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 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 (remember 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 Chargers/Saints game and talked about his time in SD and the trade. 

In a nutshell 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 players' 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, his accomplishments included:
• 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 winning % 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.