SAN DIEGO - Mekell Wesley followed his blockers perfectly, skipped out of three tackles and turned on the afterburner. Just like that he was gone, giving a player who always seems to be smiling even more reason to beam.

For the San Diego State football team's sophomore wide receiver, that part of his game-changing kick return for a touchdown in Saturday night's 38-30 win against Nevada-Las Vegas was what came naturally; the part the Aztecs coaching staff never doubted he could provide.

The 5-foot-10 speedster'shands, in the opinion of head coach Chuck Long, were another matter. Wesley had been given a look as a kick returner before the season, but end-over-end kicks kept ending up on the turf.

"It's a different style; you take a wide receiver and you think it would be an easy catch, but it's not." said Long, whose team plays at Air Force on Saturday. "But he got better, and he got more confident. We took a chance and said, 'Hey, let's give him a shot at this thing.' "

The Aztecs first took the chance two weeks ago against Wyoming. Wesley replaced true freshman receiver Vincent Brown, whom the coaches didn't want to wear out on special teams as his role in the passing game increased.

"I saw it as a big opportunity just to make plays and to earn my spot on the field," Wesley said. "Everybody's got to work, and all I did was just work for a spot, and the coaches finally gave me a shot at it - and I'm doing pretty good on it."

So far, Wesley has returned 12 kicks without so much as a juggle. His touchdown against UNLV was the first kickoff brought back for a score by an Aztec since 1997.

Aztecs notes

WR Chaz Schilens saidthe stress fracture in his foot which caused him to miss most of five games is no longer bothering him, short of some residual soreness. He needed pain-killers to get through his first game back (Oct. 20 against New Mexico), but not since. The senior has caught touchdowns in two straight games. … DE Nick Osborn was held out of practice on Wednesday as a precaution aftersuffering a concussionSaturday at Nevada-Las Vegas. He expects to return today.

- Contact staff writer Michael Klitzing at mrklitzing@gmail.com.