This Santos Brings Big Foot to the Aztecs

In name only, San Diego State wasted no time finding a replacement for Todd Santos.

Meet Joe Santos, one of the more recognizable new names on the Aztec football team.

He doesn’t play quarterback. He isn’t related to Todd. He doesn’t even pronounce his last name the same. But that doesn’t lessen Santos’ potential value to the Aztecs.

Santos (pronounced SAN-tose), a junior who transferred from Contra Costa College in San Pablo, was recruited to be replace Wayne Ross as the Aztecs’ punter. And following Ross might be almost as difficult as trying to replace Santos (SAN-tis) at quarterback.

Ross, a 12th-round draft choice of the Washington Redskins, did not have a punt blocked in his school-record 248 attempts over four seasons. He finished 15th in the country last season, averaging 42.6 yards per punt.

“Selecting our punter and establishing our punting game is our No. 1 priority in (preseason) practice,” Coach Denny Stolz has said.

The effort got off to a slightly delayed start because academic requirements prevented Santos from reporting Aug. 7 with the rest of the incoming community-college transfers. He did not enter camp until last Saturday.

Santos had to await the results of an English test before he could transfer. He needed to pass the course to earn the associate degree he needed to enroll at SDSU.

“That was a lot of pressure,” Santos said. “I was nervous before the test; I was nervous taking the test; and afterward I was pretty nervous about the result.”

He had to wait a week, finally learning last Thursday that he had passed.

“I let out a big yell when I got my grade,” Santos said. “I told the coaches right away because they kept asking about it all the time.”

The Aztecs have a lot invested in Santos. They had identified him two seasons ago as a possible successor to Ross. They first noticed him when they were scouting Lee Brannon, a former Contra Costa player who is expected to start at inside linebacker for the Aztecs.

“We saw right away he had the kind of leg we wanted,” said Ed Schmidt, the assistant responsible for recruiting the Bay Area. “We saw him as a freshman, and he didn’t have a good center. He was fielding snaps all over the place. But you could see he could kick the ball.

“The next year he had even a worse center, but he was still kicking the heck out of the ball.”

Santos, 6-feet and 185 pounds, was an All-Bay Area Valley Conference selection as a freshman and on the second team as a sophomore. But despite such success and the Aztecs’ early interest, Santos gave serious thought to ending his football career.

“My mind wasn’t set on football,” Santos said. “I was starting to slide away from the game.”

Santos said he wanted to quit school. He decided it would better if he joined his father’s termite control business in Vallejo. Only the encouragement of his coach at Contra Costa, Tom Kinnard, made him stay with football.

“He thought I had real potential,” Santos said. “He didn’t want to see me waste that.”

Once he had decided to continue playing, Santos said, he quickly settled on SDSU.

“That’s the only place I wanted to go,” Santos said. “I don’t know why. I just felt this was the place.”

But while Santos was recruited to be the starting punter, the contest to replace Ross is not limited. Bill Kushner, a 6-1, 190-pound freshman from Fallbrook High School, also is getting a long look.

The two paired off in their first competition of the preseason practice Sunday night, with Kushner easily getting the better of it.

Kushner averaged 41.3 yards on his six punts to 34.0 by Santos. Included in Kushner’s average were punts of 54 and 50 yards. Santos, who has been bothered by blisters on his heels from kicking in new shoes, had a best of 45 yards on his last kick.

Santos’ slow start did not concern Stolz.

“This was Joe’s first time, and Bill had punting for three days,” Stolz said. “He is new and a little nervous. When all is done, I’m sure our punting game is going to be OK.”

Aztec Notes

San Diego State also is looking to replace its long snapper. Bart Kalbach, who was expected to return to that position for his third season, is paralyzed from the neck down because of a pickup truck accident in May. Three players are being tried at the position--Jason Bill, a redshirt sophomore from San Pasqual High School; Bonner Montler, a freshman from Boulder, Colo., and Kevin Wells, starting center. . . . The Aztecs will have their first practice in pads today after four days of no-contact drills. . . . Inside linebacker Lee Brannon will be kept out of practice today for the third day because of a shoulder injury, trainer Don Kaverman said. . . . Emmett Flores, an inside linebacker from Reno, Nev., has failed to pass his physical and has not been cleared to practice. Flores, who transferred from Bakersfield City College last season, is recovering from reconstructive knee surgery that he underwent last fall. . . . Doug Blanchard, a sophomore offensive lineman from Huntington Beach, strained a hip muscle Monday and will be held out of practice indefinitely, Kaverman said.