McGwire, the 6-8 Quarterback, Aspires to Even Greater Heights : Aztecs: Coach Al Luginbill thinks the senior has room to improve. After further review in the film room, Dan McGwire agrees.

The videos were a hit last fall. They featured a San Diego State-of-the-art offense directed by the Aztecs’ long, tall quarterback, Dan McGwire. They got a thumbs up from most of the critics.

McGwire was called the most underrated quarterback in the country in 1989 by one publication. He has been projected as a Heisman Trophy candidate and honorable mention All-America this year by another.

For the most part, the critics saw the videos--in the form of game films or television highlights--and raved. But there are a couple who, although impressed, think McGwire, the tallest quarterback ever in NCAA Division I at 6-foot-8, can deliver more. They are McGwire’s toughest critics.

Their names are Al Luginbill and . . . Dan McGwire.

When Luginbill, the SDSU coach, and McGwire flipped on the VCR in the Aztec football operations center and plugged in game films last season, both liked what they saw. But both wanted more.

Luginbill was the first to broach the subject. Yes, he kept saying, Danny is a good quarterback. But he can be better.

When the season ended, McGwire took a couple of weeks to unwind. He re-read the stat sheets, replayed a few games in his head and came to the same conclusion Luginbill had reached.

He was a thrower, not a quarterback.

Yes, this was the same McGwire who threw for 3,651 yards in 1989, the second-highest single-season total in SDSU history and ninth-best for a season in the pass-happy Western Athletic Conference. Yes, this was the guy who completed 258 of 440 passes for 57%.

And all came in what was basically an adjustment year for him, a year in which he spent much of his time answering questions about his transfer from Iowa and his status as the younger brother of Oakland Athletics’ star Mark McGwire.

“I thought he made the adjustment very well,” Luginbill said. “I don’t think there are too many people in college football who threw for over 3,400 yards in their first year. Ty Detmer didn’t.”

True. Detmer, the Brigham Young star, passed for 1,252 yards in 1988, his first season.

So what’s the problem?

“I’m a thrower,” McGwire said, slowly. “I remember seeing (Detmer) on the field last year, how he moved the chains. It’s amazing how he is so precise and crisp in his passing. He doesn’t have a strong arm.

“Anybody can be a thrower. A quarterback is someone who can move the chains, someone who makes the right decisions on the right downs. A quarterback has got to be aware of all of that--what down it is, what yardage he needs.”

That’s the problem. McGwire doesn’t think he was as aware of what he needed to do in certain situations as he needed to be.

“Last year, there were times I’d force balls,” he said. “That’s not being a quarterback. I’d get greedy. Example: BYU. I threw a touchdown pass over the middle. The next time, I tried to go over the middle again, and it got picked off. I’ve got to take what they give me. When they take the middle away, I’ve got to go over the top. I have to be more aware of that than I am--knowing down and distance.”

McGwire talks of the things you would expect from a guy entering his senior season of eligibility, such as how badly he wants to lead the Aztecs to a bowl game this season and what his prospects might be in the NFL draft. But the conversation usually ranges back to the improvement he needs to make.

He is the marquee player on a team picked by WAC coaches to finish fifth in the conference. His height affords him good field vision, and his strong arm gives him the ability to throw the football just about anywhere he wants.

“In practice, very few people I’ve been with can throw a seven-step deep comeback route like he can,” said Steve Fairchild, SDSU’s quarterbacks coach. “I’m talking about a route where he’s dropping back 10 yards and the guy is running 20. Sometimes he throws 20 yards across the field and it doesn’t arc at all. It’s just a rope, a flat rope.

“It’s hard not to be impressed with the guy’s arm strength.”

The Aztecs finished 6-5-1 in 1989, their first winning season since 1986, and that was largely because of McGwire. They averaged 30.7 points a game.

But it was a learning experience in a couple of ways. Not only was McGwire new to SDSU last season, Luginbill and his staff were also in their first year.

“Last year, there was a new coaching staff and a new scheme,” McGwire said. “I think people will see a new Dan McGwire this year.”

To that end, he followed a special workout program this summer devised by David Ohton, SDSU’s strength and conditioning coach. The program, designed to increase McGwire’s foot speed and agility, lasted for six weeks.

“We have such a quick, drop-back passing game here,” McGwire said. “Being a big guy, I need to be quick.”

Three days a week, for an hour a day, McGwire worked out in the sand. He ran 10-play series, working on his bootlegs, play-actions, handoffs and dropbacks of various distances. He ran 40-yard and 15-yard sprints.

“He trained much like a boxer, soccer player or volleyball player,” Ohton said. “The first week, when he was jumping over cones laterally, he was like an ostrich. Terrible. After a week, he went over the cones like they weren’t even there. In three weeks, he accomplished more than a lot of athletes. Not just quarterbacks . . . athletes.”

The goal was to do so many repetitions in the sand that McGwire would not even think about foot placement as he backpedaled. Then, when he moved onto the grass, it would come naturally and he would be quicker.

“You see a big man like that backpedal, and you think he’s slow,” Ohton said. “But he’s not. He’s 245 pounds, and he is solid.”

