AZTECS : Mao Trying to Lead His Teammates Out of Their Funk : Football: SDSU linebacker hoping to stop team’s skid.

His San Diego State teammates don’t call him Chairman Mao or anything that would indicate leadership. Instead, linebacker Tracey Mao has been known as T-Dog for his ability to bark and howl like a hungry canine.

But this week Mao--a suddenly frustrated fifth-year senior--stepped out of the pack to become its leader.

Mao, who has battled through a lot of adversity in his years as an Aztec, was one of a group of seniors who had Monday’s practice canceled. Instead, the Aztecs stayed behind closed doors for more than four hours for what Mao called a series of soul-searching meetings.

“It just seems to me that a lot of the younger guys may be saying, ‘We got next year,’ ” Mao said. “But I don’t think we’re going to be getting the opportunity like we are now.

“And even if I was going to be here next year, I wouldn’t think like that.”

Mao figured it was time to step forward after the Aztecs floundered through two Western Athletic Conference losses in three weeks. Those were games the Aztecs (4-3-1, 4-2) were expected to win en route to a Holiday Bowl berth.

But now it is Hawaii (7-1, 5-1) that will play in the Holiday Bowl if it beats SDSU at San Diego Jack Murphy Saturday night.

“We’ve been taking guys aside,” Mao said. “You know, a little one on one.”

And when Mao talks, teammates listen.

After serving a one-year suspension and losing his scholarship, Mao has fought his way back to the first team and won the respect of his peers.

It was his own misdirected attitude that nearly sent Mao to prison. In a drunken rage March 3, 1991, he slugged two SDSU students--causing major injuries to one. Mao said he was seeking revenge for the broken jaw Aztec quarterback David Lowery suffered in a fight the previous month.

Mao was sentenced to five years’ probation and one year in a work furlough center. Now, having been sober for more than a year and a half, and given a second chance by Coach Al Luginbill, Mao is on the way to the greatest victory of his life.

Now he’s trying to show others what it takes to win.

“If every guy on this team plays to the best of his ability, nobody can beat us--nobody,” Mao said. “But . . . that’s not been the case.

“I think this little meeting we had got us in the right frame of mind. As a team. It’s just a matter of us staying together and playing like have this week in practice.”

If Mao is optimistic about Saturday’s do-or-die game with Hawaii, Luginbill is still somewhat in the dark about his team’s psyche.

Luginbill issued new T-shirts this week to emphasize his point:

Every Man

Every Play

WIN

“I would think that we would come in with that mind set and focus--that we have to play with the ultimate of our ability on every play,” Luginbill said. “That’s what we’ve tried to teach through the year. Obviously, we have not gotten that message across.”

Luginbill is a football coach, not a psychologist. Therefore, he offers no explanation why his offense ran like a Porsche against USC and Brigham Young and like an Edsel against Wyoming and Air Force.

“We could sit here for years and conjecture on why this football team flipped around mentally,” he said. “I don’t know why.

“All I know is that the mental outlook on each game--per game--is not the same as it was the first half of the season. It’s not the angry type of focus the team took to Albuquerque.

“I know I’m angry, and you guys are seeing me that way this week. I’m on a short fuse. I don’t like this. It’s not what we’ve worked for here. I’m not angry at (the team). But if they’re a replica of the coach, then they’re going to play angry (Saturday).

“You feel like you just want to go hit somebody, hurt somebody. That’s the pent-up feeling I have as a coach.”