Santos Gets the Record, but BYU Kills the Music

There were the tearful embrace of a loving mother, the beaming smile of a proud father and the youthful excitement of a kid brother clutching the game ball.

That was the scene outside the San Diego State locker room Saturday after Todd Santos surpassed Kevin Sweeney of Fresno State to become the most prolific passer in major college history.

But inside Cougar Stadium, where Brigham Young won, 38-21, the feeling and the sounds were much different.

Like so much in this season of disappointment for the Aztecs, Santos’ feat--he now has 10,661 career passing yards--was a lifetime accomplishment muted by the circumstances of the moment.

That the Aztecs (3-7 overall, 2-4 in the Western Athletic Conference) lost to Brigham Young for the seventh time without a victory in Provo was bad enough. But there was much more.

There taunts from the BYU defense, mockery from the BYU crowd and the final insult--a decision by BYU officials not to acknowledge Santos’ achievement with a stadium announcement or even the removal of the game ball.

It was an action that upset SDSU officials and players, and left BYU players somewhat embarrassed.

“I’m disappointed because 10,000-plus yards is a national record that deserves that kind of recognition regardless of site,” said Fred Miller, SDSU athletic director.

“They should have stopped the game,” said Sean Covey, BYU quarterback. Covey said he did not realize Santos had broken Sweeney’s record of 10,623 career yards until he crossed the field to congratulate Santos after the game.

“I didn’t think he did it because I thought they would stop the game,” Covey said. “I had to ask him if he had gotten the record.”

The history-making pass came on an underneath route to Ron Slack, a sophomore running back from Muir High School in Pasadena. Slack caught the ball at the San Diego State 38-yard line and slipped two tacklers before being stopped at the BYU 44 for a 23-yard gain with 1:40 left to play.

“It felt great; it really did,” Santos said. “I’m glad I got it over with and can go on from here.”

The completion gave Santos 219 yards for the game, eight more than he needed to break the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division I-A record for career passing yards set by Sweeney last year. For the game, Santos completed 19 of 38 passes for 248 yards.

Santos, in what for him was a gush of emotion, raised his arms above his head in triumph after the record-breaker. That was the extent of the celebration.

The game clock stopped only for the moment it took to reset the chains. The only recognition of the achievement came from the clapping of a small group of supporters who must have been keeping track of Santos’ progress on their own. It wasn’t until the next play, an incomplete pass in front of the Aztecs bench, that someone on the sideline was alert enough to grab the ball used in the historic play.

“That wasn’t right,” Slack said. “They should have stopped the game and given him the ball. I don’t know why they didn’t do it. Todd deserved that much.”

But BYU officials had decided Friday that they would not stop the game or make an announcement, said Dave Schulthess, BYU sports information director.

Schulthess said he was told by BYU Athletic Director Glen Tuckett after the game that the decision was made because a similar incident backfired on the Cougars last season. They stopped a game to honor Steve Bartalo, Colorado State running back, after he broke the Western Athletic Conference career record for rushing yardage. The Cougars were leading but went on to lose, 24-20, and Schulthess said officials thought the announcement helped spark Colorado State.

That the Cougars led, 38-14, when Santos broke Sweeney’s record mattered little. The decision had been made. It was the final slight in a day in which Santos might have broken the record but found little else going his way.

The Cougars did much to make Santos unwelcome. The BYU defense taunted him for much of the game in language neither Santos nor some BYU players were willing to reveal. Even the near-capacity crowd of 64,341 got into the act, serenading Santos with mocking strains of “Saaan-tooos, Saaan-tooos.”

The crowd was particularly uncharitable after Santos’ mistakes. And there were several. He threw a season-high three interceptions, had five other passes deflected and fumbled a snap from the center. The fans also got a good chuckle when Santos attempted to backpedal, slipped and fell on his rear end, landing on the grass field made slick by the intermittent light rain, which had fallen for much of the game.

On the next play, Santos picked himself up from that embarrassment, completing the pass that put him ahead of Sweeney. Santos’ record came against the school that recruited him when he was at Selma (Calif.) High School but decided he wasn’t good enough to offer a scholarship.

Santos, in his low-key way, did not criticize BYU’s decision not to stop the game. But he did make it clear when he was on the field that he would not back down because of the Cougars’ taunts. After tailback Paul Hewitt scored the second of his three touchdowns on a 2-yard run to cut the score to 21-14 with 4:44 left in the first half, Santos got so involved in the shouting, he had to be held back by fullback Troy Reed.

