These Players are Being Good Scouts : Aztecs: Look Team members work hard, but depend on others for the payoff.

They get hit hard all week long. But they are told not to hit back too hard.

They wear San Diego State red and black from the first day of practice to the last, but they are told not to bother bringing their helmets to the games.

They lift weights, go to practice, run plays, get yelled at and get their ears blistered if they arrive on the field late.

And through this, they know one thing.

They have about as much of a chance of playing for SDSU on Saturday as they do for, say, the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

“Maybe the first week of the season you feel like an outcast,” said Ray Peterson, a freshman wide receiver from New Orleans. “We don’t get much attention. It’s like, ‘Look Team, over here.’ Just the name.

“Look Team.”

As the saying goes, they might not be at the end of the earth, but they can sure see it from where they are.

The Look Team. Some schools call it the Scout Team. It is a collection of mostly redshirts, and others who do not play. They come from the depths of the roster. They are extra bodies who can be spared. Meat.

Their duty all season is to emulate SDSU’s opposition in practice. This week, it is Colorado State.

“They do a great job,” SDSU Coach Al Luginbill said. “They’re as big of a part of this team winning as the team playing.

“It’s very difficult to adjust from being a high school star to not playing at all. But they have four years of eligibility left and every one of them will be given an opportunity to make his mark.”

So the Look Team offense patterns itself after CSU’s offense, allowing the SDSU defense to prepare for Saturday. And the Look Team defense imitates CSU’s defense, giving David Lowery, Patrick Rowe, Marshall Faulk and Co. a chance to run the game plan.

Practice like you play? When SDSU is at home, these guys stand on the sideline in an Aztec jersey and jeans. They do not travel.

If they practiced like they played, life wouldn’t be too difficult. Come practice time, they could go out for ice cream.

“What’s really hard is when everyone is out there playing, and winning, and you don’t feel like you’re a part of it,” said SDSU safety Darrell Lewis, who spent last season on the Look Team.

Said SDSU offensive line coach Bret Ingalls: “You try not to be too difficult. You just want them to give an effort and to be lined up correctly.

“The biggest thing every year is that they don’t get to play and there is nothing to look forward to until a year or two down the road. For them to give looks every day is really something, but it’s also part of the process of being an active player on the team.”

At some point in their careers, nearly all players wind up playing on the Look Team. But sometimes a Faulk or a Wayne Pittman or Darnay Scott, come along, play as freshmen and escape.

“The sad part is that not everybody on the team goes through it,” Ingalls said. “I think everybody should have to go through it. It’s a nice learning process. You go take your lumps and then go play.”

A learning process. The art of survival.

“You’re going against (SDSU defensive lineman) Eric Duncan (and the rest of the SDSU first team) full speed,” Peterson said. “You get pounded and you get up. Sometimes, it’s like, ‘What the hell am I doing out here?’ ”

Particularly on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Tuesdays are the easiest, because the first contact practice of the week is on Tuesday and everyone is still learning the opposition’s schemes. But by later in the week, the SDSU first team has watched so much film that they know the opposition’s plays better than their girlfriends’ phone numbers.

“You line up in certain formations, and the defense is calling out our plays,” Peterson said. “It’s like, ‘Oh my goodness. Here we go.’ ”

Peterson is one of the most versatile players on the Look Team offense. At 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, he is quick enough to move from receiver to running back. Or, during the weeks SDSU is facing an option offense, he plays quarterback in practice.

“I enjoy running the option,” Peterson said. “I was a back-up quarterback in high school, but because I was the starting receiver, my coach would never let me play quarterback.”

He already has been Air Force quarterback Rob Perez and Hawaii quarterback Michael Carter. This week, his identity is CSU running back Brian Copeland.

Which means he is wearing No. 34. Football players identify themselves by the numbers they wear, and the Look Team guys can’t even do that . Skill position guys--or guys imitating opponents the SDSU coaches want to single out--wear whatever number corresponds to the player they are playing that week.

“The other day,” Peterson said, “we were going through the tunnel at the stadium (to claim their jerseys for game night) and one guy on the Look Team said, ‘I forgot my number.’ ”

That’s the first rule of playing Look Team. You’re an invisible man. Don’t take your number seriously. It will change. Several times.

Another is, when you’re playing defense, pick and choose who and when you hit. Sometimes, guys on the Look Team defense get carried away.

“You always have that problem early in the year,” SDSU receivers’ coach Curtis Johnson said. “They all want to tackle.

“I’m not against hitting (the receivers), but don’t bring them to the ground and don’t do anything below the waist to the legs. Like I always tell them: ‘Get the good guys to the game.’ Patrick (Rowe) is not doing us any good on the sideline.”

But that doesn’t mean the Look Team guys can’t talk a good game. Michael Landry, a sophomore defensive back from Louisiana, likes to give running backs and receivers a jawing.

“Gotta keep them alive,” Landry said. “We’ve got four of the most important games of our lives coming up--including a bowl game. We’re not about to let them sit on their ass. We like to shake up the receivers sometimes, so they don’t think it’s no happy picnic.

“Our job is the most important job. If we don’t get them prepared each week, we don’t win. We give them the best looks--exactly what the opposition is going to throw at them.”

It’s a fine line. Although the coaches don’t want dangerous hits in practice, they need the drills to go full speed.

“If nothing times out correctly, it doesn’t work,” Ingalls said. “The opponents will be going full speed. If we are trapping somebody and (the Look Team defense) is loafing, we’re not going to get a realistic look.”

Once the season starts, Look Team members don’t have to condition with the rest of the team. They don’t have to attend most meetings. On Mondays and Fridays, they lift weights. From Tuesday through Thursday, they practice. And since most of them are redshirt freshmen and sophomores, they must attend study hall four nights a week.

The biggest thing is, it is easy to lose intensity and concentration during practices because their days begin to run together.

“You’ve got to go in every day with the intensity to make yourself better,” Johnson said. “Because you’re going up against some of the best guys you’re ever going to play.

“You burn those guys, you know you’re ready for the first string.”

After each practice, Luginbill goes to the far side of the field to meet with the Look Team before dismissing those players and returning to the varsity. He talks with them briefly about academics, weightlifting, how their looks are coming along and anything else of relevance. Makes them feel like they are part of the team.

“From Tuesday to Thursday, they’re the most important part of the team,” Luginbill said. “Without them, we can’t succeed.

“That’s why one of my major reasons for wanting to go to a bowl is because of them. To have them involved, go to all of the functions . . . to reward them for playing, in anonymity, a major role.”