Luginbill Has Special Feeling on Aztec Victory

Yes, San Diego State’s 24-22 victory over Wyoming Saturday night in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium was special.

“That was the best game by the special teams since I’ve been here,” SDSU Coach Al Luginbill said Sunday. “When you take all of the offense and all of the defense out, it gets down to special teams and we dominated in that area.”

The Aztecs forced and recovered a fumble in the first quarter (take a bow, Robert Griffith and Lou Foster) that led to a touchdown, blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown in the second quarter (take a bow, Griffith and Zac Stokes), and blocked what could have been a 57-yard game-winning field goal as time expired (center stage, Terrill Steen).

As a result, SDSU’s Holiday Bowl hopes continue into the first full week of November for the first time since 1986. The Aztecs (7-2, 5-1) are second to Brigham Young in the Western Athletic Conference. If they defeat Colorado State Saturday and BYU a week from Saturday, the Aztecs are Holiday Bowl bound.

Saturday night, SDSU quarterback David Lowery suggested sending a thank you card to New Mexico, whose stunning upset of Air Force allows the Aztecs to control their own destiny.

He might also want to consider thanking the SDSU special teams. If not for their big plays, the Aztecs very well could be spending this week recovering from a devastating loss instead of anticipating a few more big games.

“I’m extremely relieved,” Luginbill said regarding Saturday’s victory. “I feel very fortunate, but we’ll learn from it.

“I don’t feel like I did as good a job as I can do about reminding people to go for the throat on every single snap.”

Perhaps it can be attributed to the fact that this group of Aztecs never has played a game within spitting distance of the WAC trophy. Perhaps it can be attributed to their youth--on their two-deep roster, the Aztecs list 26 players who are either true freshmen, redshirt freshmen or sophomores.

Whatever, the Aztecs played Wyoming like a stormy romance--up and down all night. The only consistency was inconsistency.

“None of them have ever been on a championship drive at this level,” Luginbill said. “Not one of them. I feel they learned a big lesson.”

Several lessons, maybe:

Luginbill was unhappy that, after taking a 21-3 lead, the SDSU defense turned it down a notch and allowed Wyoming to creep back into the game.

The offense, on separate occasions, reached the Wyoming 16, 6 and 1 and failed to score.

Even the coaches were not immune. Luginbill called the substituting “atrocious.” At one point in the fourth quarter, while leading, 21-16, SDSU used two consecutive time outs while attempting to decide what play to call on third-and-3 from the Wyoming 3. A Lowery pass was incomplete after the two time outs, and the Aztecs settled for an Andy Trakas field goal.

“David wanted to call a timeout to talk,” Luginbill said. “We had something we really wanted to do. We sent in a play, and the proper personnel were not on the field.

“How can that happen? Believe me, I asked the same question. But we took another time out rather than take a five-yard penalty.

“Every time out we used in the second half came because we had the wrong personnel in the game. That’s a shame.”

So a game that should have been salted away, at the latest, by the middle of the third quarter went the distance.

“A year from now, two years from now, I think you’ll see this football team put people away,” Luginbill said. “I believe that’s the next step.”

For now, though, it’s an precarious situation. A team suffering from growing pains suddenly finds itself fighting for a conference championship. Luginbill won’t say the team has come too far too fast, but he does acknowledge it has a few things to learn.

“I would say (the team has progressed too quickly) if we hadn’t made the (defensive) switches in the middle of last year,” Luginbill said. “And we’re still playing with a young quarterback. . . .

“I’d like to think we’re on schedule. But as we go along, we’re going to have to learn some lessons from things like the other night. We were fortunate to be able to turn it up a notch when we did defensively.”

Even part of that may be attributed to New Mexico. Bruce Binkowski, public address announcer, told the crowd at halftime of the SDSU game that New Mexico was beating Air Force and then announced the final with four minutes left in the SDSU game.

“I told our kids about (New Mexico’s lead) at halftime,” Luginbill said. “When they announced (the final), our game was still in doubt and our defense raised it another level.”

Luginbill, though, didn’t hear the New Mexico-Air Force final until after the game.

“I knew we were (suddenly) playing lights out defensively,” he said. “Our coaches told me after the game that they had announced it.

“Whoever announced it on the loudspeakers gave us the impetus, and probably ought to be player of the week.”

Aztecs Notes

Center Kevin Macon, who suffered an ankle bruise, is not expected to miss time this week, Coach Al Luginbill said. . . . Defensive end Ramondo Stallings re-injured his ankle Saturday, but Luginbill said the Aztecs will not know how serious it is until this week. . . . Running back Marshall Faulk will practice full speed this week, but Luginbill was hesitant to say he will start Saturday against Colorado State. “I want to see how healthy (he is),” Luginbill said. “I don’t want to make that decision on Sunday.”