Time to Snap, Snarl . . . and Smile at SDSU

There are right ways for football coaches to look and sound when anything as ominous as a game with a national power lurks on the horizon.

Actually, it doesn’t have to be a game with a national power.

Any game will do.

Indeed, most coaches are as lavish in their praise (and fear) of the woefully woebegone as they would be of the combined varsities of the New York Giants and Oklahoma Sooners.

Isn’t every game a crisis to rival the dilemma in the Persian Gulf?

That’s why coaches need this look and sound.

Call the look a scowl and the sound a growl.

Denny Stolz is no exception. It just so happens that his San Diego State varsity football team is one week away from its season opener at UCLA. This would seem to be no joyous way to begin a season, and Stolz could be excused for snapping and snarling.

In fact, Stolz did snap and snarl a bit when he was approached after a Thursday scrimmage.

No time to talk now, he said, and recited a litany of obligations that would tie him up for maybe 2 1/2 to 3 hours . . . or was it 2 1/2 to 3 days?

The man was definitely busy. Everyone wanted a chunk of his time, and the media were only part of the pursuing pack. There was much to do, and Stolz just wished he could focus his energy and concentration on UCLA.

He disappeared into a darkened hallway, seemingly lost for maybe 2 1/2 to 3 days . . . or was it 2 1/2 to 3 months?

Except Denny Stolz found, or maybe stole, some time between a team meeting and yet another national media telephone hookup.

And he had a confession to make.

He’s having a ball.

What?

No football coach can be having a ball at this time of year. This is the time of year when a football coach’s family dog has to hire a bodyguard to keep from getting kicked around the landscape. This is definitely not a time for . . .

“Fun,” Stolz said. “I’m having fun. I love coaching.”

Wait a minute. It didn’t really look as if anyone was having fun during the scrimmage. It looked like a rather intense affair. It looked as if some of the Aztecs were treating each other as rudely as they hope to treat UCLA.

“We joke around,” Stolz insisted. “OK, maybe we didn’t joke around much this morning, but we always try to laugh a little.”

In the fall of 1986, San Diego State had a laughing, giggling good time on the football field. Most of its players were mastering the intricacies of long division the last time the university enjoyed such a year.

There were a last-minute victory over Utah and a last-second victory over Colorado State, come-from-behind victories over Cal State Long Beach, New Mexico and Wyoming and that almost routine victory, 10-3, over Brigham Young. Even the 39-38 loss to Iowa in the Holiday Bowl was cause for so much excitement that it almost masked the disappointment.

It was the best of years, at least since SDSU joined the Western Athletic Conference in 1978.

It was also totally unexpected.

There was virtually no reason to suspect that 1986 would be different from any other year for the Aztecs in the WAC. Previous flirtations with success had lasted about as long as a burning match, bright but oh so short-lived. And there was always an annual embarrassment at the hands of BYU.

It did not figure to be any different in 1986, because Denny Stolz was the only new ingredient in the program. He came to SDSU with solid credentials as a coach, but his resume said nothing about walking on water or turning mediocrity into a miracle.

Though Stolz did not prove capable of walking on water, he did build a bridge to credibility and responsibility.

The community, the conference and, to a lesser extent perhaps, the country have become aware of this up-and-coming program. SDSU is getting more attention than at any other time in its athletic history.

It helps that the quarterback, Todd Santos, is among those being touted as potential Heisman Trophy winners. If such a thing as a Heisman “candidate” existed, he would be considered a fringe candidate . . . highly regarded provincially but a bit overshadowed in the big picture by athletes from programs with higher profiles and more exposure. It also hurts Santos that he plays most of his games at night on the West Coast.

However, this groundswell of interest, both in the program and in Santos, is exactly what SDSU needs.

Stolz understands that. He argued that he does not consider the attention to be a distraction but rather a consumer of already precious time.

“If it is a distraction,” he said, “it’s a pleasant distraction.”

If he was initially a bit snappy, it was understandable. He knows that SDSU is getting the attention it is getting because it was successful in 1986, not because it might be successful in 1987.

Thus, it is Stolz’s chore to maintain perspective.

Simply put, UCLA lies directly ahead. This may be as good as any team UCLA has ever had, and that might be deemed a scary way to open any season . . . much less what might be the most eagerly awaited season in SDSU’s athletic history.

“I want to open tough,” Stolz said. “I don’t want to open against someone we can roll over. You don’t learn anything about your team that way. I want to open tough, tough.”

He smiled.

“I think we’ve scheduled the right team,” he said.

It was time for Stolz to excuse himself. A national telephone hookup with assorted media representatives was next on his day’s agenda.

“God only knows where these people are all from,” he said, “but I’m glad they’re interested.”

There would be plenty of time to scowl, growl, snarl and snap later. After all, Denny Stolz is a football coach.