Big Time a Bad Time For Santos : San Diego State Quarterback Fails to Shoot the Moon

For most of the year, Todd Santos, the record-setting San Diego State quarterback, labors in some of college football’s most obscure outposts.

Such near-forgotten places as Laramie, Wyo.; Fort Collins, Colo., and El Paso, Tex., have been regular stops on his annual tour of the Western Athletic Conference.

Even when Santos is not playing in some off-the-beaten-path stadium, he’s playing at home under the lights in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, where late starts make for little mention of his achievements in the Sunday morning papers, especially in other time zones.

All the yards, all the touchdowns, all the victories, mean little to those outside of San Diego if no one hears about his feats.

That’s why if Santos was going to turn his pursuit of Keven Sweeney’s National Collegiate Athletic Assn. career passing yardage record into a chase for the Heisman Trophy, Saturday night was so important.

Santos was playing UCLA at the Rose Bowl, a grassy pulpit from which to proclaim that he belonged among the nation’s best college football players. A good showing against the nationally ranked Bruins, combined with the Aztecs’ defense holding UCLA’s own preseason All-American, tailback Gaston Green, in check, and Santos might vault into the consciousness of those who decide who is the best college football player in America.

The plan got untracked early. Santos threw interceptions on the Aztecs’ first two possessions, and his team spent the rest of the night just trying to keep the score respectable. But they, like Santos, had little success as the Bruins opened the season with a 47-14 victory.

Santos did manage to finish with reasonable numbers: 22 completions in 42 attempts for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns. But while he kept his pursuit of Sweeney’s record alive, the larger prize of increased national recognition slipped away under a full September moon.

As for Green, he rushed 13 times for 106 yards and a touchdown in the first half on the way to 135 yards in 19 carries.

Next Saturday, Green and the Bruins play in a national cable television game at Nebraska. Santos and the Aztecs start the defense of their first WAC championship, at home, at night, against Utah. No need to wonder which game and whose accomplishments will be more closely followed.

“We just had a lot of breakdowns,” Santos said. “We got behind early and got out of our game plan.

“It’s disappointing getting off to such a bad start. But we’ll be back.”

Santos entered the game needing to average 261 yards in the Aztecs’ 12 regular-season games to break the one-year-old record of 10,623 yards that Sweeney set at Fresno State. He now needs to average 268 yards in the remaining 11 games to pass Sweeney.

Santos did move up six notches on the NCAA all-time career passing leaders, finishing the game with 7,679 yards. That vaulted him to 17th from 23rd place, passing Jim Plunkett (7,544) of Stanford, John Reaves (7,549) of Florida, Tom Tunnicliffe (7,618) of Arizona, Scott Campbell (7,636) of Purdue, Marc Wilson (7,637) of Brigham Young and John Paye (7,669) of Stanford.

Those statistics, however, were of little comfort to Santos, who continually has downplayed his pursuit of Sweeney’s record. While many of the questions these past few weeks have centered on that topic, Santos replied by talking about his desire to beat UCLA and then go on to a second WAC championship.

That was what made the crushing nature of the defeat so difficult to take.

“We never expected this--to score only 14 points,” Santos said. “That’s a little embarrassing.”

Santos was a forlorn figure much of the night. When it became clear early in the first half that the Bruins were on their way to the second consecutive rout of the Aztecs, Santos spent much of the time on a far end of the San Diego State sideline.

Almost isolated from the other players, he stood, his helmet clutched to his waist, his head slightly bowed. Every so often a teammate, frequently another of the quarterbacks, would wonder down and pat him on the back. It was little consolation.

“No one should blame Todd for this,” San Diego State Coach Denny Stolz said. “There were a lot of new players on the field; some of those players made mistakes. Todd is not one to point a finger.”

The Aztecs did little to hide their intention--their plan to was to pass early and often. The Bruins counted with a fierce blitz, led by junior linebacker Carnell Lake. Lake finished with with three sacks for a loss of 30 yards, but his night began with a play that set the tone for all that would follow.

On the first play of the game, Santos dropped back and threw to junior split end Alfred Jackson into heavy coverage near the left sideline. Jackson could only get a hand on the ball and it deflected into Lake’s hands. The Bruins failed to capitalize on the turnover, but on SDSU’s next possession Santos threw a short pass to junior tailback Paul Hewitt. UCLA linebacker Ken Norton made a diving interception. Six plays later, Mel Farr dashed in from two yards out and the Bruins led, 7-0.

When the next San Diego State possession ended with Darryl Henley returning a punt 74 yards for a touchdown, the rout was on.