Passers Paid After Wilson Chose to Stay : Aztecs: Injuries, changes and the banishment of a friend made Milt Wilson mad, and opposing quarterbacks can tell.

Milt Wilson battled injuries. He adjusted to the many position switches. He endured losing. He watched as his coach was fired.

Each setback angered him. At first, he fought the changes, but he eventually yielded to authority. He came to understand that upheavals were part of being a member of the San Diego State football team, a program in which success one year turned into turmoil the next.

Then last spring, an action was taken that Wilson could not accept. His friend and roommate, free safety Lyndon Earley, was dismissed for disciplinary reasons. Wilson’s anger grew. This was different. This was not about him; it was about his friend.

“It was hard for me to deal with,” said Wilson, a senior defensive tackle. “I was on the verge of telling them I was leaving, too.”

But Earley advised him to stay. He did not force Wilson to choose between friendship and football. He did not want to see his hardship ruin Wilson’s future.

“I respect him for that,” Wilson said. “He didn’t ask me whose side was I on. He told me to do what I have to do, and that’s what I did.”

That difficult decision is now being rewarded. Despite breaking his left hand before the fourth game against Utah, Wilson has become the Aztecs’ sack specialist. Of his 11 tackles, seven are sacks and another is for a loss. Last Saturday in a 35-7 nonconference victory over Pacific, Wilson had a season-high three sacks. He is ranked third in the Western Athletic Conference in that category entering the Aztecs’ game Saturday night at Texas El Paso (2-6, 1-3 in WAC).

His specialized role has given Wilson extra incentive every time he takes the field.

“All I think about is getting to the passer,” Wilson said. “My whole thing is that if I don’t get to the quarterback, I at least want to be far enough upfield to let him know I was there. I want to be able to whisper in his ear, to let him know I was there, and that I will get him before the night is over.”

Yet while he sounds enthusiastic about his role as a pass-rush specialist, it is not one he accepted readily. Wilson wants to be an every-down player. The concept of playing only on likely passing downs strikes him as an insult.

“I didn’t plan it this way,” Wilson said. “I didn’t want to be a pass-rusher. I wanted to be in all the time.”

But the coaches are firm in their decision that Wilson can be best utilized in his limited role.

Although one of the strongest and quickest players on the line, Wilson was judged too small to play against larger offensive linemen against the run. Wilson, 6-feet-2 and 245 pounds, plays mainly nose tackle when the Aztecs use a five-man front in their “Bear defense” package.

“His body type lends itself to rushing the passer as opposed to standing in there on run block,” said Ed Schmidt, the defensive line coach. “I don’t know what he likes to play. I just know what he is good at. And playing inside, rushing the passer, is where he has excelled.”

The move to sack specialist is the latest adjustment in a college career marked by numerous changes. They began the day Wilson reported as a freshman out of Daniel Murphy High School in Los Angeles. Recruited as a defensive end/linebacker, Wilson was switched to fullback because of a shortage at that position. That accounts for Wilson wearing No. 33, unusual for a defensive lineman.

But Wilson’s time on offense was brief. Soon he was playing defensive end and contributing to the 1986 WAC championship season. He recovered a fumble for a touchdown in a 38-34 victory at New Mexico and recovered an Iowa fumble in the Holiday Bowl that set up the Aztecs’ first touchdown in 39-38 loss.

That was only the beginning of the changes for Wilson. He began his sophomore season at defensive end, but after the Aztec defense was embarrassed in a 47-14 loss at UCLA, Wilson was moved inside to tackle. It meant Wilson would make his first college start against Air Force, but that did not make him happy.

“I was really upset about that,” Wilson said. “I didn’t figure I was heavy enough to play inside. I wanted to play outside, where I could use my speed. But I didn’t have a say in it. It was up to the head man (Denny Stolz), and he wanted me to play tackle.”

Despite his initial resistance, Wilson learned to play his new position and again was successful. He recorded eight sacks in the final seven games of 1987 to place second on the team in that category, and finished with 74 tackles. But no sooner did Wilson become comfortable in his latest role than he was moved again, this time to linebacker.

The switch during spring practice in 1988 was only the start of what would be a frustrating junior season for Wilson. He never knew where he would play next.

“It got maddening at times,” Wilson said. “I would actually come to practice and the other players would know before me. ‘Oh, you’re playing linebacker this week, huh,’ they would say. I just laughed. The next I know I have something in my locker to see the coach. He would tell me the change. It was real hard.”

The changes were part of the struggles in a season that ended in a 3-8 record and resulted in the dismissal of Stolz.

“We really did an unjustice to him because we never let him concentrate on one position,” said Schmidt, a holdover from Stolz’s staff. “He went from linebacker to nose tackle to tackle to end. He went everywhere except defensive back, and that is just not fair to do to a guy.”

Position changes were only part of Wilson’s problem. He severely sprained his right ankle in the second game against Air Force. He missed several games and finished the season with only 16 tackles and one sack.

Wilson said he was not at full strength until the final game at New Mexico. By then, Stolz had been told he was fired. That meant more adjustments and, ultimately, the dismissal of Earley, the team’s leading tackler in 1988.

Wilson said he reacted emotionally at first to the loss of Earley. He lashed out at the coaches.

“I was just mad, and the coaches couldn’t understand that,” Wilson said.

The coaches wondered if his association with Earley would affect Wilson.

“When you live with a guy who is dismissed from the team, you have to go home and listen to it every night,” Schmidt said. “Milt really showed me that he is a mature man because he knows what is best for him and his situation. Even though he loves Lyndon like a brother, there comes a point where you say what is best for me, and that is what he did. That would be hard for me; I know it was hard for him.”

Wilson said Earley’s support during that time tightened their bonds of friendship. If they could not stay teammates, they would remain roommates.

“Every time I get a sack, just like when were playing, he still gives me a big hug,” Wilson said. “If I get home from a game and go to sleep before he gets home, he wakes me up to tell me good job. To see him not there at practice now when I know he should be really hurts. But he wanted me to do what was best for me, and that is what I did. I know he understands.”

Aztec Notes

San Diego State quarterback Dan McGwire resumed throwing in practice Wednesday after resting his sore right elbow Tuesday. . . . Terrill Steen, a freshman from St. Bernard High School, has received extensive practice time at linebacker this week because of injuries to Thane Fisher (hand), Sai Niu (ankle) and Eric Thompson (shoulder). But Coach Al Luginbill said he would prefer not to play Steen against Texas El Paso Saturday because he wants to red-shirt him. . . . The Holiday Bowl will send scouts to watch nine teams Saturday: Arizona (5-2), Washington State (6-2), USC (5-2), Washington (4-3), Illinois (5-1), Minnesota (4-2), Ohio State (4-2), Alabama (6-0) and Penn State (5-1). The bowl, to be held December 29 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, will pair the Western Athletic Conference champion against an at-large opponent. Teams cannot officially be invited to a bowl until November 25.