Lowery Might Be Sidelined : College football: Back spasms slow quarterback. Inexperienced Tim Gutierrez would get nod against UCLA.

San Diego State, ranked No. 21, hopes to topple No. 11 UCLA at the Rose Bowl Saturday, but the Aztecs might have to do so with a backup quarterback who has never played a Division I game.

SDSU starter David Lowery, though his condition improved Tuesday, is hurting.

Lowery has suffered chronic back spasms since Friday. The spasms are believed to stem from an injury sustained in the USC game.

Coach Al Luginbill said the spasms have subsided but they were apparently related to an injury that remains in a joint in his lower back. Trainer Brian Barry was not available for comment.

Lowery has not practiced since Thursday. He took medication and therapy Tuesday, and attended team meetings.

But whether the problem will go away by Saturday is anybody’s guess.

“It feels like somebody’s taking a needle and driving it through my back,” Lowery said. “It’s in my lower back, right on the bone.”

Lowery hinted that he will play against the Bruins (2-0) if it takes a straitjacket to keep him off the field. He said he felt better, and Luginbill said Lowery might even practice today. Luginbill also said he has be realistic.

“I can’t control muscle spasms in the back that go down into the lower bone joint and create this problem that none of us ever thought was coming up,” he said. “So, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to get the next best player ready to play.”

That would be Tim Gutierrez, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound sophomore from Oxnard who has no experience. The Aztecs have three quarterbacks, including true freshman Billy Blanton from Costa Mesa, who is redshirting. Gutierrez earned the No. 2 spot in spring practice, after which he had shoulder surgery.

“You take what’s dealt to you and you do with it the best you can,” Luginbill said. “Who knows? Timmy Gutierrez might go in there and play his tail off. That’s my expectation level until I see something else that’s going to prove me wrong.

“This is Timmy’s third year in the offense. He’s been through game preparation with us for two years. We’re still going to hand it off to the tailback and we’re going to throw it quick.”

Said Gutierrez, “I feel I pretty much know all the offense and I’m pretty confident in my abilities. If I get the opportunity, I want to take full advantage of it. I want to look coached. I want this program to be respectable and have a great backup quarterback.”

The timing of Lowery’s injury is not without irony. He replaced Cree Morris at quarterback one week after their second worse defeat in an 8-3-1 season last year--37-12 to UCLA--and led the Aztecs to a 47-21 rout of Hawaii. He passed for 2,575 yards and 19 touchdowns, and led SDSU to a 6-2-1 mark the rest of the way.

“Right now he’s the only one on our whole football team that doesn’t look like he’s 100% as we stand here today,” Luginbill said. “If you asked me a week ago if that was going to be the case, I’d have said, ‘There’s no way.’ ”

“I’m just trying to put (the injury) out of my head and I’m trying to get ready for the game, for what I’ve got to do,” Lowery said. “I plan on playing, I plan on practicing (today) . . . I’ll have to be in some pretty good pain not to play.”

Lowery felt severe enough pain when he got out of bed Friday morning that he headed straight to the SDSU training room. Lowery said he was kneed in the back during the USC game and played with pain five days later at Brigham Young, thinking it was typical post-game soreness.

“I was taking a lot of allergy medicines and stuff like that, which dehydrates the body,” Lowery said. “I guess that helped the muscle into spasms.

“(Now) I’m taking medication (for the back), but I don’t know what it is. It’s been improving every day.”

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SDSU athletic director Fred Miller said the school has asked casual-wear retailer Pacific Eyes & T’s to stop selling T-shirts that say “FAULK U” in red and black block letters, because the company had done so without permission from Aztec running back Marshall Faulk and SDSU. Miller said it is also an NCAA violation.

Miller said Pacific Eyes & T’s cooperated Monday afternoon. Several stores that were contacted Tuesday said the shirts were not in stock but might be available at other stores.

Faulk’s reaction to “FAULK U”: “ . . . They were tearing my name up in a rude way. It could have been ‘FAULK U’ or something else. I didn’t want it to be something else.”