Since we were not able to watch the USC/Notre Dame game, we asked the Substitute for his thoughts on the game. Unfortunately, his alma-mater, the perpetually snake-bitten San Diego St. Aztecs found yet another way to lose a game in heart-rending fashion on Saturday night. This time to New Mexico so this post is colored in that light.
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. College Football, 2007. As a lifelong USC football fan, I only recognized it for what it was (penance) when I enrolled into San Diego State University 19 years ago and began life as an Aztec.
I had spent many a New Year's Day in the Rose Bowl as a youth, cheering the Trojans on to victory after victory. Heisman after Heisman. Even an occasional national championship thrown in for the fun of it. Combined with being fortunate enough to grow up in a time when the Dodgers and Lakers were regularly kicking tail (Celtics) and taking names, it seemed only fitting that my childhood life of privilege should be balanced by my choice of a university in which I would actually crack a book. SDSU fit that roleperfectly.
But after the first decade and a half of my sentence as a Montezuma Mesa veteran, I began to question the sporting gods about my sentence. Even during the BEST of Aztec sporting times. Got a Marshall Faulk in Red &Black? We'll give you a losing record and Gino Torreta. Got chip shot wins in your sights against Miami and USC? We'll send you a mean left-hook for your field goal kicker. Got a mas
sive halftime lead for the conference championship on your home field against your arch rival? We'll send you a second-half melt down. The next year: got an easy win for the conference championship against a winless foe? We'll get right on it with a rollover performance against the Running Rebels. Got a brand new state-of-the-artbasketball arena? We'll give you a coach that puts in his pudgy 5' 10" kid as a shooting guard. Finally get a bid to the NCAA's? We'll drop a 40 point lead on you by halftime. Come back for more March Madness a few yearslater? We'll let Indiana rip your heart at the last second in Round 1.
sive halftime lead for the conference championship on your home field against your arch rival? We'll send you a second-half melt down. The next year: got an easy win for the conference championship against a winless foe? We'll get right on it with a rollover performance against the Running Rebels. Got a brand new state-of-the-artbasketball arena? We'll give you a coach that puts in his pudgy 5' 10" kid as a shooting guard. Finally get a bid to the NCAA's? We'll drop a 40 point lead on you by halftime. Come back for more March Madness a few yearslater? We'll let Indiana rip your heart at the last second in Round 1. The football stadium (an off-campus venue that most of the nation knows as a sun-splashed festival of powder blue and gold on Sundays) is actually a cavernous black hole on Saturday night where the most densely packed section of people in the entire venue are the two teams on the sidelines.
And those are the good times. The fact that Aztec Nation has spent tens and hundreds of millions upgrading its athletic facilities to state of the art almost across the board (insert on-campus football stadium here) makes the frustration all the more. True. There are very positive signs on the "second tier" sports (sorry, women'sbasketball). But the Big Two: Football and basketball remain the subject, across the nation, of the oft-repeated comment: "Gee. San Diego State. I don't understand why they don't have a better football team." When you figure it out, brother, please send university President Stephen Weber your resume'.
If nothing else, in this the year of the college football upset, you would think just once the Aztecs could pull a big one (Perhaps they arewaiting for next year at Notre Dame. Not that Notre Dame is considered to be much of anything right now. But, you know...) or have a good season. Not so much. They are basically on track to repeat last year's 3-winperformance.
Two years ago about this time, hope for the football team with this writer was sky-high when the SDSU A.D. said the magic words: "We will spare no expense in securing a quality and name-brand football coach for San DiegoState... We want to demonstrate our commitment to the program." What they got was Chuck Long. Talk about taking the air out the balloon. The moment they leaked the hire to the press, I knew my sentence of mediocrity was extended 10 years. Even the hiring of Long was clouded in scandal regarding the payment to a "head hunter" of thousands of dollars who had conflict-of-interest links. And on and on it goes. If I were king for a day, I'd find a way of having SDSU play in a BCS conference. The fact that they do not is really the heart of the matter. It all radiates out from there.
