Oct. 7, 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)
Washington now has Room to Roam (March 21)
Peer Pressure? Not for Chapman (Aug. 8) Penny is Worth Every Cent to Aztecs (Aug. 18) Football has Never Been More Fun for Siragusa (Aug. 19) Nobody is Perfect, but Barrett is Closing Fast (Aug. 28) Aztecs Force Future with a Premium on Past (Sept. 1) Chapman Earns More than Passing Grade (Sept. 4) Aztecs Have Put Critics in Their Corner (Sept. 9) College Football Makes Comeback in San Diego (Sept. 11) Veteran Leadership is Treasured Commodity (Sept. 15) SDSU Shuns Fence in Favor of Fortress (Sept. 22)
McGrane: Life is neither Necessarily Easy nor Fair
By Mick McGrane, GoAztecs.com Senior Writer (@MickOnTheMesa)
GAME CENTERGameday Times & Broadcast Info
- Opponent: UNLV Rebels
- Kickoff: 7:30 PM PT
- TV: ESPNU
- Radio: The Mighty 1090 AM / Sirius 136 / XM 199/ Internet 962
- Online: Live Stats
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"Embarrassed is not the word. All I can say is that I'm very disappointed, very upset. Everybody, including the media, kept telling us how easy this game was going to be." --- former UNLV head coach Mike Sanford
Mike Sanford's team wasn't in the middle of a 13-game winning streak. It wasn't positioned in the Top 25 or postulated as a possible participant in a New Year's Day bowl. It didn't have a potential Heisman candidate or have Las Vegas in a lather as to what the Rebels might accomplish next.
Still, there was a chance for the program to finish with its first non-losing season in eight years. There was still a bowl bid hanging in the balance, a rarity in that only one such opportunity had presented itself to the Rebels in the previous 14 years.
And then...splat. Game over, hopes dashed, dreams crushed. By a team that had won one of its first 11 games. By a team that entered the evening having lost seven straight. By a team that would lose 10 games for the first time in school history.
It was 2008. And that team was San Diego State.
Which reminds me: Are we finished wringing out our tear-soaked towels yet? Concluded tantrums too terrible to tell? Done carving our disappointments into the depths of social media?
Good. Because here's a little refresher course.
Once upon a time, in the last decade even, the Aztecs were bad. Muy bad. Shake-your-head-in-wonderment-and-gasp bad. So bad, and I will attest to this under oath, that from the Qualcomm Stadium press box you could actually hear opposing coaches delivering instructions from the opposite sideline. The building was as vacant as the stares, the football as foul as the corresponding catcalls.
I'm not sure if Rocky Long was expected to win every remaining game he coached at SDSU, but it's not a stretch to assume the odds would have strained the imagination. Nary a single FBS team finished unscathed in 2015, including an Aztec team that roared into 2016 with the second-longest winning streak (10) in the nation.
Suddenly, a program that once served as a speed bump was living life in the fast lane, buoyed by whispers that not only was it Top 25-worthy, but a serious candidate to crash a party on New Year's Day.
Assuming it went undefeated.
"There wasn't one person on our team or on our coaching staff that ever said we were going undefeated," Long said. "We said that we wanted to, and that was our goal, but every football team's goal at the start of the season is to win every game. You didn't hear one of our players say that we were going to win every game. You didn't hear one of our coaches say we were going to win every game. What you heard from the media was, 'If they don't win every game, it's an unsuccessful season.' And that is a ridiculous statement. There wasn't one undefeated team in college football last year."
At San Diego State, there hasn't been one in 47 years. Fact is, only slightly less than half (19) of those succeeding years have culminated in losing seasons.
But last week's loss at South Alabama seemed to erase not merely the chance of an unbeaten season, but short-term memory, as well. While the Aztecs are light years removed from a time when the glass was half empty and leaking fast, college football programs are never a finished product. Before Brady Hoke handed off to Long in 2010, SDSU had enjoyed exactly one non-losing season (6-6, 2003) in 11 years. It hasn't had a losing season since.
Apparently, however, perfection is now the sole measure of progress. Forget that the Aztecs' 13-game winning streak was the program's longest since it strung together 21 straight between 1968 and 1970. Forget that SDSU has been to a school-record six straight bowl games after earning one postseason bid in the previous 18 years, and that it is one of just three non-Power 5 schools to do so.
And while we're at it, let's also forget that Long's 46 wins represent one more than the Aztecs' combined win total from 2000-2010.
"I think sometimes people don't realize that the other team has really good athletes," Long said. "I think, physically, South Alabama was the best team we've played against this year. They're inconsistent, because they have good days and bad days like most college teams do. When they have good days, they can beat anybody. And when they have bad days, they get beat. Most college football teams are that way. There are very few college football teams now that can have a bad day and still win."
Simultaneously, there are very few college teams that have made more monumental strides. Should SDSU win out, beginning with Saturday's Mountain West opener against UNLV, it would mark the program's first one-loss season in 39 years. Those who expected perfection may be peeved, but it hardly hinders the team's determination to right a wrong.
"Every coach who believes he has sufficient talent talks to his team about winning every single game," Long said. "But I think the very best thing about high school and college is life experiences. Guess what? Nobody in this world has a good day every day. And everybody in this world has some very bad things happen to them, things that are a lot worse than losing a football game.
"But athletes learn that when things go wrong, and you disappoint everybody, the only way to react is to get up and go after it again. You also learn that there's a real good chance that you're going to get knocked down again. It's not life-threatening when you lose a game, though some people would like to make it seem like that."
Imagine that, an Aztec football fan considering a loss life-threatening. Now that's progress.