Luginbill Says SDSU’s Youth Must Serve : Football: Coach says presence of underclassmen in key positions accounts for inconsistency.

Al Luginbill does not deny it. His San Diego State football team has yet to hit on all cylinders in any game this season.

Yes, the Aztecs (4-2-1, 4-1 in the Western Athletic Conference) have had explosive days both running and passing, but not on the same day.

While SDSU is still gearing toward balance, Luginbill has noticed this about WAC defenses: Their alignments are out of whack.

“Before this year, and the first two games this year, people played us with balanced defenses,” Luginbill said. “Starting with the UCLA game--(with the exception of) the New Mexico game--everybody else has said, ‘We’re going to take away the run. You better be able to throw the football and beat us.’

“That was exactly Colorado State’s feeling, too. We’re getting used to that from week to week now. And now we’ll see what Wyoming does.”

Does Luginbill find it ironic that, with SDSU’s rich passing history, WAC opponents are suddenly daring them to throw?

“No,” said Luginbill. “Because of the way we started.”

He means the way Marshall Faulk started. The Heisman Trophy contender rushed for 220 yards against USC in the Aztecs’ Sept. 5 opener, then riddled Brigham Young for 299 five days later.

“If you look at our players and you look at how young we are are at wide receiver . . . coaches understand the value of experience,” said Luginbill. “What happened to Colorado State (which lost to SDSU, 20-13, Saturday in Ft. Collins) is we had some wide receivers come up and make plays. We had some guys catch footballs and do something with them.

“And I don’t think they expected that to happen.”

The Rams held Faulk to under 100 yards for first time in 13 games. A hip injury that Faulk aggravated late in the second quarter also was instrumental in limiting him to 60 yards on 18 carries--none in the second half.

But CSU couldn’t prevent Curtis Shearer (three receptions, 101 yards) from emerging.

The sophomore receiver’s 55-yard touchdown reception from David Lowery in the fourth quarter was the difference. Before Saturday, Shearer had caught six passes for a total of 50 yards and no touchdowns in six games.

“At New Mexico, we had other guys do it,” said Luginbill. “Darnay Scott had his fantastic night (12 catches, WAC-record 274 yards, three touchdowns) against UTEP and hasn’t been heard from since.

“The thing we have not done is put it together on a day this year yet. But you know what? That happens when you’ve got a lot of sophomores, juniors and, in some cases, redshirt freshmen.

“I, as the head football coach, am not going to lose my sense of reality. We need to win games any way we can.”

The Aztecs were held to a season-low 92 rushing yards against the nation’s 105th-ranked defense, while Lowery, who averaged 208.7 passing yards per game, threw for 299 and spread it around among seven receivers.

Still, Luginbill cited dropped balls for most breakdowns.

“Hey, our oldest wide receiver in this program, in game experience, is (sophomore) Darnay Scott, who played as a freshman,” said Luginbill. “The other kids are coming along. Curtis Shearer’s been on the field, he just hadn’t made a lot of plays.

“DeAndre Maxwell’s been kind of quiet. He’s still on the field. Keith Williams, this week, dropped some passes. A week ago, it was Darnay that dropped some passes. Darnay (also) dropped some this week. It’s inconsistency.”

It is not just the offense that is getting tricked with unbalanced sets and deception plays. Opponents have run counter plays to slow SDSU’s defensive pursuit. Colorado State came at SDSU with a whole new package.

Yet the Aztecs are 2-1 in those ballgames. The defense, which allowed an average of 30.4 points in its first five games, yielded an average of 15.0 in the last two.

Blown assignments and youthful errors aside, Luginbill said SDSU is learning to win by making adjustments.

“As soon as we get the intermediate play-action game down,” he said, “I believe we’re going to be back to a situation where they’re not going to be able to overload.”

Aztec Notes

Injury report: Coach Al Luginbill said he expects Marshall Faulk (hip), defensive end Jamal Duff (ankle) and wide receiver Jake Nyberg (groin) to practice today. Linebacker Terrill Steen (knee) and defensive end Ramondo Stallings (ankle) are day to day. Guard Joe Heinz will miss the rest of the regular season with a fractured fibula and torn deltoid ligament. He had surgery Sunday.