SAN DIEGO STATE NOTEBOOK : Weather, Cowboys Corral Faulk’s Campaign for Heisman

Marshall Faulk sat with a box of fast-food chicken in an auxiliary gymnasium at Wyoming.

It was minutes after SDSU’s 17-6 Western Athletic Conference loss in 44-degree weather. Faulk had the hood of his sweat shirt pulled up. He had spent half his time on the sidelines huddled by a portable heater.

Nobody asked if it had been the biting Wyoming wind or the draft from SDSU’s offense that had gotten to him.

Although he rushed for 127 yards, it took him 33 carries. His longest run was 19 yards.

He did catch four passes for 46 yards but, in front of a regional television audience, he surely didn’t do his Heisman Trophy chances any good.

“(The Heisman) doesn’t concern me more than the WAC title does,” Faulk said. “Why would it?”

There were no breakaway runs, and Faulk blamed part of that on the wet War Memorial Stadium field.

“It was muddy and I couldn’t do a couple of things,” Faulk said. “But I knew it would be like that.”

And after an afternoon of jawing between Faulk and Wyoming defenders, Faulk hadn’t won any friends.

“He is a great player, but I can’t say as much for his class,” said Wyoming defensive end Kurt Whitehead. “He started talking from the time he came on the field until it ended. He would be on the bottom of the pile saying stuff, and that just got the defense fired up.”

About the only noteworthy item from Faulk’s afternoon was that he passed Norm Nygaard and moved into first place in SDSU’s all-time rushing category. He has 2,738 yards.

The Aztecs are 0-2-1 this season on regional telecasts. Not exactly a team ready for prime-time performances.

Several Wyoming players said they were more fired up than usual over some apparent quotes from SDSU Coach Al Luginbill, although nobody could confirm the quotes or where they came from.

“Their coach was talking about Wyoming being low-rent and not being able to play at San Diego State’s level,” said defensive lineman Dorell Drake. “Coach (Joe Tiller) mentioned it to us at a meeting Friday night and then again today. We didn’t appreciate it.”

Said redshirt freshman cornerback Wade Constance: “(SDSU’s) head coach made some comments in the newspapers saying they shouldn’t be playing the likes of Wyoming. To us, that was a challenge to shut down their offense completely.”

Interesting thing was, neither Drake nor Constance could remember which newspaper carried the quotes. And, when Constance led a reporter to the bulletin board to which the clippings were allegedly attached, it was empty.

Wyoming sports information director Kevin McKinney was stumped as well. McKinney, in fact, said he hadn’t heard of any inflammatory quotes.

Something was in the air, though.

“We got fired up because of some of the things they said about us,” Wyoming linebacker Ryan Folsom said. “They basically said Wyoming has a bunch of low-rent players, and we wanted to prove to them that that isn’t true.”

After SDSU Coach Al Luginbill complained about the officiating two weeks ago in a loss to Air Force, several Aztecs followed his lead Saturday.

As for a crucial incompletion at the Wyoming two, Aztec H-back Will Tate said a Cowboy cornerback “just grabbed me.”

As for a personal foul assessed on him after an illegal motion penalty, offensive tackle Tony Nichols said: “If you watched the game, you can make your own decision on the officiating.”

Said Faulk: “We made a lot of mistakes that hurt ourselves. And we got a lot of bad calls that didn’t go our way. I guess that happens in someone else’s back yard.”

SDSU has lost three in a row in Laramie. . . . Ryan Yarborough set a new Wyoming single-season receiving record. He now has 1,154 yards receiving this season. And in the past three games against SDSU, Yarborough has caught 15 passes for 393 yards and two touchdowns. He has also thrown one 35-yard touchdown pass. . . . Wyoming’s official play-by-play sheet describing the broken fourth-and-one play on which Wyoming stopped SDSU quarterback David Lowery: “Lowery on naked something left, stuffed.”