When he was named San Diego State's head football coach, Sean Lewis knew he had a lot of work to do to get the program where he wanted it. While going to a bowl game would have been a nice feather in his first year cap, that is not going to happen.
The Aztecs went to Las Vegas and got blasted 40-21 at UNLV, dropping their record to 3-7 and ensuring they will not be eligible to play a postseason game in 2024.
SDSU hurt themselves with turnovers and some questionable coaching decisions. In the 2nd quarter, with the Rebels leading 14-0, the Aztecs were facing a 4th and five at their own 37 yard line when they tried a fake punt. Tyler Pastula threw a pass to Deshawn McCuin crossing in front of him but UNLV was ready for it, stopping McCuin after just a yard. The short field led to a Jai'Den Thomas TD run and a 21-0 lead.
San Diego State finally found its offensive footing on the next drive. O'Neil hit Louis Brown IV for a 29-yard touchdown ... but they tried a 2-point conversion off a wonky formation, again asking Pastula to try and play temporary QB. The play never looked like it was going to work and the pass fell incomplete.
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At the end of the half the Aztecs got the ball on their own nine yard line with 1:01 left to play. Coach Lewis let his freshman quarterback try and lead a late scoring drive to build some momentum. It didn't work. O'Neil threw his second interception of the night, setting up UNLV at midfield.
40 seconds later quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams was in the end zone on a 12-yard TD run. Instead of potentially cutting it to a one-score game the Aztecs hit the break down 28-6 and couldn't recover.
SDSU falls to 3-7 with two games to play. Next week they hit the road to face Utah State before finishing up at Snapdragon Stadium against Air Force.
