Because of a scheduling conflict, I chose to attend the San Diego State basketball game vs. Western Michigan Saturday, while I listened to the bulk of the football contest vs Brigham Young. The contrast between the events -- a game but undermanned football squad losing by three touchdowns compared to the hoops team scoring a mostly unspectacular 11-point victory -- got me thinking that there is a link between the two situations.
More than the continuing mind-bending it takes to get yourself around the concept that SDSU is now a basketball school instead of one known for football.
Under Steve Fisher, the Aztecs this season replaced two of the better players in the history of the school with a score of highly talented newcomers who have made this team the best in the nearly 30 years I've been following them. Top-to-bottom, these kids can flat-out play. Fisher has never had this sort of depth and, it necessarily follows, neither has any prior Aztecs coach.
While it is early yet, in my experience I've never seen the Mountain West Conference or it's WAC predecessor with enough depth to slow a team like this over the course of a 16-game league schedule. A game or two or three? Sure. BYU and Utah with their size will cause some matchup programs, and a college basketball slate is grueling. No question. And you never know what will happen in a short conference tournament. But for this team to not make the NCAA Tournament will be a real disappointment, assuming the health problems end with Tim Shelton's knees. With the right sort of opponent, they could even make a short March Madness run.
That's a little different from where the football team is.
What Fisher has done over the last couple of years is re-stocking. The key part of that is "re." He had some pretty good building blocks in place during this decade and has been able to improve upon them with each recruiting cycle. Randy Holcomb and Aerick Sanders begat Mohamed Abukar and Brandon Heath, who led to Billy White and DJ Gay and Kelvin Davis and Ryan Amaroso and Shelton. Now they are where they are, and we'll see where it takes them.
Football coach Chuck Long, in contrast, is barely above Ground Zero in this process. He's managed to find some promising linemen, a quality receiver in Vincent Brown, an interesting tight end in Alston Umuolo and intriguing linebacker Miles Burris. Ryan Lindley is the heir apparent at quarterback.
But there's not much of a build-upon factor for the seniors who played their final game. Quarterback Kevin O'Connell is it. I'm not sure a high school offensive lineman wants to go to San Diego State because he's heard wonderful things about the outgoing quarterback, however.
For the Aztecs program to grow, the Lindleys, Browns, Umuolos and Burrises are going to have to take the field next season and produce. And not just them. For that to happen, the new linemen are going to have to set a new standard of play. With center Trask Iosefa finishing what has to be considered a superb debut season for a freshman at his key spot, the new guys, Tommie Draheim, Leo Grassilli, Kellen Farr and other youngsters in the trenches are going to have to get in there and make a name for themselves over the next four years.
The defensive line, where many got a baptism by fire this season, the sophomores-to-be Ernie Lawson, Peter Nelson, B.J. Williams and Peter Nelson will have to be far stronger next year than they were this.
The only way for Long to even begin to approach where Fisher is in the re-loading process, these new linemen -- along with Lindley -- will need to hold down their jobs for the next three or four years. Hopefully, those years will result in a bowl game or two or more. That way, Long and his staff can recruit their replacements and build them up to where they can start playing as juniors instead of true freshmen.
When the basketball teams were introduced last night and the PA announcer said "in his ninth year, Steve Fisher!" my wife turned to me and said something like "wow, has it been that long?"
Yes, it sure has. We're only now beginning to see the true fruits of his -- and Brian Dutcher's -- labors. It takes that long when you're starting from scratch. When Fisher and Dutcher came here, remember, San Diego State's men's basketball program was arguably the worst major college program in the nation. It can take that long to climb out of such a cellar.
Even with the recent struggles, the football program is not in quite as bad a shape as basketball once was. There is tradition to build on, for one. It may not take Long, Bob Elliott and Del Miller as long as it took Fisher and Dutcher. And even in the basketball buildup, there were two NCAA appearances and two NIT selections. So while football might take some years to reach the same level, there could be a couple minor bowl appearances between now and then.
Many wonder whether Long and his staff have what it takes to see the process through. Of course, Fisher himself has been often questioned by fans over the years. The football coaches seem to be taking Fisher's long-term approach, however. That approach has paid off in hoops, and if Long keeps his eyes down the road, football will get there, too. Someday. Quicker than nine years, hopefully.
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