What has happened to SDSU football? by Markell Staffieri
Steadily declining in performance over the past 10 years, SDSU has finally become the door mat of the Mountain West Conference, but who is to blame? And what is happening to a program which should have nothing but success? After all, SDSU is located in the heart of sunny San Diego, my home, where the temperatures range from 65 to 75 all year long. We have beautiful beaches and air you can breathe; not that altitude junk. So who would not want to come here?
Without wasting too much time focusing on our opponent I want to look at a few reasons why SDSU finds themselves with only 1 win this year, and losses to some of the weakest FBS and FCS teams in the country.
Problem #1: SDSU is in bad need of a rival. This team is an emotional roller coaster and I think it is because they don’t know how to feel about their opponents. I read an interesting article today that said “SDSU has made a reputation of playing the Top Teams close.” They play up for these games, because it would mean something to beat a big school like Michigan or Ohio State. But when they are playing conference teams you never know what SDSU team will show up to play. When they are fired up, they can actually do some damage BYU @ SDSU 2005 when we planted our flag in the middle of the 50yd line?). I think the fact that they are the only team outside of the mountains – in the Mountain West – leaves them feeling sorry for themselves and unable to find a true rival. I guess UNLV is out of the mountains too, so maybe they should start hating each other. After all it is a short drive from SD to LV.
Solution: Right now it would be great for SDSU and the city of San Diego to start a rivalry with USD. They are a Div 1-AA team, but they are really good. They don’t lose very often, and probably would not lose to SDSU this year. A rivalry here would really give SDSU the spark they need to be more competitive. Everyone needs someone to hate, and right now SDSU doesn’t have that. They used to consider us their rival, but we really don’t have time to return the affection because we hate Utah too much and we try to accommodate TCU and Wyoming now and then. Besides we have also thrown Utah State back in the mix.
Problem #2: The biggest contributor to the poor play of SDSU has to be their player’s commitment to the team. This may actually stem from having so much sunshine in the summer in So. Cal. I had the opportunity to train with two players from SDSU for the combine/pro day. I asked one of them what seemed to be the problem there and he said, Accountability. Fact is, there isn’t any on the Aztec football team. Guys are not held accountable to each other or to their coaches to make it to workouts or to improve in the others areas of being a student athlete. This is the same problem that plagued BYU from 2002-2004. SDSU will not turn this thing around until the coaches start holding the players accountable.
Interestingly enough SDSU consistently turns out more NFL players than any other MWC school. For the past few years (with this year being the first exception) they led the MWC in NFL players. Right now Utah has 16 and SDSU has 15. BYU (14) and TCU (10) are the next in line. So they have the talent. They just need to harness it. I heard a great quote from Drew Brees a couple weeks ago. He was being interviewed before the Charger/Saints Game about his time in SD and the trade. In a nut shell he said he does not resent being traded at all because in New Orleans the coaches built the offense for him, and they are so good and building game plans that highlight player’s strengths. He said, “These coaches will never ask a player to run a play that preys on their weaknesses.” Case in point, Coach Mendenhall switching from his pride and joy 3-3-5 to the 3-4, so that we could play to our strengths. Coach Anae replacing Nate Meikle with Andrew George because of the athletic ability and depth of our TEs. The SDSU coaches are capable and have had a lot of success. In the off-season they need to sit down, evaluate the strengths of their players, and “Get the right people in the right seats.”
Food for thought on SDSU coaches:
The last 4 coaches for SDSU from most recent on back:
- Chuck Long is 8-25 at SDSU. Prior to that all he did was:
- win 3 bowl games with Iowa as the DBs coach while his unit led the conference in INT returned for TDs and INTs 2 out of 3 years.
- QB coach of the 2000 BCS NC Sooners.
- OC for Oklahoma winning the 2002 & 03 Rose Bowls while averaging 51.5 points/game
- 2004 Asst Coach of the Year
- Tom Craft was 19-29 at SDSU…before that:
- 31-2 with 2 JuCo NCs for Palomar JC (Who FYI has 90% of its roster from local high schools) Why can’t they get them to SDSU?
- Top 5 in Total offense in 5 years
- Coached 7 All American QBs
- Ted Tollner was 43-48 at SDSU…before that:
- 26-20 @ USC and was fired after losing to rival UCLA 3 out of 4 times (we will discuss rivalry later)
- After following Head Coaches who kept getting fired, Ted has been fairly stable as an offense position coach and OC in the NFL for the 49ers
- Al Luginbill – the weakest of the bunch outside SDSU – was a surprising 31-25. That is one of the top wining % at the school. Should have kept him.
