Tollner Returns to College : Football: The Rams’ quarterback coach becomes the new head coach at San Diego State.

As far as Ted Tollner is concerned, he and San Diego State make a perfect fit.

Tollner, 53, resigned as the Rams’ quarterback coach Friday to become head coach at San Diego State. He signed a five-year contract to succeed Al Luginbill, who was fired Tuesday. Tollner will remain with the Rams through the season.

Introduced at a news conference, Tollner said: “Coaching in the NFL is delightful. You’re at the highest level of football, and financially, you’re rewarded well. But I had a chance to take over a program, and I just kept falling over the fence. It kept snowballing, and then I knew this was for me.”

Not only is Tollner becoming the head man again--he was coach at USC from 1983 through 1986--he in a sense is going back home. After a college career as a quarterback at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he served on the San Diego State coaching staff from 1973 through 1980 and was offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers from 1989 until he was fired after the first game of the 1991 season.

Tollner acknowledged that being dismissed so abruptly by then Charger coach Dan Henning had left him feeling bitter. Henning took over the offensive coordinator’s duties, and the consensus was that he wanted to eliminate the one man who might have replaced him during the season.

Whatever Henning’s reasoning, he himself was fired at the end of the 1991 season.

“It was very tough for me and I’d just as soon leave it at that,” Tollner said. “The most intriguing thing to me now is that I’ve been here before and that my family and I love it here.”

“The one constant as I look back is that when I evaluate the program from (then) to what it is today, I see how much progress has been made. It’s my job to see that the progress continues.

“The Holiday Bowl, of course, is the immediate goal, but I don’t think it’s necessarily our highest goal. I think we can go beyond that.”

Obviously, the player who can make the biggest difference for Tollner and the Aztecs is All-American running back Marshall Faulk. Faulk, however, hasn’t said whether he will return for his senior season.

Tollner reportedly had two years remaining on his contract with the Rams. He would not confirm that, but said he and the Rams had worked out a satisfactory settlement.

Tollner said he hopes to have his staff at San Diego State assembled by the end of next week.

Although Tollner called the plays at USC, he will leave that task to his offensive coordinator at San Diego State.

In four seasons at USC, Tollner was 26-20-1. The Trojans won the Pacific 10 Conference title in 1984 and played in three bowl games, beating fifth-ranked Ohio State in the 1985 Rose Bowl.

Asked what he learned while coach at USC, he said: “Don’t lose too many games. The year I got fired, we were 7-4 and went to the Citrus Bowl.”

Times staff writer Mike Reilley contributed to this story.