Dec. 1, 2016
SAN DIEGO -
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)
Life is neither Necessarily Easy nor Fair (Oct. 7)
Pumphrey, Penny and Pick your Poison (Oct. 9)
For Hauck, Teach Outweighs Turbulence (Oct. 13)
Aztecs' Defense in State of Denial (Oct. 22)
Aztecs Taking no Prisoners in Homestretch (Nov. 6)
Block Party Rages on for O-Line (Nov. 18)
Seniors Can Savor Lasting Legacy (Nov. 25)
McGrane: Remorse has no Place in Rematch
By Mick McGrane, GoAztecs.com Senior Writer (@MickOnTheMesa)
It may seem out of character, even beyond belief, but Rocky Long has scrapped the game plan.
Not because his team has lost two straight, the latest by 32 points. Not because facing the same team twice in two weeks doesn't pose potential pitfalls, and certainly not because his passion for winning has waned.
It's because it doesn't work. Not anymore.
"For about the last five to 10 years --- and I hope this means I've progressed as a coach --- I've found that yelling and screaming does not work," said Long, whose team will attempt to pocket its second straight Mountain West championship when it squares off against Wyoming on Saturday. "It took me awhile to learn that. The age group that I work with does not respond to yelling and screaming. They actually think it's funny, they wonder what's wrong with you.
"We get boisterous sometimes about (lack of) effort or (not) trying hard, but yelling and screaming or threatening their manhood, that's 20 years ago. Now, I started (coaching) 40 years ago, so there was some of that in my early coaching career. But it doesn't work anymore, so you don't even think about doing it. The only person that feels better for it is you, and it makes your team feel worse."
To be sure, a team that as recently as Nov. 19 had won 17 straight league games is hardly one worthy of a walk to the woodshed. It's not as though the Aztecs have suddenly concluded that surrender is far simpler than routinely holding serve.
Nonetheless, the path in this particular part of the woods is not altogether familiar. SDSU had not lost two straight games in 420 days, and last Saturday marked its largest margin of defeat in seven years. Understanding the reasons is left to Long and his staff, though rectifying them will be left to those in helmets, not headsets.
"You can speculate all you want (about last week's loss to Colorado State)," Long said. "I have no idea what happened last week. I lost some sleep over it. Both Coach (Wyoming head coach Craig) Bohl and I have been around this game long enough that we've been on both sides of the avalanche. I've been on the side where the avalanche was in your favor and the other team could do nothing about it, and I wish I could say this was my first time on the bad side (of the avalanche), but it's not. Sometimes the other team just has your number and there's nothing you can do about it."
Unlike 10 other teams in the league, however, the Aztecs have an opportunity to do plenty about it. No team has ever won consecutive championships in MW's the two-division era and only one --- Fresno State --- has ever been in position to do so. The league hasn't had an outright repeat champion since TCU's hat trick in 2009, '10 and '11.
Exiting the regular season with consecutive losses may not be the ideal approach to a championship game, but no chance at all ranks as a rather regrettable alternative.
Indeed, of the nation's 128 FBS teams, SDSU will be one of just 16 playing for a conference title this week.
"That's pretty unique company if you ask me, and I think our players understand that," said Long, whose team can become just the fourth at SDSU to post a 10-win season in the Division I era following last year's 11-3 finish. "There are 12 teams in this league. They all have players, they all have coaches, they all have the same number of scholarships and the budgets are fairly close. Every team in our league puts the same effort into being good. Ever player on every team wants to be really, really good. And to get into the championship game? That's very important to a whole lot of people. Maybe not to the national media, but our kids could care less."
"I think it's going to be a very interesting matchup, because both teams deserve to be in the championship game and both teams are (coming off) a bad week," Long added. "Both teams have questions, and I think that's what is going make it a great game."
One that could go far in righting more than a handful of wrongs. As much as the loss at Wyoming two weeks ago was deflating, last week's exercise was perfectly perplexing, a team that has seemingly always had answers left scrounging for clues. Teams regularly identify an opponent's tendencies, but it's long been the Aztecs' tendency to counter sans compassion, opting for an iron fist rather than fussing over details.
Now, for the first time in nearly 40 years of coaching, Long will face a team twice in the same season. With an interval of 14 days. On the road. With nothing more than a championship on the line.
"You try to get a feel for what you did well and what you didn't do well, and, obviously, you're going to try and fix the things you didn't do well," Long said. "My experience tells me that if you do the same things (defensively), they are going to tear you apart. They've watched the film, too, and they'll have a way to attack what you did well. Somehow, you've got to change your game plan just enough so that they can't zero in on you and still be effective in doing what you want to do.
"It's kind of a weird deal, because you usually change things up from year to year, but in two weeks I don't know how much you can change. If you change up too much, you confuse your own guys."
Not enough, it would appear, to obstruct the objective.
"We had an opportunity to host (the championship game)," said quarterback Christian Chapman. "Now we have to hit the reset button. This is it, this is the week. This is the season in one game. It all comes down to this. It's what we've been working for since January. It doesn't matter what's happened in the past. We've got to come together, regroup and get ready for the biggest game of the season. "This has been our goal since Day 1 --- the championship game. To go back and play the same team we lost to at the end of the season is still fresh in our mind."
A memory worth mitigating.
"Old folks like me, we take awhile to get over things," Long said. "Young folks don't take nearly as long to get over things, especially when there's something exciting in the future. Even though last Saturday was bad, the future is exciting for them because they get to play in the championship game."