Wyoming coach calls out San Diego State’s football attendance issues

About the only time Wyoming coach Jay Sawvel finds himself in a crowd is at a football game. That’s no surprise considering he lives in a state with 600,000 people.

Sawvel came away unimpressed, saddened even, with the homecoming crowd that gathered for San Diego State’s 24-7 win over Wyoming on Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium.

“A game like Saturday night makes you appreciate being in Wyoming,” Sawvel said Monday during his weekly meeting with the media. “That’s a beautiful stadium, they have a really good team, and they had a promotion the other night where you come dressed as an empty seat, because there was nobody there. … That showed as much as anything. There was nobody at that game.”

Sawvel seemed surprised that in a county of 3.3 million people, SDSU drew an announced crowd of 24,325 (tickets distributed). In-house attendance was 17,109, which is just more than half full at the 32,500-seat stadium.

It was the second-smallest home crowd this season. SDSU drew fewer fans (13,516) for its season opener against Stony Brook. The Aztecs drew 21,819 fans for a home game against Cal and 21,024 for Colorado State. The Aztecs are averaging 18,367 fans per game this season.

Saturday’s crowd ranks among the 10 smallest in Snapdragon’s 24-game history. Eight of those games came during the 2023-24 seasons, the only two years with a losing record since 2009.

Attendance over the weekend was particularly disappointing because it came with SDSU coach Sean Lewis’ team in the midst of a five-game winning streak that the Aztecs stretched to six against Wyoming.

“Sean Lewis is a great dude, and a really good coach,” Sawvel said. “They have a very good football team. There was a minute that I looked at (the crowd) right before kickoff and I’m like, ‘I feel bad for these guys.’ That’s why I like coaching here.”

An SDSU spokesman declined to provide a response to Sawvel’s comments.

Wyoming’s announced attendance for five home games this season has averaged 22,990 at 25,000-seat War Memorial Stadium. The Cowboys’ final home game of the season Nov. 22 against Nevada is sold out.

The Cowboys are 4-5 overall and 2-3 in the Mountain West this season. They were 3-9 overall and 2-5 in conference last season, the same records as SDSU, which has rebounded this season to go 7-1 with a 4-0 conference record that makes the Aztecs the only undefeated team in the Mountain West.

Lewis’ weekly Monday press conference, which concluded before Sawvel’s remarks were known, included a reference in which he called attendance at Snapdragon  “a good crowd of alumni, student body, and members of the community who have been there with us since Day 1, (and) some new people who are showing up are great.”

Lewis said more than 100 prospects came to the game. Twice as many are expected in two weeks for SDSU’s Nov. 15 game against Boise State.

“We had over 115 different high school prospects that were on the sidelines, which is why it’s so important that the community shows up and shows out for us as well,” Lewis said. “When those prospects who are right here from our own back yard … look up in the stands, they want to play in front of a sellout crowd. They want to play in front of their hometown fans that know their names, that know them from Friday Night Lights and want to continue to share in their joy and their legacy and their future in the college ranks in front of a packed crowd.

“We need to have not only our staff do a great job, our players do a great job but our community do a great job to show up and support us. Because when the Aztecs are playing well, everyone benefits from that. It’s more eyeballs on the city. It’s more eyeballs on the university. It’s more eyeballs for opportunity for us to continue grow this thing out at a really, really elite level.”

More than 6,000 tickets remain for the Boise State game. Fewer than 300 tickets (all on the visitor side) are at the lowest price point — $62.55. Prices for the other tickets are $115.60, $156.90, $180.50, $209.95 and $298.45.

Notable

• SDSU remained among others receiving votes in the national points, totaling 30 points in both the AP and coaches’ polls. That placed the Aztecs 29th nationally in both polls. The Aztecs received 14 points in each poll last week.

• SDSU has finished in the AP top 25 three times in school history. In each instance, the Aztecs started the season 7-1. The 1977 team (10-1) was ranked 16th, the 2016 team was ranked 25th (11-3) and the 2021 team (12-2) was ranked 25th.

• SDSU linebacker Tano Letuli was undergoing tests on Monday for a “lower body injury,” Lewis said. Letuli was helped from the field in the first quarter against Wyoming with an apparent knee injury and did not return.

• Of the 20 teams that won three or fewer games last season, only SDSU (7-1 after going 3-9) and Southern Mississippi (6-2 after going 1-11) are bowl eligible.

• SDSU’s defense is drawing comparisons to the best defenses in school history through eight games.

The Aztecs are allowing 10 points a game, the best in program history. They are allowing 246.3 yards a game, which is the best since 1970 (205.7).

They are allowing 2.7 yards per carry, which is the best since 1977 (2.4). They are allowing 157.8 yards passing per game, which is the best since 1978 (131.3).