By Mick McGrane, GoAztecs.com Senior Writer
(@MickOnTheMesa)
As a redshirt at San Diego State in 2015 after transferring from Long Beach City College, Ryan Pope was awestruck by the freewheeling exuberance of Damontae Kazee and the arduous demands he placed on teammates.
He also admired the relentless drive of Alex Barrett, his fiery passion for the game and the respect he commanded in the locker room.
But in 2018, as Pope prepares to make his final appearance at SDCCU Stadium for Saturday's Senior Night game against Hawaii, the voices of Kazee and Barrett are distant echoes. The pair have taken their talents to the next level. Kazee currently leads the NFL with six interceptions as a safety for the Atlanta Falcons. Barrett, meanwhile, after fighting his way onto the Detroit Lions roster as a free agent defensive end in 2017, is currently a member of the San Diego Fleet of the newly-formed Alliance of American Football.
Yet, it wasn't merely the football savvy of Kazee and Barrett that left a sizable void when their college days were done. They were unquestioned leaders, players unafraid of confronting teammates failing to give their all. They were an extension of head coach Rocky Long, who provides his seniors free reign when it comes to weeding out undesirables.
And during a season where inexperience has been exposed and injuries have mounted, the absence of a Kazee or a Barrett is telling. While in no way is this to insinuate that SDSU is void of senior leaders, it's simply that they are alarmingly few in number. Not once since Long's tenure began in 2011 have the Aztecs had fewer than 15 senior scholarship players. At the outset of the season, they had nine, adding two to a pair of walk-ons. This, after honoring 19 seniors a year ago, the highest total since the Aztecs celebrated the careers of 21 on Senior Night eight years ago.
In short, this season's ratio of students to teachers is overwhelming. Where SDSU is concerned, words of wisdom from veteran players may not only go unheard, often they go unheeded, especially for a team whose roster includes 51 true or redshirt freshmen.
"I think (the small number of seniors) made it a lot more difficult," Long said of a season in which the Aztecs still became bowl eligible for a school-record ninth consecutive time. "We try to make our seniors the leaders on our team. I think there's a lot of anxiety on their part, because a lot of times they've never been put in that situation. There's a lot of stress that they're not normally used to, because they haven't been put in that position before. And when things go wrong, there's a lot more stress on them.
"I think it's really good for their education, by the way. But the more (seniors) that you have to put in leadership roles, the more influence they have on the whole team. They just come in contact with more guys. If you have 10 seniors, they come in contact with a third of your team every day. If you have 20 seniors, they come in contact with two-thirds of your team or three-fourths of your team. Every single day, one of the freshmen will bump into a senior. They see each other on campus, they see other in the locker room. When you only have a few seniors running around, they don't have the same influence, because they don't see those guys all that often."
Pope, the team's starting left tackle, is the only senior on the offensive side of the ball to start every game this season. He'll be honored along with 13 other seniors prior to Saturday's regular-season finale against Hawaii. In the last four-plus years (some of the current seniors arrived in 2014), the group has been part of a program that has won two Mountain West titles, won or shared three division crowns, played in four bowl games and posted a record of 46-19, the 11th-best winning percentage (.708) nationally during that span.
A junior college transfer who began his career at Long Beach City College, Pope has started every game since Week 8 of the 2017 season. And while he has no intention of letting his final home game be remembered as the Aztecs' fifth loss of the season (they've not had more than three in a season since 2015), he's also aware of the fallibility of youth.
"It's definitely hard to reach out (to the younger players), but it makes it that much more important for us to do the right thing, because they do look up to us," he said. "But as an older player (on a team) with fewer seniors, we have to rely on younger leaders and put thoughts into their ears. That way, they can reach out to the younger crowd for us, because we can't reach out to all 105 guys. It's difficult."
"I was once one of them too, so I understand that they may feel overwhelmed or confused," Pope continued. "That's when we take it upon ourselves to sit them down and say this is how you think, this is how you're going to get through it.
"Going through this program, you're going to listen to the seniors because the things that we do are difficult. It takes a lot of mental toughness."
And, as exhibited by Kazee and Barrett, physical toughness.
"They were alpha males," Pope said. "When I came in, I looked up to them. Watching them play and watching them practice, I was like, 'I want to play for you, because you're going all out, so I will, too.' We're missing that. And the senior class is smaller, so it's hard reaching out at times."
Nonetheless, it's not as though ruin has suddenly taken root. SDSU, which will be looking for its 39th win in its last 49 games on Saturday, is 26-7 in its last 33 regular-season games against Mountain West opponents. The Aztecs have lost just one of their last eight games on Senior Night.
"I think they all hung in there," Long said of this year's senior class. "I mean, expectation levels are high. It always helps if you have a lot of juniors and seniors on your team to keep the success rate going at that kind of level. There were very few seniors this year. There's a few more juniors, but very, very few seniors.
"So, I think it was more difficult on them to lead the team than the senior groups in the past. I mean, if you have 25 seniors, that kind of affects the whole team. When you have 14 (seniors) and you've got (50)-some freshmen, guess who has the biggest opinion in the room. It's not the seniors, it's the freshmen who have the biggest opinion. We were all that age at one time. That opinion is very flawed."
Convincing them otherwise, Pope knows, is crucial to avoiding a season-ending three-game losing streak, something not experienced by SDSU since going 0-3 to open the 2013 campaign.
"We can't make mistakes," Pope said. "Literally, we can't make mistakes. We need to be consistent, and we haven't been all season. We're hot and cold and we need to bring the energy. That's what we're missing; I feel like we're missing energy as a team. We can feed off one another, but our team is very young. It's kind of hard sometimes. We just need to bring the juice. If we do that, we'll take care of business."
And ensure that a group of 14 seniors revel in their final curtain call.
McGrane: Aztec Seniors Hope to Leave Lasting Impression
