This Football Team Could Use a History Lesson

San Diego State football doesn’t fit into any convenient niches. None of the popular syndromes apply.

It does not, for example, have a history of near-misses. It does not have a history of unfulfilled promise. It does not even have what might be called a hexed history of cosmic jinxes.

There is no color to the history of SDSU football.

This is not to denigrate the very good teams of a different era at a different level. However, the glorious era of Don Coryell ended in 1972. A 41-16 win over Florida State also is fondly recalled, but that was in 1977.

Indeed, that is where San Diego State’s football history seems to end . . . after the 1977 season.

But that is precisely where it should have started. The Aztecs were entering the Western Athletic Conference and embarking on major college football. This was a promotion they had earned after all those years of beating up on Cal State Disneyland, North (and West) Texas State and San Fernando Valley State.

Let me count the memories since . . .

Hmmmm.

How about that 52-31 win over Iowa State in 1981? OK.

And . . .

Hmmmm.

Hmmmmmmm.

The 18-15 loss to UCLA was almost a highlight in 1984. The 35-6 win over Oklahoma State in 1982 was nice, but not quite the stuff of which imprints are made in memory banks. There was the 31-20 win over Miami (Fla.) in 1979, but most folks don’t even remember that SDSU played Miami in 1979.

San Diego State could not be any more anonymous if it had abandoned football when it joined the WAC. The program has been like a raft adrift in the South Pacific, headed everywhere and going nowhere. It would be sighted occasionally before disappearing again behind a wave.

Once again, there has been a sighting . . . and darned if it does not seem to have a rudder, sail and maybe even a winged keel.

San Diego State is on top of the WAC with a 3-0 record. This represents a little brush with history, because the Aztecs have never before been so positioned after three WAC games.

Of course, this is not quite sufficient cause for burning taxicabs or uprooting turf or any of the other contemporary methods of exhibiting exhilaration. It isn’t quite time to close College Avenue for a celebration.

However, maybe it is time to take note.

Within reason.

Denny Stolz, six games into his first year as coach, is being realistic about what has happened and what might happen. He is not about to take a 3-0 record and sit back in his favorite recliner.

After the 15-10 win over Texas El Paso last week, an over-reacting reporter blurted: “Coach, do you think you have a championship team?”

Stolz, noting the absence of champagne on the premises, shook his head.

“Listen,” he said, “you may be hurrying this thing just a little bit. How will we know until we’ve played the other contenders?”

One of them comes to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium Saturday night. That would be Air Force, an opponent the Aztecs defeated as recently as 1980.

It is interesting that Air Force should cross the Aztecs’ paths at this time. After so many years in the doldrums, Air Force has become a regular participant in post-season bowl games.

“We point to the Air Force as an example of what we can do,” Stolz said Tuesday. “They weren’t winning many games just a few years ago, but they turned it around. It shows our team, our community and our alumni that it can be done. I totally believe that.”

The next chore is to beat Air Force.

“The kids realize how important this game is,” Stolz said. “My job is to develop confidence that we can beat Air Force. That’s how I’ll spend this week, convincing and encouraging.”

Stolz is in the midst of an interesting week in terms of psychology. Saturday’s game is the biggest one the Aztecs have had for a while, but it is certainly not the “end-all” game.

“It’s not life or death,” Stolz said. “It’s not like we’re done if we don’t win.”

And a win would not exactly pave a poinsettia-strewn path to the Holiday Bowl. A trip to Colorado State is directly ahead, followed by home games against Wyoming, Hawaii and Brigham Young. With the exception of Hawaii, all of those teams are among the “contenders” in the WAC.

These are all games which can have an impact on this program, and impact is a very prominent word around the athletic department at SDSU.

Fred Miller, the director of athletics, is putting together schedules with impact in mind. He recently signed Miami (Fla.) for a 10-year series beginning in 1991, and continues to negotiate with Minnesota, Illinois, SMU, Boston College and Syracuse. UCLA, Stanford, Arizona and Oregon are already on current and/or upcoming schedules. Miller is talking national rather than regional impact.

As he said Tuesday: “We’re trying to put ourselves in the television path of progress, the pay-per-view path of progress and the intersectional path of progress.”

In fact, Miller has proposed that the WAC cut down to six conference games to allow for more intersectional games.

Right now, however, the Aztecs are seeking to make an impact on the community. Thus far, they have hardly stirred the multitudes as far from campus as North Park and North City West.

“We have to create San Diego fans for San Diego State,” Miller said. “Oklahoma could play Kansas State week after week and still draw because Oklahoma fans come to see Oklahoma.”

San Diego fans are more likely to be attracted by what they perceive to be a happening . . . an event of consequence.

Let’s just say San Diego fans have a sense of history.