Road Ahead Paved With Possibilities for San Diego State

San Diego State has not scheduled New Mexico State, which may have the worst major college football program in the country, so they did the next best thing this season.

In their next four games, the Aztecs play three teams whose only major college victory is over the 0-5 Aggies, plus a team whose only victory is over one of those three.

They begin the stretch with Cal State Long Beach tonight at 7:05 in a nonconference game at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The 49ers are 3-3, but their only Division I-A victory was a 55-48 shootout with New Mexico State last week. The others were over Division II Cal State Northridge (28-9) and Division I-AA Boise State (17-14).

No one understands better than Al Luginbill, SDSU’s first-year coach, that this is an opportunity to get his program rolling.

“I feel these next ballgames are going to be the turning point in our football program,” Luginbill said earlier this week. “That is how we are approaching it.”

That enthusiasm might now be tempered slightly by the mystery of running back Darrin Wagner, the team’s leading rusher and scorer. Luginbill ruled Wagner out of tonight’s game after Wagner missed practices this week without permission to do so.

Luginbill said Friday that he has scheduled a meeting with Wagner and his father Monday afternoon to discuss Wagner’s future with the team. Luginbill said no final determination will be made until after the meeting.

With Wagner out, senior Ron Slack will start in the one-back offense. Slack had his best game in a season-opening 52-36 loss at Air Force, running for a career-high 135 yards--including a 68-yard touchdown run--on 14 carries. Slack will be backed up by junior Curtis Butts, a walk-on whose only action has been on special teams.

In the next five weeks, the Aztecs (1-3-1) will play five teams with a combined 7-23 record, 5-23 against Division I-A opposition.

That stretch continues next Saturday against Pacific--whose only victory was over the 49ers (26-25)--followed by Western Athletic Conference games against Texas El Paso, New Mexico and Wyoming. All four are 1-5, and only the UTEP game is on the road.

The lone victories for UTEP and New Mexico were over New Mexico State. Wyoming’s was over Hawaii (20-15), a team that defeated the Aztecs, 31-24, last Saturday.

Suffice to say, the WAC title and Holiday Bowl berth are not on the line in any of these games.

“The only people who care about these next five games are us and the team we’re playing, when it comes right down to it,” Luginbill said.

The Long Beach and Pacific games are the second and third of three at home against Big West teams. The Aztecs tied Cal State Fullerton, 41-41, three weeks ago.

Long Beach is one of the Aztecs most-played rivals. The teams have met 26 times since 1958, with the Aztecs holding a 16-10 lead. Their most recent game, in 1987, resulted in a 52-42 comeback victory for the Aztecs.

The team’s share one common opponent--Hawaii. The 49ers were crushed, 63-10, in Honolulu in the second game. The Aztecs lost last week when Hawaii scored a touchdown with 29 seconds left.

Like the Aztecs, the 49ers have struggled on defense. They are allowing an average of 35.3 points and 435.3 yards per game, not much better than the 35.8 points and 475.0 yards the Aztecs have given up.

But the 49ers might have more trouble stopping a SDSU offense that is averaging 32.8 points and 511.4 yards than the Aztecs will against Long Beach. The 49ers are averaging 22.5 points and 344.3 yards.

Their quarterback, senior Paul Oates, has completed only 47.1% (72 of 153) of his passes for 1,070 yards with 10 touchdowns and six interceptions. His 59.4 rating is far short of that of SDSU’s Dan McGwire (141.3).

McGwire has completed 61.1% (121 of 198) of his attempts for 1,783 yards with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions.