UCLA Loss Has Santos Looking to Start All Over

Todd Santos looked calm and composed, the way a quarterback should look. His 5 o’clock shadow was a couple of hours early, or he was a day late with the razor. He was wearing shorts and a Green Bay Packer T-shirt, which he insisted was not wishful thinking.

“A friend gave it to me,” he said.

A friend? What kind of friend would give a Green Bay Packer shirt to a football player?

Friday afternoon was warm and comfortable. San Diego State football players were plodding in one direction toward the locker room, and volleyball players were scurrying in the other toward practice. Friday is a dull day for college football players.

Todd Santos was six days past his last game and one day away from his next. The last game, of course, was that 47-14 drubbing at the hands of UCLA. The next is tonight’s Western Athletic Conference opener against Utah at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

In his mind, these two games intersect.

“I’m anxious to get started,” he said, “because last week was kind of embarrassing.”

Not totally embarrassing. There are more embarrassing ways to lose than 47-14 to a team ranked among the top three or four in the nation. It would be much more embarrassing, for example, to lose 17-14 to Texas El Paso.

However, to understand Santos’ embarrassment, you have to understand the position he plays and the proprietary attitude he has toward what his team does or doesn’t do.

Santos is a quarterback. People in this position understand that it comes with a disproportionate share of either credit or blame. The quarterback is the one player who has no place to hide, whether he is dodging a blitz of giggling well-wishers or snarling critics.

Though Santos has no snarling critics, that UCLA loss gnaws at the person he finds toughest to please.

Himself.

“I take it personally,” he said. “I really do. When we lose a game that badly, and when the offense doesn’t do the job, I take it personally. I feel it’s my offense. It’s my job to motivate it, to get it excited. We have to play hard and execute well, and I feel really badly when we’re not able to.”

Did he really feel the Aztecs should have beaten UCLA?

“Well,” he said, “there was a lot of hype before the game. We had some good things going, winning the WAC championship and playing in the Holiday Bowl. We were kind of on a roll. We weren’t overconfident, but we were confident and we felt good. It was a big letdown to get blown out like that. We expected a good game, a lot closer, but that game kind of opened our eyes.”

Santos did not have a bad game, albeit a couple of interceptions early in the game were damaging. He completed 22 of 42 passes for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Those numbers, as you probably suspect by now, were not the ones that concerned him most. In his mind, there’s more to the offense than his numbers. It was the total offensive output . . . only two touchdowns.

“We looked at the films,” Santos said, “and it wasn’t as bad as we thought. I know I made a few mental errors. I have to do a lot better this week to help us get back on the right foot.”

If Santos is in need of any vindication, Utah provides just such an opportunity. It isn’t that Utah is an easy mark. Far from it. After such a dreary opener, anyone represents an opportunity to get the 1987 season turned in the right direction.

It has been a long week . . . waiting for the next game while trying to simultaneously learn from and forget the last one.

“I’ve gotten a lot of support from friends on campus,” Santos said. “Everybody knew UCLA would be tough. Nobody’s looking down on us. I think a lot of people feel we can still come out 11-1.”

Indeed, SDSU coaches have been remarkably upbeat all week. Coach Denny Stolz was even upbeat in the locker room last Saturday night.

“Why all the long faces?” he asked.

Santos was wearing one of those long faces, but it was gone by Friday afternoon. He simply had to put the game behind him, and he couldn’t do that until he was breaking a huddle once again.

In the meantime, he had a long Friday night and a longer Saturday ahead of him.

“I hate Saturday,” he said. “I hate the sitting around and waiting. I’d rather get up and get on the field.”

And Friday night?

He laughed.

“We see a highlight film,” he said. “You know, Dallas Cowboys, Chargers, Chicago Bears. It’s been the same stuff for four years. It’s gotten a little old.”

You mean they even show Green Bay Packer highlight films?

“We’ve seen ‘em all,” he said. “Even the Indianapolis Colts.”

Careful, Todd, you never know where your next T-shirt might be coming from.