Since I'm not king, I'm going back to my cell and plug in the tape of the suddenly revived Trojans 38-0 crushing of Notre Dame yesterday, and re-live my youth.- The Substitute (contrary to the below format default, NOT "Dean")
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5 comments:
Hey Substitute, Short of being accepted by a BCS conference (Pac-10 doesn't appear to want them), what's the answer?
Let's face the facts, San Diego St. is a "stepping stone" program so I doubt any "big name" is going to want to go there. A guy of Chuck Long's prominence is probably about as good as State is going to get.
And lets not forget, they had Jeff Tedford all but in the bag but couldn't pull the trigger (sorry, I mixed metaphors in there somewhere), so let's place "administrative incompetence" at the top of any talking points next time we discuss why State is not a Top 25 program.
For the record: They should be.
At this moment, SDSU is a "stepping stone" program, as you say. But, it should not be.
The Pac 10 is out. They aren't going to yield fertile SD recruiting terrain to the home town team. The obvious solution is for the MWC to file suit to create an absolute level playing field, with everybody in the same starting position for a BCS bowl bid. However, don't hold your breath as this is not liable to occur.
The creative solution for SDSU is this: Lobby a BCS midwest or east conference to let them join! We aren't in the dark ages where a 4 day train trip is required to get you to a game upstate. Hawaii is 2,000+ miles away from its nearest conference rival. Any east coast BCS schools want to gain some recruiting inroads into So Cal speed and talent? Snap up SDSU as a member and you are guaranteed maximum exposure in perhaps the greatest collection of HS talent in the land. SDSU, in return, gets BCS exposure and all the perks that come with it. We live in a world where boundaries are, for better or worse, meaning less and less. Why should college football be any different, especially if you're a school looking to finally break through? - The Substitute
Sub, The Pac-10 gets whoever the hell they want from here so I don't get that argument.
Onto the 2 or 3 time zone-away proposition... Its only slightly less sucky than the Hawaii'n situation (Colt Brennan) upon which you posted.
What's the upside for a BCS conference to come all the way out here? SoCal speed? Appears that upstarts like WVU, Rutgers, Louisville, South Florida, etc., (Big East, C-USA) have done just fine without any West Coast Speed.
How about winning some games? How about beating New Mexico?
Point being, at this conjuncture, its not about conference affiliation. Its about upsetting the paradigm and culture of losing at this program.
Rutgers did - and they are (were) "SDSU East". New Jersey is sick for hi-school football but Penn State, Syracuse (formerly) and Notre Dame annually picked the swamps clean prior to the last few years.
You complain about Chuck Long? Who the hell was Greg Schiano before Rutgers hired him?
Give Long a chance. What other option do you have?
I'll grant you Mike Price. His daliances in Alabama and subsequent hiring at UTEP peg him as a "border-town guy"... BwD is fond of these gun-slinger types so we'll leave the light on for'm.
And straight up (and testing your ethical boundaries, Substitute)... we're he available, would you hire Dennis Erickson?
And where were Rutgers, Louisville, and South Florida before they joined a BCS conference? That's exactly the point! Where were ANY of those teams before they joined a BCS conference 4 years ago? Blue chips want to see "BCS Member" on the school resume. If not, they're out.
Pac 10 does get whoever they want out of SD. That's the point!
SDSU joins a BCS conference, they have an even-money chance of keeping the kids at home. Recruiting: The lifeblood. From there, getting the "culture of losing" at SDSU has a fighting chance of finally attaining its hard-earned retirement. - The Substitute
Sub, We may be getting into a "chicken or egg" argument here but.... State has to win some games. They've got to win some games like the one they choked away on Saturday to make themselves attractive to potential BCS suitors.
BYU, Utah and Colorado St. (until lately) are all examples of solid, winning programs over the years that have not leaned on the BCS crutch.
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