Search for New Man Neither Far nor Wide

Fred Miller must have had a very busy Sunday. San Diego State’s football team had absorbed another ugly whupping at Texas El Paso Saturday, and it had become obvious to him that he had to change coaches.

So Miller, the director of athletics, instituted a campus-wide search for a replacement.

Being a thorough man, I presume he interviewed a food services manager, three security guards, two sorority presidents, four frat brats, two librarians, five professors, a bartender from Monty’s Den and the associate athletic director for student services and internal affairs.

By Monday morning, he had his man.

He would go with the associate athletic director for student services and internal affairs.

Al Luginbill would replace Denny Stolz as football coach effective Nov. 23.

Al Who?

Come on, don’t tell me you’re not up to date with your Pasadena City College trivia. Luginbill coached the Lancers to an 11-1 record in 1977. The year was noteworthy because it was Luginbill’s only year as a head coach, though he has experience as an assistant at places such as Arizona State and Wyoming.

Out of coaching since 1985, Luginbill spent much of the last year overseeing the construction of the building that houses the Aztec football operations. Building the facility, not the team.

Luginbill is now in charge of the occupants as well as the woodwork.

Is Fred Miller serious?

It would be tempting to say that this is the most outrageous hiring hereabouts since the Padres brought Jerry Coleman out of the broadcast booth in 1980 and made him manager.

Tempting, but probably not fair.

Luginbill is likely a very capable man. It isn’t his fault that it looks a little silly to fire a proven coach and replace him with a man from an obscure, though undoubtedly important, administrative post. Certainly, he could not control the circumstances of his hiring.

Indeed, the guess here is that Al Luginbill will do very well . . . but that the conclusion can only lead to an explanation that he will do very well initially for the same reason Denny Stolz did very well initially.

You see, the foundation is in place. Stolz has been building it, just as Doug Scovil had it in place for Stolz when he took over for the 1986 season.

What happened in 1986, of course, was that the Aztecs won their one and only Western Athletic Conference championship and went to their one and only Holiday Bowl.

Stolz touched on that subject Monday.

“I coached Doug Scovil’s sixth-year team,” Stolz said. “That team was five years of his and one of mine. That shows what it takes.”

The heart of that championship team graduated, and Stolz started anew with a new foundation in 1987. The record last year was 5-7 . . . and then came the tumble to the current 2-8 for ’88.

“It’s hard for me to accept that you can lose 34, 35, 36 kids off a championship ballclub and not have a chance to rebuild it,” he said. “We’re in a great deal better shape right now than we were in ’86. You know it, and I know it, and the coaching profession knows it.”

If Fred Miller knew it, it obviously made no difference.

“In the imperfect world of college athletics,” he said, “we rely on football and basketball to be the fiscal fuel that powers the program.”

Fiscal fuel? That’s Miller-ese for attendance. Football has to bring in the bucks, and San Diego State must win to draw. Some universities get the benefit of the doubt from their fans and draw healthy crowds until their teams prove themselves unworthy or uncompetitive. SDSU football draws mediocre crowds until it does something to attract attention, which is to say win a few games.

This will not change with a change of coaches.

What Miller hopes is that a change of coaches will cause a change in fortunes.

Al Luginbill is the man climbing into what has to be a rather warm recliner, because Fred Miller is a man quick with a hook.

“Obviously,” Luginbill said, “we’ve got to win.”

He has that right. Indeed, he said all of the right things. He talked of stressing academics and defense and local recruiting and community presence. He seemed almost professorial with his wire-rimmed glasses and V-neck sweater and tie.

This was a man who presented himself and his ideas in a most positive manner.

But there will be no honeymoon here, because he gets a team on the brink of success just as Stolz inherited a team on the brink of success.

Denny Stolz will coach these players for one last game, and then they will belong to this most unlikely of successors.

Apparently, the line of succession already is in place. SDSU also announced Monday that Don Kaverman, the head athletic trainer, has been promoted to associate athletic director for student services and internal affairs.

We know now what his next assignment will be.