First, a shout out to the Park View Little League All-Stars, a job well done, and its been a pleasure to write about you. Thanks for a fun couple of weeks, and for reminding us that we don't need the overpriced and inconvenient major leagues to find good and exciting baseball.
---
San Diego State football is the epitome of bad timing. With the advent of the BCS, the WAC/Mountain West took an absolute pounding from the esteemed power conferences. The conference SDSU was in presented from 1997 to 2003 some truly horrid football. During that time, the Aztecs were only once able to take advantage of the lack of competition and reach a bowl game. That was in 1998, and then-Athletic Director Rick Bay had to pull a lot of strings to get his school into the Las Vegas Bowl against North Carolina.
Here in 2009, with the pathetic staff of Chuck Long jettisoned and the highly accomplished staff of Brady Hoke ready to take over, SDSU's poor sense of timing strikes again. This is not your father's MWC/WAC. Instead, the Aztecs have to compete in one of the top conferences in the nation. In the old days, it was a big deal for this core group of schools -- BYU and Utah, Air Force and Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico and Wyoming -- to have one preseason ranked team. In 2009, there are three and they all deserve to be there.
So San Diego State should be better in 2009 and will likely improve tremendously in coming seasons, but it's like a greyhound chasing a metal rabbit, the goal keeps moving. It's not like 1986, when Denny Stolz came in and took the Aztecs to the Holiday Bowl in a WAC that offered very little competition. SDSU will be better, but they have to climb a much taller mountain.
That said, the numbers point to a 6-6 season, probably no worse than 5-7 and no better than 7-5, a record I think they'll need to attain a bowl game. There are some teams -- opening night opponent UCLA, TCU, BYU and Utah -- that they just aren't going to beat. They have to play Air Force and UNLV on the road. On the other hand, they get Wyoming and New Mexico at home and play a weak non-conference schedule after Week One. Things are really set for a season that will be close to .500.
If it was the old days, I'd predict a Stolz-style turnaround with no qualms. This team might have the best set of linebackers in the conference, a quarterback who will open eyes in the West this season and some receivers who can make plays. If the offensive line can open some running lanes and the cornerbacks can hold their own, then this team will be vastly improved. But the timing remains poor.
---
Reports floated around recently that true freshman Jordan Wynn (Oceanside HS)won the starting QB job at Utah. In reality, while Coach Kyle Whittingham has not officially named a starter, Wynn has been mostly working out with the second team, according to media reports in Salt Lake City ... Former Aztecs QB Kevin O'Connell was cut from New England Sunday, a shocker for a guy who entered training camp as Tom Brady's heir apparent. O'Connell was awful in the most recent exhibition game, and Brady's health is such that the Patriots can't take a chance on the youngster now that Matt Cassell is gone. It appears that a couple teams are interested in the La Costa Canyon HS alum, including the 49ers, so my earlier speculation that I'll soon be writing about Alex Smith (Helix HS) being cut might actually come to pass. Darn it ... I read last week that former USD QB Josh Johnson, who seemed paired with O'Connell during pre-draft All-Star games and workouts, is on the trading block in Tampa Bay ... Deja vu all over again: in Baltimore's 5-2 win over Cleveland in baseball Sunday, USD's Brian Matusz was the winning pitcher over SDSU's Justin Masterson.
No comments:
Post a Comment