After Standing Tall at San Diego State, Lowery Has to Sit

Quarterback David Lowery was sitting on a bench outside the San Diego State locker room Monday afternoon when an assistant athletic director walked past.

Lowery stopped him and asked about getting tickets for the Aztecs’ game Nov. 20 at Fresno State. Lowery’s entire fraternity was planning to rent motor homes and caravan up to what figures to be a pivotal Western Athletic Conference game, and they had turned to their man on the inside for help. Lowery told them he would be happy to try.

No can do, the man said. Fresno State allotted the Aztecs only 1,500 tickets and they are all gone. And, besides, Fresno State has sold all of its tickets.

Conversation ended, the man left.

Sometimes, you throw the touchdown pass. Sometimes, life lines up in an all-out blitz and swallows you up.

Not long ago, they would have combed through every office across campus to produce tickets for Lowery. It wasn’t long ago when he was the toast of the town. He rode in like the Lone Ranger in 1991, rescued the Aztecs from a 2-2 start and passed them into the Freedom Bowl.

Two years later, as his senior season fades away quietly, he can’t even help his fraternity buddies, let alone his football team.

“Can’t even get tickets,” Lowery said, shaking his head sadly.

When the Aztecs take the field tonight for a nationally televised game against Brigham Young in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, Lowery will be on the bench.

The last time Brigham Young played in San Diego, each snap of the football was like the strike of a match. The Cougars and Aztecs tied, 52-52, and Lowery set a school record with 568 yards passing.

The record, it turns out, endured longer than Lowery.

He suffered a stress fracture in his right leg in the season opener against Cal State Northridge, hobbled along through a game at Cal and the first half of a game at Air Force before he could go no longer.

Doctors found a clean break and Lowery was unable to return until he was cleared to play Oct. 23 against New Mexico. Problem was, back-up Tim Gutierrez led the team to a wild, come-from-behind victory against Air Force and hasn’t slowed down since.

Coach Al Luginbill has always had a team policy: A player cannot lose his starting job because of an injury. Lowery returned to discover that the rule was like a bad insurance policy. It had loopholes, and one of them was that the rule didn’t apply to quarterbacks.

The team was hot with Gutierrez in control, so he would stay put.

“Let me tell you something,” Luginbill said. “Every day, I’m reminded more of how life is not fair. It’s a situation where David did not want it to happen, but it happened. Tim came in and is having a phenomenal year.”

The Aztecs are 4-2 with Gutierrez. He is averaging 310 yards passing per game. Lowery has been back for two games. He has not taken a snap.

Remember Marshall Faulk’s sensational freshman season in 1991? Lowery was voted the team’s most valuable player. In 1992, Lowery went through one stretch when only two of 171 passes were intercepted.

He was named honorable mention all-WAC.

Didn’t matter. When the Aztecs play Brigham Young tonight, his biggest duty will be remembering to cheer on his teammates from the sideline.

“I have mixed feelings,” Lowery said. “Tim is a good friend of mine and he has done a heck of a job, but I think I deserve it. The past couple of years, I’ve played pretty well.

“I was hurt during the entire Cal and Air Force games. I don’t think I got the fair end of the deal.”

Lowery said Luginbill has not talked with him since he has been back. That subject has added to the bitterness.

“We had a policy on the team that when a player gets hurt, he never loses his position due to injury,” Lowery said. “Luginbill said it is different for quarterbacks, but he never told me to my face. He never sat down and talked to me.

“My parents heard it on the radio and I read it in the newspaper. . . . I felt I at least deserved an explanation. I’m still waiting for him to tell me what the deal is.”

Luginbill said that when Lowery was cleared to play, Aztec coaches discussed the best way to talk to Lowery, and it was decided that quarterbacks coach Sean Payton would speak to him.

At this point, though, Lowery doesn’t even buy the explanation that Gutierrez’s presence alone has energized the team. San Diego State has changed its offense between the time that Lowery was running the show and when Gutierrez took over, Lowery said.

“We were lining up with two running backs and a tight end and running the ball down (the defense’s) throat and passing off of that,” he said. “Now, we pass to set up the run. We’ve changed our whole offensive philosophy.

“I guarantee you that if Tim were to get hurt and I went in there, from the first play on there would be no confusion on offense.”

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. His senior season was not supposed to be reduced to, “If Tim gets hurt . . . “

But that’s where it is and, as the Aztecs prepare for the Cougars, Lowery is helpless.

“I’ve got to have the feeling that I’m going to play,” Lowery said. “I’ve got to get as much as I can out of the meeting and films. I’ve got to be prepared to play at all times. You don’t get as many reps as the No. 2 guy during practice, so you’ve got to be more mentally prepared.”

He held up his left hand. A couple of weeks ago, Lowery dug out his Southern Section Division VIII championship ring, which he earned with Trabuco Hills in 1988, and has worn it since. It’s a ritual he goes through every season at this time.

“It’s a reminder of what we’re shooting for,” he said.

He looked at the ring. Once not long ago, Lowery would have had a firm hand in his team’s destiny as it went out to play Brigham Young. He would have gone out, thrown some touchdown passes, made some plays, gotten his uniform dirty.

Tickets wouldn’t have been a problem, either.

But then, the days are getting shorter and the nights, they’re getting chillier.