Scovil Fired as Head Coach at San Diego State

Doug Scovil has been fired after five years as San Diego State’s head football coach, The Times learned Monday night.

Scovil’s firing, with one year remaining on his contract, came on the eve of today’s expected announcement that Fred Miller had been hired as the new athletic director. Miller’s hiring is the anticipated subject of a news conference this morning on campus.

However, a confirmation of Scovil’s status is likely to also be a focal point in a pivotal day for SDSU athletics.

A university source told The Times Monday night that Scovil had been informed Sunday night that he would be released. Scovil’s final game as head coach was Saturday night’s 10-10 tie at Hawaii, which made the 1985 record 5-6-1 and his overall record 24-32-3.

A call to Scovil’s home Monday night brought the response: “Doug’s not available for comment.”

The Aztec players themselves were informed Monday during a layover in San Francisco on the way home from Hawaii.

“We’re a little bit shocked,” said quarterback Todd Santos. “I think everybody’s a little upset and shocked about the news. We’d heard rumors and stuff like that, but we didn’t think there’d be a firing. I think he’s a good coach.”

Santos rooms with a couple of other Aztec football players, but they let the quarterback do the talking.

“No one else wants to talk,” he said.

Scovil came to San Diego State in 1981 from Brigham Young University, where he was offensive coordinator. His experience included stints at the College of San Mateo and University of Pacific as head coach and assistant coaching positions with the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears.

He was know as an innovative developer of passers and passing, but he never quite got the SDSU program off the ground. The Aztecs were 6-5 in 1981 and 7-5 in 1982, using a nucleus of holdovers and junior college transfers while a transition to high school recruiting took root.

However, that transition proved slow. The Aztecs’ records were 2-9-1 in 1983 and 4-7-1 in 1984. The 5-6-1 record in 1985 was not an indication of sufficient progress to save the head coach’s job.

With the SDSU athletic department mired deep in the red, it is perceived that football has to be the savior. Football attendance, the barometer for financial stability, has suffered through the losing years.

Hence, a new direction will be unfolding in football.

That will likely be the first chore to confront Miller, a 54-year-old instructor in the Arizona State University department of physical education. He had been athletic director at both Cal State Long Beach and Arizona State before being fired at the latter after he fired controversialFrank Kush.

“The announcement of the athletic director should be a very, very positive occasion,” said a prominent SDSU booster who asked that he not be identified. “I wouldn’t like to see it tied with anything else.”

It was all tied together Monday night, with no official announcement from the university. Thomas Day, the university president, could not be contacted late Monday.

Doug Scovil’s Record

Year School Record 1981 SDSU 6-5 1982 SDSU 7-5 1983 SDSU 2-9-1 1984 SDSU 4-7-1 1985 SDSU 5-6-1 Totals SDSU 24-32-3