Players Say Stolz Deserved Better, Wonder What Change Will Mean

A little before 2 p.m. Monday, San Diego State football players began filing into an Aztec Athletic Center conference room for what they thought was another routine weekly meeting.

Minutes later, the team was stunned.

Athletic Director Fred Miller read a brief statement that Denny Stolz would be coaching his final game Saturday against New Mexico. Then, Stolz walked in and addressed an emotionally reeling team.

Their world turned upside down, the players couldn’t even take solace in their normal routine; practice was canceled. They milled around outside the football building, talking in whispers, thinking of questionable futures and remembering the good times in a season gone sour.

Junior wide receiver Monty Gilbreath called Stolz a “players’ coach,” and several others echoed that sentiment. They remembered Stolz’s recruiting visits, his open-door policy and his positive attitude.

“I’m taking it pretty hard,” Gilbreath said. “He’s the type of coach you can talk to. They’re not all like that. You can always go in and ask him a question about something on or off the field. He always gave good advice and made me feel better, and that helped me play better. I came in with him, and I would have liked to end up with him next year.”

A few players walked back into the meeting room and listened as Miller introduced Al Luginbill as the new coach. Fewer still listened as Stolz made some final comments.

“They could have given him one more season,” redshirt freshman Pio Sagapolutele said.

Senior running back Paul Hewitt added: “If they were going to fire him, they could have at least waited until after the season.”

Several others agreed.

“This comes as a shock to me,” junior safety Lyndon Early said. “We’re having a terrible season, and last year was mediocre, but the year before, Coach Stolz is the man that took a ballteam that wasn’t anything and turned us into a championship team.”

Early was a redshirt during Doug Scovil’s final season, so the situation was not new to him.

“Not to put down Doug Scovil or his staff, but to me, a lot of people seemed happy to see Scovil go because we just weren’t winning,” Early said. “I’ve yet to hear that today. I don’t think anyone is glad to see this happen. I know I’m not.”

Many younger players recruited by Stolz were upset. Sophomore running back Tommy Booker, a former Vista High School star, hasn’t played as much as he had hoped but was looking forward to next season.

“The scary thing is I don’t know how this will affect me,” he said. “I was really looking forward to getting a chance next year. He explained to me that my junior year was going to be the year for me. The game plan was to mold me to fit into the system. I wanted to play more, but I accepted the role I had and waited. Now, I don’t know if I’ll get that chance.”

Sagapolutele, who earned a starting position as a defensive lineman until injuring a knee Saturday, is also unsure of his future.

“You’ve got to prove yourself all over again,” he said. “Things might not wind up the way you want them to. It might be a situation where you’re a starter this year and end up on third team next year.”

Senior cornerback Mario Mitchell offered some advice to his younger teammates: “All I can tell the young players is that all they have right now is each other. Stick with each other, respect the new coaching staff and go forward from there.”