Leomiti Fits Back Into SDSU Plans : Football: Lineman has slimmed down to 338 pounds, and is ready for work.

SAN DIEGO — This should not be taken literally:

“I’m hungry,” said Carlson Leomiti, who returns to the San Diego State football team this fall. “I’m very hungry.”

He smiled.

“I haven’t had a uniform on since December, in the Freedom Bowl. I can’t wait.”

Nobody’s figure has been more celebrated around SDSU since Raquel Welch was a co-ed, and that was the other end of the spectrum.

Since weighing 404 pounds at the Freedom Bowl, Leomiti has been put on a diet, barred from spring practice, watched by the SDSU coaching staff and tailed by people from the school’s athletic medicine department specifically assigned to make sure he ate vegetables instead of potato chips.

Now, after dropping to 338 pounds, comes perhaps the easiest part.

The playing.

“I’m gonna have a great year,” Leomiti said, visibly excited. “I want to have a real good year.

“Other years, I used to hate coming to camp. But (sitting out) made me hungry to come back. I’m just happy to be on the field.”

Aztec Coach Al Luginbill banned Leomiti, SDSU’s biggest and one of its best offensive lineman, from drills last spring, saying he feared for Leomiti’s long-term health. Instead of blocking drills, Leomiti trudged off to the pool for his spring workouts.

Leomiti stories were legendary, such as the one about the time Leomiti went into a McDonald’s and ordered $32 worth of food--so much that friends had to help him carry it out.

The 66-pound summer weight loss, though, has got people again using “football”--rather than “diet”--in the same sentence as “Leomiti”.

“He showed up to camp in about as good a shape as he has been since he’s been here,’ said Bret Ingalls, SDSU’s offensive coordinator. “Two years ago, as a redshirt freshman, he was close to the same weight, but he was so much younger then.

“He’s done well.”

One thing Leomiti, a junior, wants to make clear: Despite what Luginbill has said, Leomiti insists he does not have an eating disorder.

“I do not have an eating disorder--let’s get that straight,” he said. “Before, I used to eat at 11 or 12 at night and then go to sleep. I would just sit down and grind, that was my problem.

“Now, my eating habits have changed. I don’t eat later than 6.

“As long as there are no clouds and it’s not dark out there, I can eat.”

Otherwise, Leomiti said, he eats red meat occasionally, but not often.

“If there is a choice between steak and chicken, I’ll eat the chicken,” he said.

Then he smiled and delivered the punch line.

“Steak takes too long to eat” he said. “Takes too long to chew.”

As far as his teammates are concerned, the only thing that took too long was Leomiti’s return.

“Our offensive line looks and plays differently with him,” senior offensive guard Joe Heinz said. “He’s younger than me, but he brings a lot of leadership. He goes out there to beat the . . . out of somebody, but to also have fun.”

As a redshirt freshman, Leomiti held Miami’s Russell Maryland, who won the Outland Trophy that year, to three unassisted tackles and no sacks. Last season, Leomiti sprained an ankle and missed two games (Texas El Paso and Utah), and that’s when he started to put on the weight.

Now, the Aztecs are expecting big things from Leomiti.

“Certainly, his size is his dominating factor,” Ingalls said. “He’s got a combination of athletic ability and quickness.

“And, hey, what are you looking for in a football player? You look for a big guy who can move.”

Leomiti said he worked out harder than ever before during the summer but said the most difficult thing was maintaining his weight. Looking back, he said, he is glad Luginbill held him out of spring drills.

“Everything changed because of that,” he said. “That’s why I don’t take anything away from his decision.”

Instead of looking back, he is looking ahead. The Aztecs open against USC in 16 days, but that could be two months as far as Leomiti is concerned. He said he’s thrilled to be back on the field again--games, practices, it doesn’t much matter.

“It just feels good to knock heads again,” he said. “It’s good to look at my helmet and see marks on it.”

He knows things will not be easy. A summer-long bout with bronchitis has notified him of that.

“I’ve been sick all summer,” he said. “Probably because of the weight loss.”

And, he said, he has lost quite a bit of strength. A year ago, he said, he could bench press 405 pounds. Now, he will not even say what he can press.

“It’s pathetic,” he said. “It’s too embarrassing.”

But he doesn’t notice it on the field.

“I feel I can handle anybody who can bench more than me,” he said.

Besides, Leomiti is one of the most versatile Aztecs. Although he does not read music, he plays the piano well enough to have written a few of his own compositions. In a soon-to-be-televised Aztec ticket campaign, Leomiti is shown playing the piano in a tuxedo.

Before anyone asks, it was a size 60.

And it was a little big for him.