Heat Is On Aztecs Despite Time Off in Their Schedule

It has been a season of trying to walk up a down escalator.

Now, the schedule is threatening to relegate the San Diego State football team to the ground floor.

And they have three weeks to think about it.

In an unusual twist, the Aztecs (2-4) have two Saturdays off until Nov. 3 when Utah comes to San Diego. They originally were supposed to have Oct. 27 off after playing BYU on Oct. 20, but the BYU game was shifted to September to accommodate CBS television.

Now, SDSU’s schedule breaks for sort of a halftime. The only festivities are three weeks of practice without a game.

“It’s almost like fall camp again,” Coach Al Luginbill said. “I feel real good about getting back to the basics. I want to forget the first half. I didn’t think I’d be saying that. . . .”

A few weeks ago, Luginbill was talking bowl games, as if SDSU had a chance to participate in one.

He also has been looking for what he calls a “hump” game, a big victory over an opponent such as Brigham Young or UCLA. Something to put SDSU on the map or, at least into people’s minds.

The Aztecs, 2-4, are still looking, and people are still waiting.

Midway through their season, here’s the deal: The Aztecs will have to play pretty good football in each of their five remaining games--which includes a finale against Miami--to even finish with a winning record. The Aztecs will have to defeat Utah, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas El Paso to finish 6-5. If they stumble against one of those teams, it’s 5-6.

Three weeks on the edge of a cliff.

“We are,” Luginbill said, simply.

Teeter, teeter.

Luginbill, though, remains unfazed.

“Who knows how things would have went if we’d have won the Wyoming game?” he said. “Who knows? We’ll never know because we didn’t do it. People have got to realize that Wyoming was 1-5 last year and ended up ahead of us in the conference. And look at where they are to this day (7-0).

“If I believed this team had no future and no hope, I would come right out and say it, and say someone else has to take over and go forward with it. I look at these kids out here busting their tail, they’re eager. That’s the great thing about youth.”

And the downside is inconsistency, as evidenced, perhaps, by the chasm between the SDSU offense and its defense.

--The SDSU defense is last--106th--in the country, allowing 509.3 yards a game. This has managed to overshadow the SDSU offense, which is seventh in team offense (484.6) and third in passing offense (337.2).

“Embarrassing,” said defensive lineman Pio Sagapolutele.

--The SDSU defense is 105th in scoring defense, allowing almost 40 points (39.8) a game. Not bad . . . for a basketball team. This is how SDSU has managed to score 34, 51 and 31 points in three games and lose them all.

--Opponents are averaging 6.9 yards per play against the Aztec defense.

--And, of course, the statistic that may be most difficult to believe of all: The Aztecs, through 191 attempted passes by opponents, have yet to intercept one. And in a related statistic, SDSU’s sack leaders have only two--Sagapolutele and linebacker Andy Coviello.

When the school’s marketing people chose “the school are hard knocks” as one of the season’s promotional themes, they never figured the Aztec defenders would be the guys getting knocked around. In that regard, Luginbill said, the three weeks off will help.

“I think what happens here is that time will help us,” Luginbill said. “What I think is important is that we ended up against UCLA on a positive note defensively. We came from as far down as we’ve been defensively the whole year back to being competitive.”

UCLA, en route to a 45-31 victory, scored 35 first-half points and 10 in the second.

“There’s something in those kids,” Luginbill said. “I’ve never seen that type of effort not rewarded.”

Luginbill said most of the defensive problems this season have resulted from incorrect alignments or a lack of execution.

“I think the mistake I have made as a coach was trying to look for the right chemistry and right combination on defense,” Luginbill said. “By doing that, we may have created some movement there that wasn’t in our best interest. We might have moved somebody into a position because we wanted to get him into a place where we thought he could play, when in reality he doesn’t make plays.”

There are plenty of woulda-beens, coulda-beens and shoulda-beens at this stage. If only the Aztecs wouldn’t have given up 514 yards passing to BYU’s Ty Detmer . . . if only they could have held a 27-13 lead at Wyoming or held the Cowboys under 50 points . . . if only they would have played some sort of defense in the first half at UCLA.

“Myself and our staff are probably the only people in San Diego who believe in this football team,” Luginbill said.

“I honestly felt we would be better record-wise than we are right now. Some things didn’t go the way we wanted them to go, but that doesn’t mean we’re non-competitive. When has a San Diego State team ever beaten an Air Force team like we did this year? . . .

“The difference is, it’s not like we’re getting beat by 50 or 60 points.”

Luginbill wants to end the season on a high note defensively. He figures that will give the Aztecs something to build on next year.

They will review fundamentals until next Wednesday or Thursday, then prepare for Utah. SDSU is 1-2, tied for fifth, in the Western Athletic Conference.

“It’s important for us to end up 5-2 in the conference,” Luginbill said. “That’s all we have right now to look forward to.”

To do that will be a task, and that’s why now, during their break, the pressure is on the Aztecs. Luginbill called all four of his team’s remaining WAC contests “must-win” games.

“Yes,” he said. “Does it mean they are going to be easy? No. Every one of them is going to be a battle. Our goal is to take each game at its time, and play our own bowl game in the last game of the year.”

That would be Dec. 1, when Miami comes to town. That will be as close to a bowl game as the Aztecs will get this season.

Until then, the Aztecs have quite a climb.

AZTECS 1990 Oregon 42, SDSU 21

SDSU 38, Long Beach State 20 *

Brigham Young 62, SDSU 34

SDSU 48, Air Force 18 *

Wyoming 52, SDSU 51

UCLA 45, SDSU 31

Nov. 3--Utah (3-4) *

Nov. 10--Hawaii (3-3) *

Nov. 17--New Mexico (2-6)

Nov. 24--UTEP (3-5) *

Dec. 1--Miami (4-2) *

* --Denotes home game. Records of future opponents through Sunday.