What San Diego State’s players said before Mountain West opener vs. Colorado State

The defense is confident after allowing only three points in the last two games

San Diego State Aztecs wide receiver Jordan Napier (2) and linebacker Owen Chambliss (12). | Photo courtesy of San Diego State University Athletics.

San Diego State has allowed just three points in the last two games, pitching a 34-0 home shutout against California and then going on the road and holding Northern Illinois to just a field goal in a 6-3 win.

Sitting at 3-1, the Aztecs want to keep up the defensive fight heading into their final Mountain West Conference opener, at home Friday night against Colorado State. 

“Yeah, I mean we play with superior confidence and you know we go out there and try to pitch a shutout every game,” linebacker Owen Chambliss said at a news conference on Monday. “We’ve got the offense’s back. You know, we believe in those guys every time they take the field and we are just going to keep working, keep improving. Obviously, there's still some meat on the bone for us in terms of big plays, but we’re going to get it right.”

Here are the highlights of the players’ news conference:

Chambliss on winning on the road

“Yeah, winning on the road is hard, right? So you just want to make sure that you appreciate those wins. And then from a conference perspective, we kind of expect to win every week, right? It helps us, but we always know that there's more work to be done.”

Chambliss on matching last year’s win total

“I’m going to go back to confidence again, right? We feel so confident in each other when we take the field and then looking across the ball at them (SDSU’s offense), like we feel like they are going to go out and do something crazy every single series. And then I feel like we love each other this year. Like we respect each other this year on both sides of the ball. And there's a deeper connection between all of us that wasn't necessarily there last year.”

Wide receiver Donovan Brown on being 3-1 after the team finished last year 3-9

“Because I came a little late, like camp, I can tell like, hey there was a part missing that we were trying to get together. That camp was mostly needed because we needed to fight. We needed to, you know, get mad at each other because now that we see other jerseys, we understand that, hey, this is my brother now. This is the guy I'm standing beside and I'm fighting with. The person with the other jersey, he got to get it. And we still got that energy and still got that same passion for every time we see a different color, different jersey.”

Chambliss on preparing during a short week

“No prep difference, really. The work is the work no matter how short the week is, right? We just take it like we usually do. Tough Tuesday is just a day earlier. Situation Wednesday is a day earlier. Feel good Thursday is a day earlier.”