There was a reason why there was a buzz surrounding Ronnie Hillman's first year at San Diego State.
Hillman touched the ball just seven times in the first half of SDSU's 41-21 victory over New Mexico State.
The Aztecs were up 13-7 heading into halftime.
After halftime, Hillman ran the ball 15 more times and scored four touchdowns, which included a 44-yard, highlight-inducing touchdown run to start the second half.
The freshman finished with 150 yards on the ground.
So that’s what everyone was talking about before the season began.
“We started executing more (in the second half) and capitalizing and we wanted to run down their throat,” Hillman told the Union-Tribune. “They are a good team and we had to wear them down. You could see they were getting fatigued, but we really buckled down and took off from there.”
But why was it so easy for Hillman to score those four touchdowns?
“It’s easy to rush for four touchdowns when your line is opening up holes the size of the Grand Canyon,” Hillman humbly said to reporters after the game.
So it looks like the freshman showed what he can do, that he is a legit threat running the ball.
And for the second straight game, the Aztecs achieved a more balanced attack. The team gained 563 yards on offense, 319 through the air—as expected—but also a whopping 244 yards on the ground.
If San Diego State keeps this up, it can make some noise come conference play.
ACC powers take a hit
Watching ESPN’s Bottom Line during the Stanford-UCLA game last night was a pure joy, especially when it came to when it displayed scores from the ACC.
Miami 24, Ohio State 36
Florida State 17, Oklahoma 47
James Madison 21, Virginia Tech 16
Georgia Tech 25, Kansas 28
One by one the scores came up and the whole nation saw the four best teams in the conference just blow it this weekend.
Most shocking are the losses by the Hokies and Yellow Jackets.
Most pundits were talking about how this year could have been the ACC’s return to greatness. But, after two weeks, it’s just been another recurring flop.
Powerful running game > Two quarterbacks
I wonder if Bronco Mendenhall will continue with this two quarterback system of his at BYU.
The Cougars managed just 88 yards through the air against Air Force on Saturday, leading to a 35-14 loss to the Falcons.
Max Hall, Steve Young and Ty Detmer must all be rolling in their graves right now.
Mendenhall decided to go with a two-quarterback system this year, employing both Riley Nelson and Jake Heaps. Neither of them played well against Air Force.
Heaps played awfully in the first half, going 2-for-6 with an interception. But Nelson wasn’t that much better. The junior was 8-for-19 for the game for just 73 yards.
The loss also all but knocks the Cougars out of contention for the Mountain West title.
In that conference, if you don’t win against the teams outside of the Big Three (TCU, Utah, BYU), then any hopes of winning the conference are pretty much over.
Alabama regains No. 1 spot in my Top 25
Alabama regains the No. 1 spot from Boise State in my rankings this week after a stellar performance over Penn State.
But I’m not buying the whole “Virginia Tech’s loss to James Madison hurts the Broncos” business.
Boise State is still very good and they still deserve to be a top three team in the nation. If the Broncos drop this week, it’ll be a shame.
Gone from the rankings this week are four teams: Georgia Tech, Georgia, Virginia Tech and BYU. New this week are Arkansas, South Carolina, California and Fresno State.
1) Alabama
2) Boise State
3) TCU
4) Ohio State
5) Texas
6) Florida
7) Stanford
8) Wisconsin
9) Oklahoma
10) Oregon
11) Nebraska
12) Utah
13) Iowa
14) Houston
15) LSU
16) Auburn
17) Arkansas
18) South Carolina
19) Oregon State
20) West Virginia
21) Arizona
22) Miami (FL)
23) Penn State
24) California
25) Fresno State
For more info: Visit our College Football Examiner, Kevin McGuire. for more college football news. Check out the Examiner.com Top 25 poll. Follow me on Twitter.
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