2016 Las Vegas Bowl final score: Aztecs shut Cougars down, RB Donnel Pumphrey breaks record

San Diego State’s defense showed its teeth in the 34-10 victory over Houston to take home a Las Vegas Bowl victory.

But the attention was squarely on the offensive side of the ball. Standout SDSU running back Donnel Pumphrey entered the game with a chance to break the major college football rushing record. The stud back is from Las Vegas, but he hadn’t faced anything near Houston’s athletic defense before this game.

They average a solid 35 points per game. But they really haven’t played a good defense all year, and Houston will be the best they’ve seen. Opponent-adjusted S&P+ thinks this is more of a top-70 offense than the top-30-ish unit it looks like by raw point totals. The Cougars will give us some sense of what’s true, but it’s not hard to imagine UH holding SDSU somewhere in the 20s. That hasn’t happened all season.

After being stymied by the Cougars for most of the first quarter and being held to negative yards, Pumphrey broke through with a big second quarter. He rode that all the way to 115 total rushing yards and he broke Ron Dayne’s career rushing record in the fourth quarter, according to the NCAA’s odd math.

On the defensive side of the ball, San Diego State had a pick-six in addition to three interceptions including one on the final meaningful play of the game. The unit also registered seven sacks and 11 tackles for loss. They even spent some time hitting each other, during this little shoving match between teammates.

They made up for it later, though, by hugging it out on the field.

So much of what has happened to Houston in the last month had nothing to do with on-field things. The Cougars were written off because the goal of a Playoff went out the window thanks to two losses. But then the they beat Louisville on a Thursday night and reminded us how fearsome they can be when clicking.

With former coach Tom Herman gone to Texas, former offensive coordinator Major Applewhite was promoted as permanent head coach, and there was a considerable amount of pressure on the new head man. Sports Illustrated reported earlier Saturday that defensive coordinator Todd Orlando would follow Herman to Austin.

The Cougars have failed to put together consecutive 10-win seasons, and it will be interesting to see how they rebound under the Applewhite regime.

Saturday, we got our first look at what an Applewhite Houston team looks like, but San Diego State’s defense wasn’t interested in letting the Cougars flex their muscles.