San Diego State University football head coach Rocky Long doesn’t mince words too often. If something isn’t up to standards, he’ll be up front about it. For him to rave, it must be working — and working well.
The Aztecs concluded regular season play 10-2 following last Friday’s 35-10 Mountain West Conference victory against the New Mexico Lobos at SDCCU Stadium. Long praised the effort of the team’s offensive line, which included freshman center Dominic Gudino, a 2017 graduate of Olympian High School.
“I think the offensive line has improved as the season has gone along,” Long said. “They have their ups and downs like everybody does. They’ll be better next year, and the year after that they’ll be the best offensive line on the West Coast, I think.”
Offensive linemen do not necessarily collect individual statistics. Instead, their performance is based on the total team rushing yardage and pass protection for the quarterback.
SDSU racked up 265 rushing yards and 198 net passing yards for a total of 463 offensive yards in the game. Both numbers are considered good.
In fact, the 25th-ranked Aztecs set a milestone as the first team in NCAA FBS history with back-to-back 2,000 rushing yard seasons by different players — Donnel Pumphrey in 2016 and Rashaad Penny in 2017.
Penny rushed 22 times for 203 yards in last Friday’s win to up his season totals to 2,027 yards and 24 touchdowns. Penny is the nation’s leading rusher.
That speaks volumes for the performance of the team’s offensive line.
Gudino is one of three South County high school alums on this year’s Aztec team, joining freshman receiver Collin Andrews (Olympian) and senior defensive lineman Alex Valenzuela (Otay Ranch). Andrews has appeared in seven games with one catch for 11 yards.
Gudino had one tackle in seven games on defense this season.
“He has both the mental and physical tools to play the position and on top of that he is a quality individual,” said Paul Van Nostrand, Gudino’s former coach at Olympian. “No one will out-work him; he is as dedicated a football player as any I have been around.”
SDSU, which started the season 6-0, will find out this Sunday what bowl game it will play in.
