Stolz, the Day After, Has Praise for Offense in Aztecs’ Victory

Denny Stolz, San Diego State’s football coach, admits that he rarely discusses the negative aspects of his team. So Saturday night’s 27-24 victory over Cal State Long Beach left Stolz with plenty to talk about.

The first-year coach was in high spirits Sunday as he outlined several areas in which the Aztecs pleased him in their season opener. At the top of the list was the Aztec offense, which produced 436 yards.

Three of the Aztecs’ four primary receivers caught touchdown passes from junior quarterback Todd Santos.

“The receiver corps probably performed a little better than I thought they would,” he said. “We moved the ball around well. Three touchdown passes to three different receivers.” Stolz said it was hard to find fault in the San Diego State passing game, directed by Santos, who completed 24 of 37 passes for 330 yards and three touchdowns. Santos was intercepted twice.

“I thought the receivers did well,” Stolz said.

The only pass that wasn’t caught that should have been, according to Stolz, was thrown to Troy Reed from a scrambling Santos, who proved Saturday that he can be a mobile passer.

“I had not seen much (scrambling) from him on film,” Stolz said. “But we encourage our quarterback to be able to do that . . . But what we have to do is get our receivers in sync with our quarterback when he does scramble.”

Aztec kicker Kevin Rahill won Stolz’s confidence. He hit field goals of 39 and 26 yards. “The kicking area became a positive that was an unknown,” Stolz said.