Inspired Rise of the Aztecs

It’s become an axiom in sports that to win “you gotta believe.” The San Diego State Aztecs and their coach, Denny Stolz, have come to embody that expression.

In his first year as head coach of the Aztecs, Stolz took a team that was expected to be a Western Athletic Conference also-ran and led it to its first conference championship and Holiday Bowl appearance. Tuesday night, the Aztecs face the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference.

When Stolz was hired last December from Bowling Green University, he eschewed talk of gradually rebuilding the SDSU football program and said he intended to win immediately. Aztec fans no doubt admired his moxie, but few could have suspected he’d pull it off as he has.

The team lost only one conference game, to Air Force, and lost to Pac 10 powers UCLA and Stanford. It beat arch rival BYU in the final regular season game to go 8-3, the team’s first winning record in seven years.

Also part of the new Aztec leadership team is Athletic Director Fred Miller, who picked Stolz as head coach. Fueled by the football team’s surprisingly successful season, Miller has raised $2 million from private funds to build an athletic facility that will include a weight room, a player’s room and a locker room. The combination of the new facility, the team’s bowl appearance and Stolz’s history of building outstanding football programs should have SDSU coaches all a titter about this year’s recruiting of high school athletes.

Few observers give the Aztecs much chance to win the Holiday Bowl against Iowa, which also went 8-3 in the more powerful Big Ten. But then, few gave the team a chance to get to the bowl game either. An Aztec win would be an upset, but upsets can happen when people believe.