3 Thoughts: Aztecs go for it early in season-opening win over Ohio

6-7 minutes 8/27/2023
For years, the stadium PA system in Mission Valley blared the song “Celebration” after victories and “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow” after losses.
That was baseball.
This was football, but the sentiment is the same.
“We wanted to have a celebration,” SDSU coach Brady Hoke said.
And so they did.
Here are three thoughts on SDSU’s 20-13 season-opening win over Ohio on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium.
1. You gotta believe
SDSU safety Cedarious Barfield’s second-quarter interception thwarted a potential Ohio scoring drive and led to the first real encouraging moment for the Aztecs offense.
SDSU had 44 seconds to negotiate its way 71 yards downfield.
Aztecs quarterback Jalen Mayden used 36 seconds to move the team to the Ohio 13-yard line.
Facing a third down, SDSU chose to go for six points instead of three. Fox Sports 1 play-by-play announcer Tim Brando described it this way: “6 seconds left. Gotta be quick. There he is. Touchdown. Right on cue. Mark Redman. Hammerhead brings it in for the touchdown.”
Time expired with the ball in the air, so the call was accompanied with some risk. Throw an incompletion and you come away with nothing.
It paid off, with SDSU turning a 6-3 deficit into a 10-6 lead as the Aztecs headed into halftime.
SDSU coach Brady Hoke was asked afterwards for his thought process in going for the touchdown rather than safely settling for a field goal.
“I’m more inclined to go for it,” Hoke said. “I think at times when you do do that, you are letting your offense know that you believe in them. At the same time, you also let your defense know that you believe in them and they’ve got your back.
“I always liked, when I was a player a long time ago, when we would go for it.”
2. Almost famous
Safety Marcus Ratcliffe (Cathedral Catholic High School) was already in the midst of a memorable day, becoming only the fifth SDSU defensive player since 2009 to start as a true freshman.
Memorable nearly became historic in the game’s closing minutes when Ratcliffe intercepted a fourth-down C.J. Harris pass at the goal line and returned it 100 yards for a touchdown.
Only two players in Aztecs history had taken an interception 100 yards for a TD — Harold Hicks vs. Hawaii (1986) and Dave Croudip vs. Long Beach State (1982).
The excitement Ratcliffe generated was short-lived. SDSU linebacker Cody Moon was called on the play for roughing the quarterback with a high hit and the ball was brought back to the 3 with a fresh set of downs for Ohio (the Bobcats scored on the next play to make it 20-13).
The call was questionable to some (read: Aztecs fans) and probably would have been considered a good hit a decade ago.
The QB is more protected these days, and the FS1 announcers termed it a good call while viewing replays.
It was unfortunate that Moon caught Harris with his helmet. Not just because it negated a TD; Moon made an otherwise outstanding debut since his transfer from New Mexico, leading SDSU with 12 tackles. That was more than double the total of SDSU’s second-leading tackler (Noah Tumblin, 5).
3. Horrible optics
SDSU’s 2023 hype video was played on Snapdragon’s video boards moments before the Aztecs emerged from the midfield tunnel to start the season.
The scene was tweeted out for all the world to see.
What many people picked up on was not SDSU players running onto the field and connecting with classmates in the north stands but the sea of empty seats on the stadium’s eastern side.
Horrible optics.
Snapdragon has 32,500 seats. Only 16,831 of them were occupied on Saturday.
It generated social media comments like “this team is being mentioned for realignment and conference expansion … give me a break” and “I’ve seen bigger crowds at Texas youth league games.”
As has been discussed previously, the price point for single-game tickets — $30 to $110 for games last week against Ohio and this week against Idaho State and $110 to $250 for the Sept. 9 game against UCLA — is a challenge for some fans.
And those prices don’t include TicketMaster’s exorbitant fee charge that ranges from 22 to 33 percent.
SDSU officials said season ticket sales have reached 10,718. Add in more than 5,000 students and it means single-game sales for the game were very, very limited (or a lot of season ticket holders didn’t attend).
SDSU has six more home games. The Aztecs must find a way to get bodies in the seats.
One way is using student bodies.
Lisa Pearson, SDSU’s senior associate AD of marketing & new media, tweeted Tuesday that all the tickets had been claimed in the student section, which includes about 5,500 seats.
On Friday, Pearson added on social media that “for those of you who asked, yes we made additional tickets available for students, and yes we will be using open seating for overflow.”
When Snapdragon opened, the original plan was to cap student seating at just more than 5,000.
With all of the empty seats (there are still more than 10,000 tickets available for the Idaho State game), SDSU should continue to fill as many requests as it gets from students for free tickets and use the east side for overflow.
Here’s one other idea: Offer free tickets to local military bases and personnel.
Some season-ticket holders were irate last season after single-game prices were slashed in midseason.
Is anyone going to complain if sections are taken up my members of the Navy and Marines? No, they’re not.
It’s good PR, and service members are going to buy food — Marines especially (members of the Navy tend to be careful when they’re wearing their whites) — so the concession stands will get plenty of additional business.
Longtime fans fondly recall multiple sections at San Diego Stadium being occupied by the Marines and Navy on Sundays at Padres games. They were always honored and cheered at games.
Marketing professionals will say giving away tickets is a bad idea. Not in this way.
And seeing empty seats is worse. Much worse.