- 2001 XFL Champs as head coach
- 30-26 in the NFL Europe winning World Bowl III
With impressive resumes before and after SDSU, it tells me there was something else going on besides just the head coach.
It is tough to build a culture of winning and SDSU simply hasn’t put the pieces in place to do that. As a San Diego native and an SDSU alum (I got my masters there after graduating from BYU) I have seen my second favorite team languish year after year after year.
A major issue is money. With the downward spiral the team has faced, San Diegans simply don’t care about the Aztecs. They have the Chargers to root for instead. That means that nobody comes to the games and so the football program goes deeper into debt. San Diego is a town that will get behind a winner but will stay home otherwise.
Another problem might be that San Diego is a town full of transplants. They move into town and keep their allegiance to Ohio State or USC or BYU or whoever so the Aztecs never create a base of lifetime and inter-generational fans to support the program.
Fixing the Aztecs will take an extraordinary coaching staff, greater commitment from the administration and boosters (financially especially), and some luck. Who knows if any of that will happen.
One of my best friends went to SDSU and we have gone to every game together going back to Ty Detmer and Marshall Faulk. This is the first year he has just said, “I don’t want to go.” He was really ecstatic a few years ago when we lost to SDSU in San Diego or I should say got killed by SDSU. It is hard to believe, but he is die heart SDSU fan and he just punted. I have an extra ticket to the game.
Yeah, it’s tough to be accountable in San Diego with all of the distractions. Staff forgot to mention south of the border and some of the SDSU hangouts in Tijuana. As a young, single guy I saw some pretty wild stuff from SDSU students down there.
Right on, SDSU just doesn’t have much to play for. Funny, I never thought of USD as a potential rival, but that’s a good idea. USD is also a very expensive brainy school and they probably have smart athletes who can run complex schemes.
We should be grateful for University of Utah. Even as a fan, I probably spend several good hours each week just hating the Utes. By itself, that’s enough to keep me out of trouble.
Geoff,
You make great points. Had I not kept it simple that is the rest of what I would have said. San Diegans have so many options of things to do with their spare time, (Beach, Chargers, Padres, Sea World, Disneyland, Balboa Park, Wild-Animal Park, etc) that they don’t need to choose to watch a team lose.
I listen to sports talk radio a lot with Coach Kenterra – went to school with his kids – on the mighty 1090 and there are a lot die hard Aztecs fans out there (Not 65,000) but they are really getting tired of losing. Yesterday was a great segment in which they spent about 30 minutes with the SDSU AD. He talked about a lot of the bright spots of SDSU sports and how they are all overshadowed by the football team.
One thing he pointed out was that last year was their best year in the MWC. They also resigned Chuck Long, with I think will allow the team to have some more consistency.
The great thing for SDSU is that once they get the momentum, they will get a lot of the athletes that don’t pick USC, because they want more PT.
Witt,
“Even as a fan, I probably spend several good hours each week just hating the Utes. By itself, that’s enough to keep me out of trouble.” – I love this quote. I probably spend too much time hating the Utes, but I sure enjoy it.
The MWC needs to add Boise State, Fresno State, and Nevada and a Championship Game. This would help SDSU, UNLV, and Wyoming become stronger programs by giving them another in-conference rival to get up for each year.
Sorry, but USD isn’t “really good.” SDSU has lost — barely — to Cal Poly twice in the past three years. Cal Poly is currently ranked No. 3 in FCS (I-AA). USD isn’t ranked. USD plays in the lowest-ranked conference in FCS and they don’t play any of the elite teams. Cal Poly would crush USD and so would SDSU.
This may be the worst Aztec team in decades, but they’d still pound USD by 30.
For a rivalry to work, there’s got to be some parity between the teams over time. That would only happen if SDSU were to go down to the FCS along with the fewer scholarships, etc. that that entails.
Hoystory, Not true, I’m old enough to remember losing to the Utes every year, we might win three games in a year. We were bad—- But there was always that Utah game– then after we’d start yelling “just wait until basketball season!” We all had fun, even though we lost!
The field then was where the Richards building is now, the fans sit on bleacher seats going up the hill behind the richards building.– Yup, I go waaaay back—
I am glad that Long is going to be there for a few years. I think that will help. Despite the problems SDSU faces it still had some big advantages over any other MWC school that could be exploited.
1. It’s in beautiful San Diego
2. It’s in beautiful San Diego
3. It’s in beautiful San Diego
The fact is that despite losing records the Aztecs put a lot of players into the NFL and that will allow them to attract top talent still. I hope Long can turn things around over there. It is better for the whole MWC when SDSU is producing Heisman worthy players like Marshall Faulk.
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