Luginbill, Aztecs Ready for Fun With BYU

Less than five minutes after San Diego State’s 42-32 victory over Colorado State was in the books, SDSU Coach Al Luginbill was on the air.

As he spoke on the Aztecs’ post-game radio show, Barry Lamb, SDSU defensive coordinator, was in an elevator on his way down to the locker room.

The thing was, the radio broadcast was being piped into the elevator. As Lamb made his way downstairs, this is what Luginbill was saying:

“The pressure is off. We’re where we want to be.”

Lamb smiled and shook his head.

“The pressure’s off,” he said, “and we’ve got BYU next week.”

Welcome to Brigham Young week.

After six Saturdays of must-win games, the Aztecs (8-2, 6-1) certainly are where they want to be. The winner of Saturday’s SDSU-BYU game can order those Western Athletic Conference championship rings and reserve a spot in the Holiday Bowl.

Although the game is six days away, the Aztecs already are facing one slight problem. Cornerback Gary Taylor, who aggravated a groin injury Saturday, will not be at full speed.

“The prognosis is, if we could get half a game out of him, we would be extremely lucky,” Luginbill said Sunday.

And not only that, reserve cornerback Zac Stokes might not practice this week because of a concussion he suffered Saturday.

One can almost see BYU quarterback Ty Detmer’s smile all the way from San Diego.

Luginbill said SDSU would work dimeback Robert Griffith some at cornerback this week. Sophomore John Louis and freshman Eric Sutton are the likely starters.

Still, Luginbill wasn’t discouraged Sunday. He has reached the point in the season where he feels like he can finally take a breath.

“I am extremely relieved,” he said. “I feel like 1,000 pounds has been taken off of our football team’s shoulders. We’ve had our backs to the wall six straight weeks. We can now take a big sigh and go play.

“We can go out and have fun now. Before, every other mistake we made counted.”

Luginbill attributed SDSU’s inconsistency against Colorado State to the fact that the Aztecs knew there was no margin for error, else the BYU game wouldn’t have meant anything.

“I felt our offense was extremely tight,” he said. “Once we loosened up, we were fine. I felt our defense was playing a dominating style, and once we got into position to put them away, we went to sleep.”

Despite the fact that SDSU has not won any of its past four games by more than 10 points, Luginbill is not wary of BYU.

“I don’t think (BYU) has faced anybody except Florida State that is as fast as we are,” he said. “And you know what? I’m not sure we’re not as fast as Florida State when Darnay (Scott), Patrick (Rowe) and Marshall (Faulk) are on the field at the same time.”

Hey, when you have won six consecutive games . . . and when you are amid the school’s best season since 1986, when the Aztecs finished 8-4 and lost to Iowa in the Holiday Bowl, 39-38 . . . you have a little room to talk.

Don’t you?

“I believe strongly we will play our best football game of the season Saturday,” Luginbill said.

And that wasn’t his only prediction. A few minutes later, he added another: “David (Lowery, SDSU quarterback) will play his best football game of the year Saturday.” Now, the Aztecs wait for Saturday’s arrival.

“I think it is going to be a great college football game,” Luginbill said.

Having heard second-hand that Iowa Coach Hayden Fry complained about being locked in to the Holiday Bowl despite the fact that the Hawkeyes very well could be 10-1 and ranked in the top 10 on Dec. 30, Luginbill had this to say:

“If Hayden did say that, I consider that a cheap shot at the Holiday Bowl and a cheap shot at the Western Athletic Conference.”

Told ABC-TV’s Bo Schembechler also criticized the Big Ten-Holiday Bowl tie-in, Luginbill said: “With Bo, I consider the source.”

And finally, told television analyst Beano Cook said the same thing as Fry and Schembechler, Luginbill said: “They (television commentators) talk. They have no clue what is going on day-to-day in college football and really don’t understand what they’re talking about. They don’t know the scenarios.”

Dept. of Leftover Quotes: In the locker room after SDSU allowed 430 yards of total offense to Colorado State on Saturday, Aztecs linebacker Andy Coviello didn’t rate the defense’s performance very highly.

“We made some stupid mistakes,” he said. “I made some ridiculous errors. I can’t believe I made them.”