When Aztecs Play Utah, Everything Will Have to Give

For all the attention San Diego State has received as one of the weakest defensive college football teams in the country, some are worse. Today, the Aztecs play one.

Meet Utah, a team that in last Saturday’s loss at Wyoming gave an early present to Wyoming Coach Paul Roach--a point for every year of the 61st birthday he celebrated Monday.

“We were right in the game,” Utah Coach Jim Fassel deadpanned, “until we kicked it off.”

That 61-18 loss was just the latest illustration of the Utes’ defensive troubles. A week earlier, they scored 49 points and lost at Air Force, 56-49. That tied an NCAA record for most points in a losing effort.

With results like that, Fassel is making few predictions about what to expect when his Utes play the Aztecs today (11 a.m. PDT) in a Western Athletic Conference game at Rice Stadium.

“The way our defense plays, we have to keep our fingers crossed at all times,” Fassel said this week.

The same could be said of the Aztecs. While the Utes rank among the worst teams in the nation in the four major NCAA defensive categories, the Aztecs are not far behind in most of them. The teams allow an average of 77.2 points combined per game.

The defensive problems explain much of why the Aztecs (1-6, 1-3 in WAC) and Utes (2-5, 1-4) are doing all they can just to avoid joining New Mexico (1-7, 0-4) in the conference cellar.

SDSU is in the midst of a 5-game losing streak, and a loss today would give the Aztecs their worst start since the 1980 team opened 1-8 on the way to a 4-8 finish. Utah has fared only slightly better, having lost 2 in a row and 5 of its past 6 games.

But don’t let those numbers let you think that these teams are totally alike. Defense is only half the game. Offense is where the Utes excel and the Aztecs stumble.

The difference is no clearer than at quarterback, where Utah starts Scott Mitchell, the major-college leader in total offense. SDSU counters with Scott Barrick, a redshirt freshman from Fallbrook High School making his first college start. Barrick replaced Brad Platt to start the second half of a 13-7 loss at Colorado State last Saturday.

“I don’t change just to change,” SDSU Coach Denny Stolz said. “I change hoping that it will bring a little bit of a spark. Sometimes a young quarterback has to arrive on the scene and take over. The timing just seems right for him.”

Until last week, Barrick had played only in the late stages of three one-sided Aztec losses, completing 2 of 10 passes. Against Colorado State, he was 12 of 19 for 152 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jimmy Raye.

“That half really helped me as far as giving me some confidence,” Barrick said. “Before that time, I was pretty much in a mop-up role. I wasn’t completing too many passes, not really moving the team, not getting first downs or anything. It was great to get in there and move the team a little bit.”

Stolz is counting on Barrick to help revive an Aztec offense that is averaging 18.9 points per game after scoring at a rate of 29.8 last season. While Platt has a respectable completion percentage (57.5%), he has thrown only 3 touchdown passes, compared with 10 interceptions.

Barrick is more of a dropback passer than Platt, whose mobility led the Aztecs to include several rollout plays in their game plans.

“The difference between us is that Brad is such a good scrambler,” Barrick said. “Sometimes when I get in trouble, instead of thinking about scrambling, I scan the field just to find anybody who is halfway open.”

With Barrick in control, the Aztecs plan to use their shotgun formation more frequently, as they did in the second half against Colorado State. Barrick might also take heart in the fact that the Ute defense has only one interception.

“We want to get Scott in a comfort zone in our dropback game, and he is a little more comfortable in the shotgun,” Stolz said. “The problem is that it kind of tips our hand to the defense that we’ll probably throw, but then so does third and 10 anyway.”

Neither have the Utes done much to disguise their propensity to throw. They lead the nation in passing offense with 410.7 yards per game, nearly four times their 105.0 average on the ground. Mitchell, a redshirt sophomore from Springville, Utah, leads the country in total offense (403.3 yards per game) and has thrown 20 touchdown passes.

This week, he was belatedly credited with an NCAA single-game record of 631 passing yards against Air Force after a check of the play-by-play showed he had been short-changed 11 yards.

But for all those numbers, the most impressive statistic about Mitchell might be his size--6 feet 6 inches, 235 pounds. Fassel still sometimes is amazed that he out-recruited Brigham Young for Mitchell.

Not only is BYU known for its quarterbacks, but Mitchell’s parents are graduates of the university and his father played football there and is the cousin of BYU Coach LaVell Edwards.

“I’m asked about it 100,000 times around here because I’m still not sure the BYU people like us having him,” Fassel said. “I don’t care how many records he sets, the one thing I respect is that he made a decision to come here when nobody will understand the amount of pressure he had to go to BYU. It was unbelievable.”

After splitting time last season with senior Chris Mendonca, Mitchell has the job all to himself. He leads a Utah offense that has three of the five leading receivers in the conference, topped by Carl Harry (43 catches, 776 yards, 10 touchdowns) and is one of the more innovative in the country.

The Utes feature something they call their “Duck offense”--a series of three formations in which most of the offensive linemen stand near the sideline, far away from where the center and the quarterback align for their exchange.

Utah’s passing game will be a strong test for an SDSU defense that could feature as many as five first-year players in prominent roles--nose tackle Eric Duncan, end Pio Sagapolutele, and linebackers Tracey Mao, Steve Matuszewicz and Derrick Williams of Carlsbad High School.

“Our problems on defense are well-documented,” Stolz said. “We’re just trying to see how some of the younger guys can play.”

Aztec Notes

San Diego State’s Alfred Jackson, who has played only on special teams since dislocating two fingers on his right hand 3 weeks ago against Wyoming, might play cornerback for the first time since his freshman season. Jackson, a senior wide receiver, was switched to cornerback after the injury because he can’t catch with his right hand. Outside linebacker Kevin Maultsby will miss his second game because of a pinched neck nerve. He likely will be replaced by junior Mitch Burton. Mitch’s twin brother, Brad Burton, is out with an inflamed right ankle and will be replaced by Eric Duncan, a freshman walk-on from Stockton. . . . The Aztecs hold a 5-4-1 edge in the series that began in 1978. Last year’s 52-34 Aztec victory was the first game in the series to be decided by more than 7 points. . . . The Aztecs have lost 8 of their past 9 road games over 2 seasons.