I have two markers for judging the status of SDSU football during a given season.
Air Force, which downed the Aztecs 26-14 today, is one -- the good one. If San Diego State's football program is in good shape, the Falcons can be beat. SDSU doesn't beat AFA too often, which is a sign that the program hasn't had many great seasons. Even in some of the good ones, Air Force came out on top. At this point, becoming as consistently good as BYU, with its built-in advantages of having its own football-crazy population to recruit from, and two-year missions that give the Cougars an unfair advantage in maturity, is just not attainable at this point (and the rule that allows the missions needs to be dropped).
The other marker, the bad one, is New Mexico. The Lobos until the late-1990s defined bad in old WAC. Then Dennis Franchione and Brian Urlacher and Rocky Long showed up, and the Lobos have since been a picture of mediocrity that's bested SDSU for something like six or seven seasons running. When I was in school, and in many years after, if you'd told me UNM would dominate the Aztecs in football, I'd have laughed in your face. But SDSU has been this bad.
There is no surprise the Falcons won today. Their position is what the Aztecs aspire to. Get there, maybe in another couple years, and then the big boys are in their sights. First, they have to figure out how to beat New Mexico, which returns to Qualcomm Stadium on Halloween. That will be a sign that the first step has been taken on a very long climb up the ladder.
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The score was deceptive. It should have been much worse. SDSU was pressured by a decent Air Force defense into six turnovers, thanks in large part to an offensive line that continues to perform poorly. QB Ryan Lindley continues to be affected by the troubles up front, and there was no running game again.
The defense made sure the end zone remained free of Falcons, an amazing performance based on results the past two seasons in which they ran over and around SDSU. A closer look, though, shows that Air Force coach Troy Calhoun ran a very limited offensive scheme because he was playing a backup quarterback in place of his injured starter. SDSU's defense is now capable of slowing repeated fullback dives when they know its coming.
It's going to take years of coaching the current players up, and recruiting, for San Diego State to approach that Air Force marker.
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