McGwire gained about 10 pounds over the summer and said he would like to maintain a weight somewhere between 240 and 245 pounds this season. Last season, he said, he weighed about 235 at the start but lost about 15 pounds by the time the Aztecs were finished.

“I think it affected me,” he said.

He is also stronger. His bench press is up to 325 pounds from 280.

“All of my lifts are improving,” he said. “I feel really strong. I feel really good as far as the physical part.”

But McGwire is as concerned with the mental nuances. One of the things that bothered him in 1989 was his yardage and touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio. He threw for 16 touchdowns but was intercepted 19 times. By comparison, Detmer, his WAC measuring stick, threw for 4,560 yards, 32 TDs and only 15 interceptions.

“Mentally, it was a bad fall for me,” he said. “That was (the coaches’) big key, and mine, during the spring. In the spring, I really worked on decision making. I wanted to be a better decision maker.”

So McGwire made a concentrated effort last spring to improve, and Luginbill was happy with his progress.

“A quarterback uses his offense, moves the chains and is patient,” Luginbill said. “Dan has all of these qualities. Now, he needs to execute. He had two interceptions in close to 200 throws in spring practice (during scrimmages), and one of those was a tipped ball. Those are the kinds of things we’re looking for.

“I’m excited about him because of the progress he’s made, and he should be too.”

Said McGwire: “I thought I was doing all right, but when I go back and evaluate . . . A lot of people say I had a good year numbers-wise but, if I made the right decisions, the numbers could have been astronomical.

“I’m not a big numbers guy. I want to move the chains on our way to putting points on the board. For the team to win, I need to throw the ball. All of my individual goals will come in team success on the field.”

That’s the unpredictable end of things. McGwire thinks he has spent enough time lifting and throwing and running. He is ready for the season opener at Oregon. This is my year, he says. And he believes it. Now, if the team will only follow his lead. . . .

He is surrounded by a talented corps of receivers, so the Aztec offense should be able to pick up where it left off last season. Several of the receivers spent the summer on the receiving end of his passes during informal workouts, and one--Dennis Arey--is his roommate.

“I think he’s gotten even more confident and more positive,” Arey said. “He was really into it last year, but now . . . that’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed. He knows it’s his senior season.

“When he’s around, he’s always positive. Then, when he comes on the field, there’s confidence when you see a big guy like that. Everyone looks up to him. We know he’s our leading man. It’s not like a couple of years ago, when there were three guys battling (for the starting quarterback job). He’s got all of the tools, and that’s what we need.”

Said receiver Jimmy Raye: “I wouldn’t say he’s cocky, but I’d say he is real confident. I believe he thinks he’s the best quarterback in the country. When he steps on the field, he’s going to get the job done. All quarterbacks need that trait--when the game is on the line and there are two minutes left, we’re going to score. That Joe Montana-like quality. We have all of the confidence in the world in Dan. If you are open, nine times out of 10 he’s going to throw you the ball.”

Such esteem is comforting to a player who won, then lost, the quarterback’s job at Iowa before deciding to transfer to SDSU at the end of the 1987 season.

“People say, ‘Well, Dan, you’re stepping down to the WAC, it’s not a good conference,’ ” McGwire said. “Hogwash. They have great athletes here in the WAC.”

He says the WAC has helped him mature as a quarterback because the offenses are so varied that he faces different looks on defense.

“You have the one-back, the pro style, double tights . . . In the Big 10, you have the Power I. This really broadens your horizons as far as learning defenses.”

The learning will no doubt continue but, with one year at SDSU already in the record books, McGwire says he will be more at ease this season. The Aztecs are in the perfect situation, he says, to sneak up on people.

“I don’t feel any pressure at all,” he said. “It’s sort of strange. We’re predicted to be fifth in the WAC. They don’t expect much from us. It’s positive, people are underestimating us. We’re going to come out and play Aztec football. We don’t care if it’s against Miami, UCLA or Oregon.”

Which brings us back to the critics. Keep an eye on McGwire, they say. SDSU fortunes rest with him. One preseason publication lists McGwire among the “Michael Jordans,” as a player who will carry his team.

Has he seen the magazines? You bet. On purpose? Not really.

“I’ve seen that stuff only because my girlfriend wants me to see it,” he said. “She puts it in a photo album.”

She cuts and saves, he reads and chuckles: “That’s all fine and dandy, but I still have to go out and perform. That’s the bottom line.”

Two-a-days are behind him now, and in a couple of days the team will begin final work on a game-plan for Oregon. That will be the first test for the new Dan McGwire, SDSU’s long, tall and famous quarterback.

“Dan is mature enough to understand,” Luginbill said. “Build-ups can be big downfalls if you don’t live up to them. Personally, I think Dan is going to have an outstanding year.”

Aztec Notes

Coach Al Luginbill said he expects all but five freshmen will redshirt this season. The five candidates for the roster are: defensive backs Marcus Preciado, Steve Rudisill and Sam Williford and linebackers Jamal Duff and Chad Provensal.