Dick Harmon: SDSU's Rocky Long one of the good guys

"I'll get this out sooner or later,” he told reporters at one of his weekly interviews. “I was born in Provo; my mom and dad both graduated from BYU. My dad played football and ran track at BYU. What makes you think I could even hate them? My mom and dad would hate me.”

In SDSU, the Cougars will face a team with a Long trademark. The Aztecs are tougher than the beach-boy party crew they’ve been in the past. They hit harder, tackle better and get nasty with the 3-3-5 that can give a quarterback fits. This has carried over to offense, where BYU may face the best run attack it's seen this year, including at Notre Dame and Georgia Tech and in Provo against ranked Utah State.

Long’s transference of toughness from his defense to offense will give BYU plenty to think about come Thursday night.

It will be an interesting challenge for Mendenhall’s defense, ranked in the top five nationally in total defense and rush defense.

But what are a few stats among friends?

Dick Harmon, Deseret News sports columnist, can be found on Twitter as Harmonwrites and can be contacted at dharmon@desnews.com.