are one and zero in Pac-12 play, and there's a lot of life in that locker room right now. We'll continue to find these wins,” Lewis said.

It was a win that the Aztecs absolutely needed, and thanks to the fight and emotion the side played with, they were able to grind out a critical result.

Special Teams and Defense save the day

It’s not often that you can point to a defensive unit that allowed 565 yards of total offense as the key to the game, but thanks to the pair of takeaways on interceptions by senior edge Kai Wallin (which led to the first of two Lucas rushing touchdowns) and Cooper coming up with the game-winning 32-yard interception return for touchdown, that was the case.

Getting a 21-0 advantage in points off turnovers plus special teams touchdowns will do that.

The defense was flying around all night and made life difficult for Bobcats redshirt sophomore quarterback Brad Jackson, sacking him three times as part of racking up nine tackles for loss on the night.

Junior edge Djibril Rahman had a career night with seven tackles and 3.5 for loss, while transfer freshman edge Alijah Lash had three tackles and his first two career sacks. In the middle of it all was big senior defensive tackle Gavriel Lightfoot, whose 12 tackles (of 96 by the SDSU defense) were a career high, with one going for loss and adding a pass breakup at the line to boot.

Beyond the interceptions, both of which were perfectly schemed by having the player on the edge showing pressure only to back off and spy on Jackson, one of the biggest moments of the night for the defense came in stopping Texas State on four consecutive goal-to-go downs after the Bobcats had pulled within 24-20.

Senior linebacker Sione Hala and Cooper stuffed the run up the middle and a false start moved the ball back to the eight-yard-line, then Lightfoot was able to cut down Jackson for no gain on a scramble. Sophomore corner Caleb Ricks tracked down senior wide receiver Beau Sparks on a short pass to the left to stop him after six yards, then senior safety Josh Hunter stuffed Arvis Battle Jr. on a one-yard out route for the turnover on downs.

Despite the safety on the ensuing drive, it set up Cooper for his second lightning-strike play of the day.

With Hawkins scoring his second kick return touchdown of the season, he became the first Aztec to do so since Rashaad Penny in 2017 to return multiple kickoffs for scores in a season, which was the last time SDSU returned more than one kickoff for a touchdown.

Credit also has to be given to senior kicker Cooper DiLeva for making the 47-yard field goal that opened SDSU’s account and was his longest of the season. Senior punter Tashi Dorje averaged 44.7 yards per punt, pinned three inside the 20 and boomed three for 50-plus yards.

With the offense down as many men as it is and the struggles it has had in sustaining long drives, winning on both the defensive and special teams side to such a degree is massive.

A suitable return for Pac-12 ‘After Dark’

While San Diego has already been featured in the final game of the Pac-12 slate this season — think back to their matchup against James Madison — this was the first proper time they were part of the madness that is Pac-12 After Dark.

What began as a social media tag in the mid-2010’s, the term played off how many wild and crazy finishes the conference had for games that started with the sun either going down or already down before the opening kick off.

Take for example the first week in October during the 2014 season, which is largely accepted as when the term became more widely used. That night saw Utah upset No. 8 UCLA at the Rose Bowl thanks to a last second field goal, an absolute shootout between Cal and Washington State, and capped by Arizona State getting a pair of long touchdowns in the final seconds to upset USC at the Coliseum.

Over the years there have been plenty of upsets, absurd comebacks and monster statistical nights.

Think Oregon blowing a 10-point lead in the fourth to Stanford thanks to a late fumble to ultimately lose in overtime. UCLA rallied from a 49-17 second half deficit at Washington State in 2019, and Cal held off Washington State to win 60-59 on a missed last second chip-shot despite Cougar QB Connor Halliday throwing for 734 yards.

So one could very easily argue the game featuring a quarterback posting season highs of 372 yards passing with three touchdowns and 80 yards rushing, a 14-point second half rally, saw the game-winning touchdown scored on a pick-six and still featured a hail mary at the end is the perfect spiritual successor.

While the Aztecs’ next game at Oregon State will see kickoff come at 3 p.m. on October 10, you can bet that the next edition of the Battle for the Old Oil Can a week later — complete with 7:30 p.m. kickoff — will be rife with the opportunity for more Pac-12 After Dark madness.