“They were doing it to me; I wanted to do it to them,” Santos said.

The reaction, however, was just what the Cougars (6-3, 4-1) wanted.

“We knew that he doesn’t handle pressure well, so we went after him,” BYU linebacker J.C. VonColln said. “Once we found out we could talk some stuff and get him worked up, we did it all day.

“We had him pretty much rattled. He was running down the field, talking to the defensive backs after he threw the pass. I think a quarterback needs composure, and he lost his.”

After the incident, the Cougars scored the next 17 points.

“I had to get on our kids at halftime to keep quiet,” BYU Coach LaVell Edwards said. “We don’t need to do that. It’s not part of the game.”

But the taunting seemed to affect the Aztecs more than BYU.

“It just kind of made our players off balance,” center Kevin Wells said. “Everybody started getting into the fight. Then that made everybody too aggressive, and that shot our offense to hell. Everybody just falls apart when the offense does that, but on defense it’s cool because that gets you fired up.”

While the Aztec offense and BYU defense battled verbally, Covey picked apart the SDSU defense. Covey, a sophomore who replaced Bob Jensen as the starter the week before, completed 23 of 33 passes for 371 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception. The Cougars finished with 514 yards in total offense. It was the sixth time the Aztecs have allowed a team to gain more than 500 yards. It was a step backward for the defense that had played its best game in a 29-21 victory against Hawaii the week before.

“We just seem to be a half-step behind all the time,” Coach Denny Stolz said. “We’re a very small defensive team, and they just wore us down.”

The Cougars accomplished this despite being penalized 11 times for 115 yards. The Aztecs were penalized 9 times for 90 yards.

The Cougar offense was so effective, it seemed for a while Santos would hardly get enough time on the field to make a run at the record. He had 160 yards at the half but struggled for much of the second half. It was not until the Aztecs’ final drive that Santos finally passed Sweeney.

Late in the game, it appeared as if Santos might not return to a last shot at the record. He sat alone on the bench, slumping with his legs crossed. Only at the last moment after the Aztecs got the ball for their final series did Santos stand up place his helmet back on to enter the game.

That drive, which was against BYU’s second-team defense, ended with Santos passing 13 yards to Hewitt for a touchdown with 16 seconds to play. It was his first touchdown pass in four games against BYU and Hewitt’s third touchdown of the game.

Hewitt, who also scored on a 2-yard run in the opening series, has 19 touchdowns, tying Bartalo’s conference season record and break the Aztec record of 18 set by receiver Tom Reynolds in 1969.

“It would feel a lot better if we were winning,” Hewitt said.

Santos could not have agreed more. But after chasing the record all season, he was glad to break it with two games to spare. He grew up in Selma, only 15 miles south of Fresno and worked out with Sweeney one summer. He even attended Sweeney’s wedding last summer.

“The last time I talked to him was at the wedding,” Santos said. “He told me if I was going to come close (to breaking the record), he would break my legs.”

Now he has a chance to become the first major-college player to pass for 11,000 yards with home games against Colorado State and New Mexico. Maybe then Santos will get his recognition. It was something even one of his worst tormentors on Saturday would have not begrudged him.

“If the guy broke the record, they should have given him the game ball,” VonColln said.

THE SANTOS RECORD

Year Games Att Com Pct Int TDs Yards 1984 12 285 160 56.1 14 9 2,063 1985 12 357 226 63.3 17 21 2,877 1986 10 350 218 62.0 11 14 2,553 1987 9 421 254 60.3 13 21 3,168 Totals 44 1413 858 60.7 55 65 10,661

NCAA All-Time Career Passing Record-Holders

Year Player School Yards 1987 Todd Santos San Diego State 10,661 1986 Kevin Sweeney Fresno State 10,623 1984 Doug Flutie Boston College 10,579 1983 Ben Bennett Duke 9,614 1981 Jim McMahon Brigham Young 9,536 1980 Mark Herrmann Purdue 9,188 1978 Jack Thompson Washington State 7,818 1971 John Reaves Florida 7,549 1970 Jim Plunkett Stanford 7,544

NOTE: Major-college passing yardage record progression since 1970