San Diego State socks it to Houston in Las Vegas Bowl

At the Kickoff Luncheon at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel on Friday afternoon, Las Vegas Bowl director John Saccenti and master of ceremonies Chet Buchanan pulled up their pants legs to reveal they were wearing the official Las Vegas Bowl socks that came in the media packet.

The hope was that by sunset Saturday, the football teams representing Houston and San Diego State would have knocked those socks right off their feet.

The 25th installment of the Las Vegas Bowl was billed as the ideal matchup, pitting a quality outsider from the American Athletic Conference that had upset Oklahoma early and Louisville late (when both were ranked No. 3) against the best of the Mountain West.

It had multiple and intriguing subplots, a local kid zeroing in on the NCAA career rushing record foremost among them.

It had broadcast legend Brent Musburger upstairs in the TV booth, and former all-pro running back and fellow Las Vegas Bowl Hall of Fame inductee Marshawn Lynch down on the field for the ceremonial coin toss.

But what this Las Vegas Bowl had most of all was defense. It would have looked good in a leather helmet.

San Diego State won 34-10 before an announced (and way-less-than-sellout) crowd of 29,286 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

It was the Cougars who wielded the big hammer in the first half before the Aztecs took it away and turned it on them in the second. What a vicious hammer wielding it was.

The Mighty Thor had nothing on the San Diego State defense in the third and fourth quarters.

An Aztecs defensive back named Ron Smith absconded with one of Greg Ward Jr.’s forward passes and returned it 54 yards for a touchdown, and then the local kid, little Donnel Pumphrey of Canyon Springs High School, made the career rushing record his, breaking the mark set in the 1990s by Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne, who outweighed him by roughly 100 pounds.

But it was still mostly a defensive struggle.

San Diego State finished with a modest 255 total yards; Houston with an almost equally modest 254. But the Aztecs intercepted four passes in the second half and sacked the quarterback seven times and turned the Houston offense into a ball of confusion, and there was nothing modest about that.

“Turnovers, turnovers, we had situations where there were miscommunications on a route, miscommunications on a pick-six,” said Major Applewhite, the former Texas quarterback and new Houston coach. “It really swayed the game.”

Said Aztecs linebacker Calvin Munson (eight tackles, sack, interception) of the second-half turnaround: “Guys were making big plays, turnovers, we just kept feeding off it.”

They spoke softly at first, and then wielded a big hammer. Teddy Roosevelt met the Mighty Thor.

Afterward, when it was his turn, San Diego State coach Rocky Long did not speak so softly.

“I hope all those voters back east were watching (because) guess what? We’re a Top 25 team, and I don’t care what the hell they say,” a feisty Long said of his hammer wielders, and of little Donnel Pumphrey, and of the big guys up front who block for him.

The cloud-of-dust tone was foreshadowed by the scorecard operator on San Diego State’s first possession, when it was flashed the Aztecs were facing second-and-75 from deep inside their own territory. It was a malfunction, but that’s the kind of game it was for most of the bright but brisk afternoon.

At the end of the first quarter, Pumphrey had added only negative yards to his ledger, and the Houston defense was flying around like Phi Slama Jama.

By the end, it was its offensive mates who faced most of the second-and-very longs.

The Cougars were 4-point favorites but wound up getting blown away, not by mighty Oklahoma or some wind whipping down a plain, but by a San Diego State team that plays second fiddle to Boise State in its own middling conference.

Montezuma had his revenge.

Montezuma played some serious defense.

As the Cougars dejectedly trudged off the field, John Saccenti ascended a platform on the 15-yard line on the scorecard side to present feisty Rocky Long and his mighty hammer wielders with the Las Vegas Bowl trophy. It was hard to tell from the press tower, but it appeared Saccenti still was wearing socks and that the defense was finally resting.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.