AZTEC UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Luginbill: Faulk Will Start Saturday Against Colorado State

Assuming Aztec running back Marshall Faulk doesn’t have any setbacks in today’s practice, SDSU Coach Al Luginbill said Faulk will start Saturday’s game against Colorado State.

“He looks 100% to me,” Luginbill said. “I think he’s anxious to get back in.”

But Luginbill also cautioned that it will be more difficult for Faulk to come back from the injury than it was when he broke into the starting lineup earlier this season.

“It’s going to be different for him this time around,” Luginbill said. “He’s not just a guy off the bench. There’s an expectation level.”

Faulk, who has been out since fracturing two ribs and puncturing a lung Oct. 12, averaged 163.8 yards a game.

Faulk returned to practice last week but was held out of contact drills until Tuesday. He has not yet even played a full game. He has only started twice--against Hawaii, a game in which he was pulled at the beginning of the fourth quarter because SDSU was winning big; and against New Mexico, when he was injured in the second quarter.

After practice Wednesday, he said he is ready to go.

“I don’t have the stamina I used to before the injury, but it’s not like my wind is shorter,” he said. “I’ll probably just get tired a little faster. . . .

“But I feel like whenever I’m needed, I can produce just as well as I did before.”

Did you see what New Mexico Coach Mike Sheppard said during a news conference Monday to announce his firing?

Talking about how he underestimated the task when he took over the New Mexico program, he said: “I knew what Brigham Young had, but what I didn’t realize was that the San Diego States of the WAC were making major commitments and doing things that would set them apart from New Mexico in the recruiting wars.”

Including this year’s game, Sheppard was 0-4 against SDSU. And pre-Sheppard, the Aztecs had won three in a row over the Lobos.

Defensive lineman Ramondo Stallings (sprained right ankle) is doubtful for Saturday’s SDSU-Colorado State game. His is the only major injury. . . . Besides Claude Gilbert and Don Coryell, Luginbill is the only Aztec coach to have winning seasons in each of his first three years. . . . SDSU has won each of the past three games by seven points or less. . . . The Aztecs have won five in a row--they have not six in a row since 1977. The last time they won five in a row was in 1989, Luginbill’s first season.