Oregon State and San Diego State will take a step up in competition when they meet on Saturday night in a non-conference game in San Diego.
The Beavers (1-0) ran over Idaho State 38-15 last Saturday, compiling 362 rushing yards along the way.
San Diego State stepped on the gas in the second half in a 45-14 win against Texas A&M-Commerce on Saturday night. The victory came in the debut of Aztecs head coach Sean Lewis.
“We’ve got a tough challenge with San Diego State coming up this week,” Oregon State coach Trent Bray said. “Good team. Talented team. Well-coached team, and then playing on the road is always a challenge, so we’ve got to be at our best and improve from Game 1 to Game 2.”
Bray said the Aztecs feature an offense that’s similar to his own.
“Last week was unique in a lot of ways,” Bray said. “Not only their offense (but) their defense, and so we’re kind of back to what we’re more familiar with and what we’ve practiced against, so I’m excited about that.”
Bray said he was impressed watching film of San Diego State true freshman quarterback Danny O’Neil.
O’Neil completed 22 of 33 passes for 214 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions. Bray said they’ll try to make O’Neil throw into tight windows.
“I feel good about our ability to do that,” Bray said.
Lewis said the Aztecs will need to control the line of scrimmage much better than Idaho State did against the Beavers.
Jam Griffin rushed for 160 yards on 20 carries and Anthony Hankerson had 155 rushing yards on 24 carries with both scoring two touchdowns for Oregon State.
“They’re going to lean on the run game and possess the ball,” Lewis said. “We have to do a good job killing the run and taking that advantage away from them, which is going to be a strong test.”
Lewis said the Aztecs also need to cut down on their penalties after drawing 16 flags for 149 yards last week.
“We have to be a lot more detailed and be a lot more disciplined,” Lewis said. “The number of penalties was inexcusable and were major contributors to extending drives or hurting our own drives, so that’s something we need to put a great deal of emphasis on.”
