Luginbill Gets Back Into Coaching in a Big Way : Defensive Specialist Will Be Head of a Division I Program for the First Time

Al Luginbill, San Diego State’s new football coach, squinted through his wire-rimmed glasses at the television cameras and flash-happy photographers Monday afternoon and told everybody he was happy to be in the spotlight again.

For 2 days, he had thought hard about whether we wanted it. He had known about the possibility for only 3 days. He decided to take the job Monday morning.

Whenever somebody wants to make Luginbill a star, it seems, it happens on the spur of the moment. Several years ago, when he was coaching at Arizona State and living in Phoenix, his wife, Sue, dragged him to an open audition for a laundry soap commercial.

Luginbill’s tight jaw worked free for a smile or two, and he lucked out by picking the pile of clothes cleaned by the soap company that was producing the commercial.

“It was 50-50,” he said. “I chose the right soap, and we won the audition. Luckily, right after my career as a star began, it ended.”

Now, it looks as if it is beginning again. Luginbill became SDSU’s associate athletic director in 1985 and was on the outside looking in at the Aztec football program. But he will now be, as he put it, “on the inside looking in.”

He will take over Nov. 23, having been given a 3-year contract for undisclosed terms that will include a raise from his salary as an associate athletic director. Denny Stolz earned a base salary of $62,500, plus a number of other benefits that more than doubled that amount.

“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to lead the San Diego State football program,” said Luginbill, who turned 42 Sunday. “Obviously, we have to win. Everybody knows that. The bottom line is that I’ll work as hard as it takes to turn this thing around.”

As late as Saturday morning, Luginbill wasn’t thinking that way. He had left coaching after 16 years and settled into a new position as an athletic department administrator.

But SDSU Athletic Director Fred Miller approached Luginbill after the Aztecs’ 58-7 loss to Texas El Paso Saturday afternoon and said he had been thinking for a couple of weeks about Luginbill becoming the Aztecs’ coach.

“Every athletic director is going to look inside (his department) and outside when he’s making a decision like this,” Miller said. “While I was looking inside, I found the guy I wanted.”

Said Luginbill: “There aren’t many people I would have gone back into coaching for. But Fred Miller is one of them. I’ve known him for a long time, and I know what kind of a person he is. And he knew a lot about me.”

Others didn’t know as much.

“He used to work in this (SDSU athletic department) building, and I never pictured him as a coach,” SDSU defensive lineman Pio Sagapolutele said. “He was a joker. We used to joke around.”

Luginbill, a Pomona native who graduated from Cal Poly Pomona in 1967, began his coaching career at Pasadena City College in 1968. After directing everything from running backs to linebackers to defensive backs, he took over as head coach in 1977.

Pasadena went 11-1, and Luginbill was named junior college coach of the year--in his only season as a head coach.

In 1978, Luginbill moved to Wyoming and handled the Cowboys’ defensive backs. He joined Frank Kush’s staff at Arizona State in 1979 and stayed there, working the final 3 years as Darryl Rogers’ defensive coordinator, until Rogers moved to the Detroit Lions in 1984. When he applied to replace Rogers and was not hired, he went into the real estate business for a year, then moved to San Diego State in 1985.

In 1982, Luginbill’s Arizona State defense was ranked No. 1 in the country. Miller, who was athletic director at Arizona State, remembered.

“I saw that defense (in 1982), and that’s the kind of thing I’m hoping we can build around here,” Miller said. “I’ve always said you need a great defense to be competitive year in and year out.”

Willie Shaw, who moved to the Lions with Rogers in 1984, coached defensive backs at Arizona State under Luginbill and remembers the new Aztec coach as someone who never stopped working.

“Two things always impressed me about him,” Shaw said. “One thing was that he was always so organized. The other is that he was such a good recruiter. He brought in players who had good talent and who were good people. You put those things together and you have yourself an excellent coach.”

Said Luginbill: “My No. 1 job each week is to make sure our players are as ready as they can be. All I’ll ask is that each player gives it his best shot on every single play he’s involved in. That doesn’t take any talent.”

The Aztecs beat Air Force and BYU this season but enter Saturday’s season finale at New Mexico with a 2-8 record.

“I think Al will really bring a lot of consistency to that football program,” said Sammy Steinmark, who played for Luginbill at Wyoming and now coaches defensive backs at Air Force. “I know they have talent there. They beat us, and they beat BYU. So how can they get beat up so badly in their other games? Al will put an end to that. He’ll make them competitive every week.”

Luginbill seems unconcerned that he has been out of coaching for 4 years and has only one season’s worth of experience as a head coach--at the community college level.

“I really haven’t had time to think about coaching the last few years,” he said. “But I coached 16 years, and I already feel like I’m back into it.”