WAC Title Sweet for Stolz, Aztecs : A New Career Highlight and the End of a Drought

In Coach Denny Stolz’s office at San Diego State, a picture is displayed of Michigan State players carrying him off the field after a victory.

The picture was taken in 1974, the year Stolz was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. For 12 years, Stolz considered that season his career highlight.

Saturday night, that all changed when SDSU won its first Western Athletic Conference championship by defeating Brigham Young, 10-3, to earn a Holiday Bowl berth Dec. 30 against Iowa.

“Nothing exceeds this because of the fact it was new and in a different part of the country,” Stolz said Sunday. “San Diego State had never won the WAC or beaten BYU since joining the league. Because of those things and the fact we did it on national TV, this has to be a career high.”

The game may well have been SDSU’s most significant victory since it defeated North Dakota State 20 years ago, 36-0. North Dakota State had been the nation’s top-ranked Division II team, but SDSU was named No. 1 the next week.

There have been numerous highs and lows since, with lows dominating in the what-have-you-done-lately department.

Going into 1986, the Aztecs had suffered three consecutive losing seasons for the first time in nearly three decades. Local fans were turned off by the losing teams and well-publicized turmoil within SDSU’s athletic department.

When Stolz was hired as coach and Fred Miller hired as athletic director last December, that was all supposed to change.

“Our goal was to stop the negative slide,” Miller said. “We wanted to get things turned around into an upward spiral. We want people to use the Aztecs as a source of community pride. We weren’t just saying things for hype.”

Long before the season began, Miller began hyping the team with seemingly unrealistic goals--considering SDSU was picked to finish sixth in the WAC by both coaches and media.

Miller said the Aztecs were capable of winning eight games and playing BYU for the championship in the final game.

“We put ourselves out on the line,” Miller said. “Some things we said might have been overly optimistic, and some might have been true. We had to take chances to establish credibility. God knows we rang the chimes. You won’t find me making those predictions next year.”

Stolz said he “doesn’t pay attention” to the predictions of others.

Before the season, Stolz told the players that he wanted to develop a winning attitude among them. He preached a “win now” philosophy, contrary to the five-year plan of predecessor Doug Scovil.

“The senior class accepted the change in coaching quicker than anyone could imagine from 40 seniors,” Stolz said. “I told them, ‘Hey, guys, I can’t help the change of coaches that was made, but try it my way.’ They said OK.

“How many games anybody thought we would win was speculation. You do have your private thoughts. I thought if we had reasonable luck with injuries and the ball bounced 50-50, we would be in the top three. If we were still in it with our last three games at home, I thought we could win it.”

The Aztecs did just that, beating Wyoming, 31-24; Hawaii, 35-5, and BYU.

SDSU’s most significant victory before the home stretch came Nov. 1 at Colorado State, 27-26, when both teams were in contention.

The Aztecs drove 86 yards in the final minute without any timeouts remaining, winning on a five-yard pass from Todd Santos to Alfred Jackson with two seconds left.

“We beat a contender at their place,” Stolz said. “We dominated and should’ve won it early, then we won with heroics in the end. In the three games since, you wouldn’t recognize this team. It has finally learned how to win. It’s much different than before.”

Stolz only speaks from experiences of the past year.

Ulima Afoa, an SDSU offensive line coach, understands the turnaround’s impact even more. Afoa is the only holdover from last year’s staff.

“This erased a lot of bad memories,” Afoa said. “It was rough because for the longest time these kids didn’t know if they could beat BYU and win the WAC. This coaching staff has done a good job of making the kids believe they can win the games they shouldn’t win, for all intents and purposes. This coaching staff made the kids believe they could do the things they couldn’t do under most circumstances.”

Sunday was a most pleasing day for Afoa, Santos and linebacker Richard Brown. All three are Mormons and BYU is a Mormon school.

Santos said during the week that he wanted to beat BYU because the Cougars did not recruit him. Brown wanted to beat BYU because people within the church always told him he should have gone to BYU when offered a scholarship.

Said Afoa: “It’s hard to go to church every Sunday because I’m LDS (Latter-day Saint). We have some rabid BYU fans. Now I can walk into church, hold my head up and be humble. Before, people always said, ‘Better luck next year.’ There is no next year now. It happened Saturday night.”

Aztec Notes

Before Saturday, BYU had not been held without a touchdown in a game for 10 years. . . . When SDSU plays Iowa in the Holiday Bowl, it will mark the Aztecs’ first bowl appearance since beating Boston University, 28-0, in the 1969 Pasadena Bowl. . . . SDSU officials will meet this morning to discuss how to distribute their 10,000 allotted tickets for the Holiday Bowl. All 40,000 public tickets for the game have been sold out. Iowa expects to sell its 10,000 tickets, according to university officials. . . . Before Saturday, SDSU’s last conference championship was in 1974 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. The Aztecs, who finished the regular season with an 8-3 record, had not won eight games in a season since finishing 8-3 in 1979. . . . Numerous recruits were visiting SDSU’s campus Sunday. Coach Denny Stolz said winning the WAC will be instrumental in attracting the recruits, among other things. “You can’t put into words what it’ll mean in the way of crowds, season tickets, recruiting and building facilities,” Stolz said. “Those things are very important to this program. We have to keep the top San Diego high school and junior college players at San Diego State.”

THROUGH THE YEARS

Year Winner Score ’78 BYU 21-3 ’79 BYU 63-14 ’80 BYU 35-11 ’81 BYU 27-7 ’82 BYU 58-8 ’83 BYU 47-12 ’84 BYU 34-3 ’85 BYU 28-0 ’86 SDSU 10-3