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San Diego State Aztecs (2000: 3-8) The following team preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the nation's most comprehensive look at this and all Division I-A teams, be sure to order the 2001 Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518.
Coach and programWhen you talk about San Diego State football, you usually think of talented players, a tough schedule and an underachieving team.Every year, the Aztecs seem to have a bunch of all-league players who go on to play professionally, yet they don’t rack up the bowl games and league titles like other teams in their conference do. Last year a half dozen top players were lost for the season by the second game, which crippled the Aztecs for the Mountain West portion of the schedule. A lot of that had to do with the tough early-season games against Arizona State, Illinois, Arizona and Oregon State, which beat up San Diego State’s young players before the league season rolled around. Ted Tollner, who begins his eighth season with his record at exactly .500, 40-40, believes in playing games against tough opponents. The tough non-conference schedule he insists on playing every year hurts his overall record, but in seven years, his teams have only one shared title, a WAC Pacific Division co-championship in 1998. Tollner acknowledges there is a risk of injuries in playing top-notch teams, but he sees other advantages. “It helps us in recruiting and gives us TV exposure and also helps the program financially,” he said. “It’s difficult, but I like it and our players like it. It’s challenging.” Since compiling back-to-back eight-win seasons in ‘95 and ‘96, the Aztecs have had just one winning season since. They’ve fallen off with 5-6 and 3-8 records the last two years after a Las Vegas Bowl appearance in a 7-5 season in 1997. Those kinds of numbers would make a lot of coaches uneasy, but Tollner doesn’t act too nervous about his future. He still has a lot of time left on a 10-year contract extension he signed in 1997. Perhaps that’s one reason Tollner is not afraid to schedule prominent opponents every season. With all but three starters back from last year, the pieces appear to be in place for the Aztecs to make a title run this year, if they can avoid the injuries of recent years. “If we can stay healthy, we can compete with anyone in the league,” Tollner said.
OffenseIt hurt the Aztecs last year when returning starter and senior Jack Hawley went down with an injury in the second game and was lost for the season. But that gave young Lon Sheriff the chance to be thrown into the fire and gain valuable experience.That experience will pay off for Sheriff (6-3, 215) heading into his junior season. He passed for 2,163 yards, completed 53.4 percent of his passes and led the Aztecs to a pair of come-from-behind victories. On the other hand, he was also the quarterback for seven Aztec losses. And he threw just six touchdown passes while being intercepted 11 times. His best games came late in the season (such as the 30-of-46, 393-yard performance against Colorado State and a 17-of-32, 328-yard outing in the season-finale against UNLV). Running back Larry Ned (5-11, 210) finished with 357 yards, best among the Aztecs, but that wasn’t saying much for a team that finished 107th out of 114 teams in rushing last year with a 77.6-yard average. The previous two seasons, Ned had rushed for 762 yards and 894 yards, despite splitting time with departed Jonas Lewis. Ned earned second-team All-Mountain West honors in 1999 with his best game coming against Utah when he rushed for 203 yards. A year ago the Aztecs didn’t know how they could replace Damon Gourdine, but Derrick Lewis and J.R. Tolver stepped up to have outstanding seasons, even with a rookie quarterback. After catching just eight passes the previous year, Tolver (6-1, 205) hauled in 62 passes for 808 yards and a touchdown to earn second-team all-league honors. Lewis, a 6-2, 185-pound senior who never played high school football, was more of a big-play receiver, catching half as many passes (31) as Tolver for nearly as many yards in averaging 25.2 yards per reception with three touchdowns.
Defense and special teamsNo one on the team has more experience than senior Jerome Haywood (5-9, 280), who has started 34 straight games at nose tackle. He’s been a second-team all-league selection for three straight years and should be one of the premier defensive linemen in the MWC this year.The Aztecs think they have perhaps the best linebacker corps in the conference with two starters back, plus some top-notch junior college players and redshirt freshmen. Senior Jomar Butler (5-11, 205) was one of just five players in the league to record double-figure tackles with 112, including 89 unassisted. Three starters return in the secondary, led by senior safety Will Demps (5-11, 200), an All-MWC performer a year ago. Demps was second on the team in tackles with 97 and led everyone with 15 tackles for loss. After joining the team as a walk-on the year before, Brian Simnjanovski took over as the punter and performed as well as anyone could have expected. He averaged 42.8 yards on 55 punts to rank second in the MWC and 14th in the nation.
Bottom lineLately the Aztecs have been in kind of an every-other-year mode where they have a bunch of returning senior starters one year and a young team the next. This year, the Aztecs enjoy one of those senior-dominated teams with 23 starters returning after fielding a young team with only eight returning starters a year ago.The question is, will the Aztecs be able to take advantage of the situation, at least better than they did two years ago when they returned a bunch of players off a Las Vegas Bowl team, only to struggle to a 5-6 mark? The Mountain West Conference race looks wide open and the Aztecs should win their share of games in the league. However with another tough non-conference schedule, the Aztecs will be hard-pressed to emerge with a winning record again this year. |
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