San Diego State Wyoming

The San Diego State Aztecs came up with not one, but two, spectacular kickoff returns for touchdowns against Wyoming Saturday.

The game opened with San Diego State returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Rashaad Penny took the game’s opening kickoff at the seven-yard line, and the zipped his way down the field to give visiting San Diego State a quick lead before an offensive snap could be seen.

As the game would eventually get a chance to play out, the Aztecs and the Cowboys would go back and forth for much of the afternoon. Midway through the third quarter, Wyoming tied the game at 17-17 with a touchdown run to cap a hard-fought 13-play touchdown drive. But the tie would not last for long, because Juwan Washington would return the ensuing kickoff 92 yards to the house to give San Diego State the lead once again without skipping a beat.

Making big special teams plays is always nice, and ones of this sort have been rare for Mountain West teams this year. Coming into this game, there had been just three kickoffs returned for a touchdown all season by the entire conference. San Diego State was responsible for one of them, and now they’ve tacked on two more to their season total.

However, the Aztecs probably need to get a little more offense as well. They wound up falling 34-33 to the Cowboys despite these two spectacular returns. The win moves Wyoming up to 8-3 and drops San Diego State to 9-2, and that could hurt the Aztecs’ place in the Group of Five pecking order.

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.