Winners, Losers of the Weekend

The winners and losers, as I see them, in an up and down weekend of athletics in San Diego:

Winner: Norv Turner. Remember the haters? They've crawled back into the woodwork as the Charges have climbed into a first place tie with the Broncos in the AFC West. A showdown in Denver looms next week.

Loser: Brady Hoke. The bloom came off the rose in the fourth quarter of San Diego State's horrifying collapse against Wyoming. The guy is a decent upgrade as a football coach but some of the blame for what happened in the final 15 belongs to him and his staff.

Winner: Bill Grier. The USD men's basketball team not only beat Stanford in the Toreros opener, but stomped on them. For a WCC team to pull away late over a Pac-10 team is a surprise, and it looks like he may have solved some issues inside.

Loser: Mark Haines. As good a trainer as he is for the SDSU men's hoops squad, he can't wave a wand and make Tim Shelton's knees healthy as if nothing ever happened, or cure Tyrone Shelley's painful toe. Let's hope he gets Billy White back on the floor pain-free quickly.

Winner: LT. It may not have been vintage, but it was as close as we've come in a while.

Loser: Chargers secondary. That was 433 yards passing and 22 first downs through the air for the Eagles' Donovan McNabb. Yeah, he had to throw all the time in a losing effort, but someone make a stop.

Winner: DJ Gay. The Aztecs men need him to step up at the point to be successful, and he did so with his leadership in the second half of the opening victory over UC San Diego. Now it'll really get tough in the St. Mary's bandbox.

Loser: SDSU men's soccer. Three minutes after the PA announcer says they lead highly ranked UCLA in the 80th minute, they give up a tying goal. They've blown a couple leads late in games this season. They should still get an NCAA at-large bid.

Winner: Jim Harbaugh. The could-have-been Aztecs head coach is performing miracles at Stanford.

Loser: Dennis Erickson. The coach some people wanted for the Aztecs is finding his seat getting warm at Arizona State.

Winner: Poinsettia Bowl. Suddenly looking like BYU or Utah vs USC or Cal.

Loser: Holiday Bowl. USC is dropping like a rock and dull Oklahoma State is near certain to return as the Big 12 rep.