Dec. 6, 2015
Past Mick McGrane Features
2014
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 (Dec. 23)
Pumphrey in Need of a Playing Partner (Dec. 24)
2015
Football no Longer Needs Sun to Sell Itself (Feb. 4)
Aztec Football is Flush with Experience in 2015 (Feb. 20)
Regardless of Road, Whittaker's Future is Flush with Success (July 23)
Gordon no Longer Wrestling with Football Future (July 30)
Kazee has the Corner Covered in Aztec D (Aug. 5)
Hageman has Given Boot to Aztec Kicking Woes (Aug. 14)
Life is a Snap for Aztecs' Overbaugh (Aug. 21)
Munson Shines upon Emerging From Shadows (Aug. 28)
Pumphrey Prioritizes Winning in Rush to Stardom (Sept. 2)
Aztecs Positioned to Take Next Step in '15 (Sept. 4)
Aztecs Look to Get Offense in Gear (Sept. 6)
Penny's Stock Rising on Rate of Returns (Sept. 7)
Sorry, No Apologies Forthcoming (Sept. 11)
Seeking a Solution at Quarterback (Sept. 18)
Aztecs, Hauck Have Something Special (Oct. 2)
Aztecs Positioned to Make Statement (Oct. 22)
Aztecs Deliver Message to MW (Oct. 24)
Aztecs' O-Line Removing All Doubt (Oct. 30)
Aztecs' Offense in High Gear (Nov. 15)
Long has Razed, Resurrected Aztecs (Nov. 20)
Aztecs Have Taken the Long Way Home (Nov. 27)
Aztecs Roll with Punches --- and Pumphrey (Nov. 29)
A Future Flush with Fortune (Dec. 2)
A New Dark Side Dawns at SDSU (Dec. 4)
McGrane: SDSU's Potential Packed with Promise
By Mick McGrane, @GoAztecs Senior Writer (@MickOnTheMesa)
Christian Chapman should have been the proverbial Nervous Nelly. Should have been weak-kneed, wobbly and all together jittery, jumpy and hovering around hysterical.
Kids these days.
Chapman, the redshirt freshman who had never started a collegiate game, who would surely fold like a faulty chaise when the heat got too hot, who had a week to prepare for an exam he likely thought he'd never take, fully removed doubt from the discussion.
Erased it, effaced it, eliminated it.
Said San Diego State Coach Rocky Long, who seldom settles on superlatives when summarizing performance: "He was great."
And his team wasn't Swiss cheese.
The Aztecs, bloodied but weathering every blow, captured their 20th conference title Saturday night with a 27-24 win over Air Force in the Mountain West championship game.
They've won nine straight, have a record of 10-3, sit one win away from tying the school record of 11 victories and are as tough as a $2 steak served with a side of gravel.
But enough of the trivial stuff.
If Saturday night was the future, and Chapman its window, this is the beginning. This is where SDSU buries passable beneath the Qualcomm sod in exchange for exceptional. This is where pieces fall in place and everything is possible.
It's where a redshirt freshman quarterback, who turned 20 two months ago, turned a football field into his private playground. Starting in place of graduate transfer Maxwell Smith, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee a week earlier against Nevada, Chapman merely threw for the more yards in a game (203) than Smith had all season.
Rather than "manage" the game, as was expected his assignment, Chapman, a graduate of Carlsbad High, was as carefree as a kid in a schoolyard. He completed 9-of-14 passes, four of them in excess of 40 yards and rushed for 32 more. He threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to running back Donnel Pumphrey and another to wide receiver Mikah Holder that was negated by penalty.
And then he was named the game's Most Valuable Offensive Player.
Of course. And everybody gets a pony for Christmas.
"I'm still waiting for the emotion to set in," said the 6-foot, 200-pound Chapman. "It's so unreal. I dreamed about moments like this."
The reality of the matter, however, is this: The Aztecs, whose running back corps runs as deep as a ditch and is expected to retain the services of Pumphrey, the school's No. 2 all-time rusher, now also appear to have two clearly capable quarterbacks.
"It's really exciting to me," Long said. "We believe that Christian is going to be a great quarterback. There was some interest in fall camp of making him the starting quarterback right from the beginning. There was great competition between him and Maxwell Smith. We went with Maxwell because of his experience and he did a great job all season.
"I thought Christian did a nice job when he came in last week (against Nevada). So, we thought he would play well, but we had absolutely no idea he would play as well as he did. And thank goodness he did, because we needed him to play like that in order to win. It was a pleasant surprise. I thought it was unbelievable for a young backup quarterback to come in and play like that."
Smith, who is weighing the possibility of returning next season, has expressed a desire to wear a knee brace and play in the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl, likely the team's final stop of 2015. And then there's Chapman, so unnerved by his starting debut that his yardage total merely represented the most by an Aztec quarterback in 14 games.
What's a coach to do? If you're Rocky Long, you close your office door, shout for joy and dance atop your desk. SDSU had seven players named to the all-Mountain West team last week. Six of them are juniors, including Pumphrey, the Offensive Player of the Year, who has made known his intentions to return next season; and cornerback Damontae Kazee, the Defensive Player of the Year; and then there's sophomore running back/kick returner Rashaad Penny, the Special Teams Player of the Year.
If there are fissures in the foundation, finding them will be no small feat.
"Over the last six years we've been getting a little better every year," Long said. "That's how you build a program. This is going to be our sixth straight bowl game. The Mountain West has been in existence for 17 years and the first 11 of those years San Diego State didn't have a winning record. Obviously, the last six we have. I think the program is moving in the right direction and, hopefully, we can continue the climb."
Or, if you're Christian Chapman, you shrug your shoulders and wonder what the fuss is all about.
"We started in January with a motto of "Win 20," he said of the program's conference title total. "We won 20. Now it's time to win 21."
Kids these days.