Dec. 23, 2014
SAN DIEGO -
Past Mick McGrane 2014 football features
Kaehler: A Thinking Man's Game (Aug. 5)
Whittaker: Long Time Gone, Never Forgotten (Aug. 6)
Life in the Weight Room: Hall's Strong Suit (Aug. 15)
Roberts: A Career Comes Full Circle (Aug. 21)
The Season's in Session, Take Your Seats (Aug. 29)
How Quickly We Forget (Sept. 7)
Looks Can Be Deceiving (Sept. 19)
O-Line has Aztecs' Running Game in High Gear (Oct. 23)
Falling Short is no Longer an Option for Aztec Football (Nov. 29)
Winds of Change: "Rise To 25" Fuels New Direction for Football
By Mick McGrane (@MickOnTheMesa)
On October 18, 2008, in a darkened hallway leading to the visitors' locker room, former San Diego State and current Oakland Raiders linebacker Miles Burris leaned against the wall and wept audible tears of frustration following a humiliating 70-7 loss at New Mexico.
The nadir of Aztec football, measured at new depths each week, was clearly at hand. Rock bottom officially had been reached.
Yet if Miles Burris is convinced that a school-record five consecutive bowl appearances has served as an effective salve for a wound once thought untreatable, he'd do well to brace himself. At SDSU, there is change in the air. Think full-blown hurricane change.
In a move simultaneously daring and a bit more than daunting, SDSU's Athletic Department has announced the formulation of a comprehensive plan to transform Aztec football into a perennial Top 25 program.
Dubbed "Rise to 25," the goal of the campaign includes ensuring financial stability of the program, addressing Qualcomm Stadium improvements and securing a solid season-ticket base over the course of the next 25 months.
And, oh, yes, becoming a perennial Top 25 program.
Bold? Plenty. Brash? Unquestionably. Prior to 2010, SDSU had one non-losing season (6-6 in 2003) in 12 years. Prior to their last appearance in the Poinsettia Bowl, also in 2010, the Aztecs played in two bowls in 20 seasons.
But before adjudging this as a leap into lunacy, there is rational reason to laud such a leap. For entirely too long, the stench of stagnation surrounding this program has been allowed to linger like leftover limburger. Sadly, where Aztec football has been concerned, irrelevancy has burrowed into the program's bones to the point where Saturdays have seen allegiance give way to an avalanche of apathy.
This is hardly to disparage a notable run of five straight bowl games, a feat accomplished by only two other "Group of 5" schools in the nation, Boise State and Northern Illinois. But for SDSU President Dr. Elliot Hirshman, Athletic Director Jim Sterk and a heavyweight lineup of community groups and businesses, standing pat is no longer an option for a program too long beset by the insidiousness of indifference.
"I'm a short-timer having been here only five years, but I think the decade of bad football we had really, really hurt this program," Sterk said of a period from 1999-2009 that produced a ruinous run of 43-96. "I want to assure people that we're not going to go backwards. We've been investing in this so we can move forward. We want this to be something everyone can get involved in and be excited about.
"If you look at what we did this season, we're three games away from playing in the Fiesta Bowl," Sterk continued. "We were that close to playing in the (Mountain West) championship game against Boise State (Boise State faces Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl as the result of finishing as the nation's highest-ranked "Group of 5" team in the College Football Playoff Top 25). We're not that far away."
Fact is, they may be closer than ever. No fewer than 34 underclassmen currently populate the Aztecs' depth chart.
But as much as personnel factors into the finished product, make no mistake: this campaign is no less concerned with perception.
While not tipping his hand, Sterk says he anticipates next year's season opener to involve an unspecified "wow" factor. He is aware that the recent dip in college football attendance has been partially linked to students complaining of a lack of cell phone reception and hopes to improve wi-fi availability at Qualcomm Stadium. In addition, neither Sterk --- nor anyone else, for that matter --- is blind to the antiquated video boards at Qualcomm. On the field, SDSU is establishing home-and-home series with the Pac-12, meaning that one opponent from the conference will visit San Diego every year, beginning with California in 2016.
"I think (scheduling Pac-12 teams) is an attractive thing that will help build attendance, but I also think the Mountain West is getting stronger every year," Sterk said. "We have Utah State, Nevada and Fresno State (all bowl participants this season) coming in here next year, so we think that's a pretty attractive schedule.
"Even if a (new) stadium deal is passed in 2016, we need to invest in engaging the fans and making the stadium a fun place to go. We want to be able to do that collectively with the Chargers and the city."
As for the possibility of constructing an on-campus stadium to bolster student attendance, Sterk said that while potential sites exist, there are no immediate plans to move forward with such a facility.
"There are three or four sites (on campus) that could accommodate a 40,000-seat stadium," he said. "However, is that the best move to make? You have to consider the surrounding neighborhoods and changing the infrastructure. I think Qualcomm is a good site for us. It could potentially one day serve as our west campus. It's within close proximity with the trolley, there's a lot of space there and you have the freeway (access).
"If you were building the campus all over again and we still had (Aztec Bowl) on the site where (Viejas Arena) is now, I'd probably be telling you that we could turn that into a 40,000-seat stadium. But it's a lot more difficult now than it was 20 years ago. I think the prudent move right now is to focus our attention on Qualcomm.
"People say that the stadium is too big for us; I say we just need more people in it."
Building a perennial Top 25 program obviously would go a long way in achieving that objective. And while Sterk acknowledges that doing so as a member of a "Power 5" conference would be "a great step," he is confident the Aztecs can make hay as a member of the Mountain West. He is no less confident that SDSU will be able to keep pace with the "Power 5" in the face of pending NCAA legislation next month that would redefine an athletic scholarship to include the cost of attendance.
"Is it critical? I don't know if it's critical for our success right now," Sterk said of gaining membership in a "Power 5" conference. "Boise State is going to the Fiesta Bowl. I think we can continue to build this program and have very good success in the Mountain West. Most years, one of our teams is going to play in that major (College Football Playoff) bowl. There is access there that wasn't there before."
There's also an approach to football at San Diego State that wasn't there before, one that has the potential to greatly benefit every athletic program on campus. Consider: For its appearance in the Fiesta Bowl, Boise State will receive $4.167 million.
"We've (been ranked) in the Top 10 in some of our other sports, but football, on a consistent basis, has never been there," Sterk said. "That's what we're trying to do. If you look at it, we really started to build this campaign five years ago (with the first of five straight bowl appearances). We need to identify what we can do to continue to improve this program.
"I believe in the people we have running our football program. We have the president behind us and a lot of people who have invested in this program. I believe in the San Diego community as well. I'm excited about the future of this program. I believe the best is yet to come. Rocky (Aztecs football coach Long) really believes that we're going to have a special year next season. I think it's going to be sooner rather than later that we're going to have something special here that really captures the attention of the nation."