Aztecs Think About What Might Have Been : Football: Coach, players, opposition say that if David Lowery had started in the beginning, SDSU could be atop WAC.

They still have a chance at the Western Athletic Conference title. And as a result, the Holiday Bowl remains a possibility. A couple of other bowls do, too.

But as the stakes mount, there is one question that becomes more and more nagging:

Had the third-place San Diego State Aztecs (5-2, 3-1) begun the season with David Lowery at quarterback instead of Cree Morris, would SDSU currently be the pursued instead of the pursuer?

“If Lowery had been the quarterback from the beginning, they would probably be undefeated in the conference . . . and maybe UCLA would have been a little different,” Utah Coach Ron McBride--whose team hosts the Aztecs this weekend--said Tuesday. “I think their quarterback is the key on the offensive side.”

When asked after practice Tuesday if he thought SDSU would be undefeated in the WAC had he gone with Lowery, Aztec Coach Al Luginbill didn’t hesitate.

“Let me put it this way,” said Luginbill, who named Morris as the starter the week before SDSU’s Sept. 8 season-opener against Cal State Long Beach. “If we functioned as well against Air Force as we have in the past three weeks, I don’t think that game would have been close. . . . If (McBride) was referring to that, I agree with him.

“But we made a decision and stuck by it. We gave a young man an opportunity to do what he could do.”

SDSU’s lone WAC defeat came at the hands of Air Force, 21-20, Sept. 21. It was a game the Aztecs easily could have won, but their offense was out of sync and Morris completed only two of 10 passes for 18 yards in the second half. The next week, SDSU was hammered by UCLA, 37-12, and Morris was eight of 23 for 98 yards.

Lowery, since becoming a starter, has led the Aztecs to a 3-0 record--including victories at Hawaii and Texas El Paso. In games he has started, Lowery has completed 58% of his passes (52 of 89) and thrown for 774 yards and three touchdowns.

“People have seen enough of him now to say, ‘Hey, this guy can play,’ ” Luginbill said. “(UTEP Coach) David Lee was extremely impressed.”

SDSU players have also been impressed enough with Lowery to wonder how things would have gone had he been the quarterback at the start of the season.

“Yeah, I think we’d probably have played a little better,” tight end Ray Rowe said. “But you never know.”

Rowe said the feisty, mobile Lowery has added a spark to the SDSU offense.

“You look back on it and say you wish (Lowery) was given the opportunity (earlier),” Rowe said. “But that’s not taking anything away from Cree--the offense wasn’t playing well.”

Luginbill acknowledged that, in hindsight, he should have given the opportunity to Lowery.

“If I could go back and change it, I would,” Luginbill said. “But I can’t. If I had all of the insights and production of the two seven games into the season, I would have gone with David from the start. But that’s all based on the information I have now.”

Luginbill also ran into some personnel problems last season--on defense. After getting off to a 2-4 start, he revamped SDSU’s defensive backfield during a two-week bye period and the Aztecs finished by winning four of their final five games.

At that time, he blamed himself and rest of the coaching staff for making poor personnel decisions.

But Tuesday, Luginbill said he wouldn’t compare this year’s quarterback decision to last year’s bad decisions.

“It’s a little different,” he said. “The overriding problems (then) were in the makeup of the personalities in that group. This wasn’t a young man refusing to do what we ask.

“I guess I would be declared guilty of giving young men opportunities. But I think that’s fair, too. Gosh, I wish I had a little ball or fortune teller who would tell you how a kid is going to react. But that doesn’t work in this business because you’re dealing with humans.”

And anyway, he said, better the Aztecs get production at quarterback late than not at all.

“I felt that, somehow, quarterback at San Diego State would be a positive in 1991, and I think that’s what has happened,” he said. “I either knew that, or we were the worst evaluators of talent who ever showed up on the face of the earth because we brought them here.

“I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s been proven.”