AZTEC UPDATE : NOTEBOOK / SCOTT MILLER : Rowe Doesn’t Think He’ll Play on Saturday Against Pacific

Although San Diego State Coach Al Luginbill and trainer Brian Barry said a decision on whether Patrick Rowe will play Saturday against Pacific will not be made until game day, Rowe said Thursday he isn’t expecting to play.

Rowe, who suffered a sprained right shoulder in the second quarter of Sunday’s Cal State Long Beach game, said he met with Aztec team doctor Robert Straumfjord Wednesday and that Straumfjord told him it is doubtful he will be able to play.

“I would hate to get in there and make it worse now,” Rowe said. “This way, I’ll have time before the Air Force game to heal.”

The Aztecs open Western Athletic Conference play Sept. 21 at Air Force. Although Rowe wants to be healthy for that game, he is frustrated that he probably will be sidelined Saturday.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “I’m disappointed anytime I can’t play. I’m just trying to keep a positive attitude.”

Luginbill said that if Rowe is unavailable, Jake Nyberg and Merton Harris will be the starting wide receivers.

Barry also said that a decision regarding linebacker Andy Coviello’s status for the Pacific game will not come until Saturday. Coviello has tendinitis in his left knee.

Pacific, SDSU’s opponent Saturday, is located in Stockton. SDSU senior Eric Duncan, a nose tackle, is a native of Stockton.

The Tigers offered Duncan a scholarship when he played at Amos Alonzo Stagg High, but he turned them down--to go to SDSU as a walk-on football player.

“I wasn’t really too interested (in Pacific) because I wanted to get away from the area,” Duncan said. “It seemed like the people there didn’t have any goals and wanted to stay there.

“The mentality there, I wasn’t comfortable with.”

So Duncan played the 1988 season at SDSU and was awarded a scholarship in the spring of 1989.

He said he has no regrets about leaving the Stockton area.

“I couldn’t handle staying there another day,” he said.

After one home game, it looks like the Aztec football team will be getting about the same amount of support from SDSU students as it did last year: Not much.

The Aztecs drew 26,749 to Sunday’s 49-13 victory over Cal State Long Beach, but only 3,243 students picked up their advance tickets.

Last year, only 3,859 students attended SDSU’s home opener against Long Beach.

“I didn’t like a Sunday night game,” said Fred Miller, SDSU athletic director. “I’ll be candid about that.”

But as for the poor student attendance, Miller is about out of explanations.

“I don’t have a good answer,” he said. “We’ve tried God knows how many ways. We’ll continue to go out there and hammer. We’ll do everything we can to promote our way to higher attendance.”

The Aztecs haven’t opened a season 2-0 since 1986, when they last won a WAC championship and went to the Holiday Bowl. . . . Pacific’s 86-24 loss to Cal last Saturday was the Tigers’ worst loss since 1945.