Aug. 15, 2015
The first installment of Mick McGrane's season outlook focuses on last year and the program's success over the past five seasons.
In 2014, opportunity not only came knocking for San Diego State, it did so like a New Year's Eve reveler, horns blaring, cymbals clashing and a general disregard for those failing to acknowledge its arrival.
It was a din difficult to ignore, one with a familiar but simultaneously foreign ring. Certainly, another bowl bid was in the offing, but so was a step onto the national stage, where those who have forever perceived your program as little more than a pest are suddenly struck by your sizable potential.
So when quarterback Quinn Kaehler's 6-yard touchdown pass to tight end Daniel Brunskill gave SDSU a 20-0 lead with 7:33 left in the opening half of last season's Week 12 game at Boise State, the step to that national stage seemed as elementary as hurdling a garden hose.
Given that the Aztecs' final two games would both be staged at Qualcomm Stadium --- games that would ultimately culminate in wins over Air Force (30-14) and San José State (38-7) --- a trip to the Mountain West championship game was not merely possible, but, indeed, quite plausible. If the MW champion finished ranked ahead of champions from the other "Group of Five" conferences by the selection committee of the College Football Playoff, it would be guaranteed a non-semifinal berth in one of the "New Year's Six" bowls.
Boise State rallied to beat SDSU, 38-29, topped Fresno State in the conference title game and was promptly awarded a spot in the Fiesta Bowl, where it held off Arizona, 38-30, to finish with a ranking of No. 16 in the nation.
It does little, of course, to relive regret, lest one be doomed to forever sport its hooded cloak of despair. Where the Aztecs are concerned, pity parties are no longer part of the picture, as evidenced by a school-record five consecutive bowl appearances.
And if no other quote than this is ever affixed to SDSU's bulletin board in 2015, the following, as offered by former Boise State cornerback Cleshawn Page, should serve as sufficient fuel for the fire:
"It was drilled into us, ‘OK, they don't respect us, so we're going to make them respect us."
If there is a fallacy in Page's argument --- not the least of which being that SDSU had beaten Boise State in each of the previous two meetings --- it's that nobody makes the Aztecs do anything anymore, lest it be their less-than-easily-gratified head coach. Where once this program had its lunch money stolen so many times it surrendered it on principle, it now exits battles cherishing every black eye and bloodied lip.
Consider: SDSU, virtually bereft of passing game last season (the Aztecs ranked 106th in passing offense among the nation's 125 FBS teams), still finished with a winning record for the fifth straight year and held a fourth-quarter lead in three of its five regular-season losses. Despite having just 16 seniors, SDSU nonetheless became one of just 27 schools nationally to earn a bowl bid for the fifth consecutive season. With 41 wins over the last five years, the Aztecs have matched their victory total from their previous 123 games.
SDSU enters the 2015 campaign having been picked to win the West Division of the Mountain West by the league's media and a number of media outlets, including ESPN, The Sporting News, Athlon Sports, Lindy's Sports and Phil Steele's College Football Magazine.
Monday: The quarterbacks