With the improvement of San Diego State football this year, it's apparent that San Diego sports fans don't even know they have anything to be apathetic about. That much was apparent when less than 15,000 fans bothered to show up to last Saturday's 23-20 victory over New Mexico. The win put the Aztecs to .500 this late in the season for the first time in years, and to 2-2 in the Mountain West Conference.
There's a lot of very small potatoes in there. A .500 record only gets minor bowl committees and ESPN excited, not fans. The record is courtesy of comeback wins over the winless Lobos and Colorado State, winless in conference play. The Aztecs lost to Idaho which, despite a sparkling 7-2 mark, is still Idaho. They also fell by 19 at UCLA, which is 0-5 in conference, and this is a city that views college football through Pac-10 colored glasses.
So what core fans SDSU has left are excited about Brady Hoke's work, no one else is. Part of it is that the team has been so bad for so long, too many people have moved on with their lives and haven't even noticed that the team is better than the past couple of years. The Halloween scheduling was a problem, but sometimes you have to sell out to the TV gods. And, really, the Aztecs haven't accomplished anything yet. They played UCLA much tougher than the score indicates, but how do you know if you're not paying attention? They played BYU tough, but lopsided home losses to Florida State and TCU destroyed whatever respect that the Cougars were ever accorded.
Now TCU, 8-0 and up to number 4 in one poll -- they should be number 3 -- is coming to town, the highest ranked visitor I can remember since Miami came here in the early-90s ranked first and, I think, third. If more than 25,000 actual fans come out to watch this game, I'll be shocked. How the mighty have fallen? One of those Miami games drew 52,000 and there weren't fireworks. A match between the teams two years earlier attracted 34,000 when SDSU was coming off some lean post-Holiday Bowl times. A crowd of 50,000 came to see UCLA when it was ranked fourth in 1984.
Those are real crowds. But there are other factors that don't involve the state of the football program. The economy means fans are watching their pennies. The sports radio station that broadcasts the Aztecs is beset by low ratings and spent the first two months of the season for all intents and purposes ignoring SDSU football. The San Diego Union-Tribune readership is way down. There simply, as noted earlier this week, is no buzz about SDSU athletics.
If SDSU plays TCU hard this week, or even wins, San Diegans will find out about it and will at least have to make a decision whether to be apathetic. Right now, they don't even know that such a choice might be looming.
---
When the Chargers were struggling in losses to Baltimore and Pittsburgh, I said don't worry about it, they're still on track for the playoffs. The Denver loss put me down one in my game-by-game predictions, but I'm about to get it back.
I generally don't make predictions, but here goes one. I'll stick my neck out. The Bolts will win at New York Sunday. Vincent Jackson and new stud Malcolm Floyd -- told you -- will destroy the Giants battered secondary, and the Shaun-Shawne Show will make life miserable for hobbled QB Eli Manning. The Chargers have their backs against the wall, and have always played strong in such situations under Coach Norv Turner.
If the Giants get back to doing what they do best, pounding the ball behind a real offensive line, things might get dicey. But they won't make as many big plays that score points as the Chargers will, and that's the point of the game, right?
---
If the season ended today ... okay, Holiday Bowl redcoats, wake up from your dream. But if it did, the Pac-10 representative for the first time ever will be USC. That means lots of big-money and close-by fans. Guaranteed sell-out no matter how many tickets the Big 12 team sells. I saw recent bowl projections that called for the Trojans vs. Oklahoma State in the Holiday, and BYU vs. Stanford in the Poinsettia. You couldn't do better. Alas, Stanford has to beat one among Oregon, USC, Cal and Notre Dame to come here. It will be tough, but could happen. With Oregon visiting Palo Alto and coming off last week's scintillating rout of 'SC, I smell a major upset coming. Not an official prediction, mind you, but stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment