Aug. 19, 2016
2016 Mick McGrane Features
Continuity Makes a Comeback (Jan. 15)
SDSU Hits Its Stride in Recruiting Race (Feb. 4)
Aztecs Knock Down Doors on Recruiting Trail (Feb. 9)
Ernie Lawson Comes Home to New World (March 17)
Juwan Washington now has Room to Roam (March 21)
Peer Pressure? Not for Christian Chapman (Aug. 8) Penny is Worth Every Cent to Aztecs (Aug. 18)
McGrane: Football has Never Been More Fun for Nico Siragusa
By Mick McGrane, @GoAztecs Senior Writer (@MickOnTheMesa)
From an early age, Nico Siragusa will be taught not to bully the smaller kids. He is growing, his shoes fast becoming too small for his feet, his clothes shrinking on a body that casts a menacing shadow over those his own age.
He is 8 years old, an age that in Pop Warner football parlance classifies him as a "Mitey-Mite." Yet because of his size, he quickly finds himself catapulted into the "Junior Midget" division, where players as many as five years his senior are lurking, all too happy to introduce even a "big" little kid to the game's world of hard knocks.
It was supposed to be fun. It's not fun anymore. The kid who is too big to play with his peers is suddenly being roughed-up, unaccustomed to the wallops, the whacks and the wounds.
"They were blowing me up," he said. "You had these guys who were 12 and 13 talking about their girlfriends, and I'm playing Pokemon. I thought to myself, 'Man, I don't like football. I don't want to play football anymore.' "
And he won't. Not for nearly 10 years. He likes baseball and basketball, and will pursue both endeavors well into high school at Mater Dei Catholic in Chula Vista. He fancies himself a power hitter. In his mind, he is the next "Big Papi."
Yet unlike the perennial Boston Red Sox All-Star, Nico Siragusa, now in his sophomore year, develops a rather substantial hole in his swing. The smart pitchers feed him an endless diet of breaking balls. Siragusa swings --- and misses. A lot.
"I saw myself being like David Ortiz, because I throw right and I hit left," he said. "I had power. But in the end, I was more like Jim Thome (owner of Major League Baseball's second-highest career strikeout total). I would either hit a home run or strike out. I couldn't hit an off-speed pitch to save my life."
Before his junior year rolls around, he is done with baseball. In the interim, his best friend, Andrew Martinez, is applying substantial pressure to convince Siragusa to join the football team. He is nearing 6-5 and approaching 300 pounds. If only those 12- and 13-year-olds could see him now. Martinez's sales pitch eventually sways Siragusa, who has found that his size is also becoming a hindrance in his ability to play basketball.
"I was still so much bigger than all of the guys my age, I started thinking about football again and wondering if I could do something with it," he said. "Andrew (Martinez) kept saying, 'Nico, just come out and try it; we can win some games.' My first year we were 1-9. My second year, we went 8-3 and made it to the playoffs for the first time in a lot of years. At that point, I was sold. I wanted to play football for as long as I could."
His high school football career will span just two years. Not that it matters to San Diego State or Arizona State or Colorado or Oregon State or Washington State. All, and many others, are in hot pursuit. Despite his limited time as a high school player, he earns not only All-CIF San Diego Section first-team honors, but all-state honors, as well. Siragusa will ultimately take a handful of recruiting trips to satisfy any wanderlust, but privately has never had any intention of signing with anyone other than SDSU.
He will redshirt as a freshman in 2012 before playing in all 13 games (one start) on the Aztecs' offensive line the following season. As a sophomore, he starts all 13 games. In 2015, a season in which SDSU will win its first Mountain West championship and its final 10 games, Siragusa, firmly entrenched at left guard and now weighing 330, will become the first non-senior SDSU offensive lineman to earn first-team All-MW honors.
The kid who never wanted to play football anymore couldn't be happier.
"This is where I always wanted to be," he said, reflecting on his first four years at SDSU. "When I was growing up, my dad (Ramon) always talked about San Diego State football and how special it could be if more local guys stuck around instead of leaving. There was always so much talent in San Diego, but guys always wanted to leave and go other places. So I told my dad, 'You know what? When it comes time for me to make that decision, I'm staying home.'
"For me, it started with Coach (former Aztecs head coach Brady) Hoke. He came in and said, 'We're going to go out and we're going to recruit tough kids with chips on their shoulders. And it just continued with Coach (current head coach Rocky) Long, who brought the attitude that we may not be the biggest, fastest or strongest, but we're going to be the toughest. Coach Long always says that the toughest team on the field is going to win. It's that kind of demeanor that has lifted us to the kind of success we've had so far.
"I mean, everybody's into all of this spread offense, no-huddle kind of stuff, and we look like a bunch of outliers. People look at us and go, 'They have a fullback? They're using two tight ends? Man, that's weird.' It's the same way with our defense when people see we're running this 3-3-5. It's like a one-in-a-million program when compared to everybody else. We're running the football 60 times a game. Do you know how awesome it is for an offensive lineman to be part of that?"
More to the point, do you know how awesome it is for a running back to be part of that? Last season, Siragusa, a preseason All-MW selection, was part of an offensive line that helped produce two 1,000-yard rushers (Donnel Pumphrey and Chase Price) in the same season for the first time in school history.
He enters his senior season having been tabbed a second-team All-American and the second-best draft-eligible guard in the nation by Phil Steele's College Football Preview.
"It's nice that other people are noticing what we're doing, especially people all over the nation," Siragusa said of a team that has earned a preseason ranking of No. 24 from Sports Illustrated and No. 25 from ESPN. "Don't get me wrong, because last year was great, but this is a new team. We have that attitude now where we just want to win every game and be able to say, 'See? I told you we could do this.' But that's our (team) goal, because we're not really listening to what everybody else is saying.
"We've come a long way, and this is what I came to be a part of. It's really something special to build a program, to be remembered for your part in the success that's yet to come. As seniors, that's something we're really embracing. We want to do it for all of those guys that came through here and went 2-8 or 2-9. Ten years ago, if San Diego State went to a bowl game, that was a major feat. Now we're going to bowl games every year. It's what's expected now."
It's what Nico Siragusa expected all along, even as an overly-big 8-year-old Pop Warner player with a less than favorable impression of football. Now 22, he'd do anything to slow the march of time.
"If someone were to ask me what I'd like to leave behind, I'd tell them never to take anything for granted," he said. "I remember 2012 like it was yesterday, moving into the dorms with guys like Alex (defensive end Barrett) and Damontae (cornerback Kazee). And now we're done? I just wish I could do it all over again. Nothing will ever compare to this time in our lives. We're so lucky."