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Aztecs Football-Disappointment”

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They’re going to a Bowl game, backing into the parking space, losing 4-of their final 5-games of the season, including 2-home losses to pitiful conference teams.

It’s hard to call (7-5) disappointing, with another bowl game coming, but the home field losses to lowly UNLV-Hawaii seem numbing.

Coach Rocky Long says his team will take a long hard look at why the season finished the way it did. He was sullen, then he was combative, but overall he was disappointing.

His end of season quotes:

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..Frustrated and disappointed not play well back half of season
..Coaches on road recruiting right now
..Next few weeks will do evaluation of how we run program
..Get back to doing what we have done to win

..Injuries-youth may have something to do with what happened.
..We did not get any better as season wore on
..We will look at off-season workouts-re-evaluate offense and defense
..Our recruiting has gone better the last couple of years

..Will talk to the seniors about what they feel about the year
..Each coach will evaluate his group and report back to me
..Getting to a lower bowl game is not good enough anymore
..We are a good program…we have to see if this is an aberration or a problem.

..Pick out statistics–you cloud the picture-our national stats are good
..You can take a stat and make it sound anyway you want
..Our defensive stats were pretty good
..Our offensive stats are down -we know…it might just be players
..You can slant the story anyway you want…
..10-11 win seasons don’t automatically happen
..Have to go looking for it-answers-

..We didn’t coach as well this year as we have in the past.
..We had new coaches-maybe they don’t know the system well enough

..Going for 2-point play in overtime on first series was the right thing to do
..We had right 2-point play called-but messed it up
..Felt sure we had momentum-that’s why I thought we’d win game

..Instant replay has done good job-rectifying mistakes.
..Refuse to question replay decisions….
..Didn’t get response from MWC on last time I had questions.

..Happy with effort of team this year
..Early one we took losses really hard
..We played as hard as we could the last two games.

..Team knows if we didn’t win-we might not go to bowl game
..We deserve to go to bowl game…we won 7-games…seniors deserve to go

..Losing key assistants Gonzalez-Hauck…we might not have won with them.
..You start to win in January with off season workouts
..We played a lot more freshman than we ever have before-very talented group
..We’ve lost our edge on our roster-lost our aggressiveness…
..We didn’t have any personal fouls-big hits ..we wound up being a different team

..We played a lot of freshman-they helped us win-didn’t worry about redshirting them
..Not very many of our team deserve conference recognition this year
..John Baron deserves special team player of year with kicking stats.

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“Football-Weekend-Wins-Losses-Injuries”

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Here-There-Everywhere on a busy football weekend.

CHARGERS…..Continued on the track to get home field advantage for a wildcard playoff berth, destroying an awful Arizona Cardinals franchise. But still ahead, road games at Pittsburgh-Denver-Kansas City.

WIN-BUT-LOSS….Taking the joy out the victory on Sunday was the ugly looking knee injury suffered by RB-Melvin Gordon, leg whipped by a defensive tackle, while running a reverse, in a blowout win. Primary question, why was he in the game after the Chargers had reeled off 35-points in a row? It looked as if it were a hyperextended knee, the way he landed after getting kicked by a defensive lineman, who had been sent spinning after a crushing block. There is ligament damage

SAME OLD-SAME OLD…..Amazing number of empty seats, highest priced seats, at Stub Hub Center…..one whole side of stadium from 20-yard line to other 20-yard line….had probably only 50% of seats filled….Despite the greatness of Rivers and the explosiveness of the Chargers offense, fans are not turned on by what is on the field?

INJURY SCOREBOARD….No Corey Liuget, no Brandon Mebane, no Denzel Perryman. That looks like a troubled formula for the Chargers defense heading for the final five weeks of the season. That’s a lot of run stuffing defensive talent. Joey Bosa is back and seems to be coming around post-foot injury.

ROLLING RIVERS….Brilliant, that’s all you can say about Philip Rivers exhibition against awful Arizona. He completed 25-passes in a row, 25 yes, setting an NFL record once held by Mark Brunel of Jacksonville. He also set an NFL completion percentage record, (92%) going (28-for-29) on the day.

AZTECS AWFUL….Historically, Rocky Long’s football teams have gotten better and better as the season wore on, a sign of good coaching and a team coming together. No this year, as they stagger to the finish line, losing 4-of-5 down the stretch. The offensive line, the defensive secondary, the lack of playmaking wide receivers, and an off discipline problem. They wind up with a 3rd tier bowl berth, but have some real evaluation to do this off season, as to why this went off track.

USD UNIQUE….Their post season drive ended when Nicholls State piled up 606-yards with its read-option offense running the Toreros out of the playoffs. But it does not take away the specialness of QB-Anthony Lawrence, who ended his career with (12,266Y-120TDs), amazing for an unrecruited talent from Grossmont High.

USC….A (5-7) season is never acceptable at Heritage Hall, but this season was a learning curve season for Trojans QB-JT Daniels. He played so well, for being so young, a (3,300) yard passing season with a lot of young teammates around him. The freshman QB has lots of upside. USC now needs to get more quality players around them. Clay Helton will be given next yer to grow this program.

UCLA….Making progress or just treading water? The Bruins finished (3-9) in year one of Chip Kelly’s regime. The Bruins did it with two transfer players who now leave, QB-Will Speight (Michigan) and RB-Josh Kelly (UC-Davis). So it’s hard to determine how really good the talent level is. Kelly will get lots of time to grow the program. What Kelly needs to go is grow his relationships in the LA market, with the alumni, boosters and the media. He doesn’t seem to care.

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“Football Rivalries-Everywhere-But-Here”

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A big weekend in college, football, the last weekend of the regular season.

It’s what they call ‘Rivalry Weekend’ lots of places across the nation, but not here, sadly.

Michigan-Ohio State…history that goes back to the 1930s. You know Bo-Woody…Schembechler-vs-Hayes…Maize & Blue-vs-Scarlet & Gray. More times than not, with huge Bowl-Post season implications.

Alabama-Auburn…the SEC battle ‘down on the plains’, the Iron Bowl..

We just played USC-UCLA, which is always about fireworks and strange storylines.

The Egg Bowl, Mississippi State-vs-Ole Miss-sometimes they’re both good-sometimes both bad.

The Red River battle…Texas-vs-Oklahom

The Old Oaken Bucket, with Purdue meeting Indiana in the Hoosier state, a rival so big, when I was in Indianapolis that weekend, you’d never know the Buckeyes-Wolverines were playing each other across the state line in a much more important game.

Here on the West Coast, the Apple Cup game carries importance now that Washington and Washington State are both Pac 12-powers.

Of course, ‘The Game’ in the Bay Area means so much, Stanford-vs-Cal.

And the Civil War up north, Oregon-Oregon State has been played in sun, snow and the mud.

And we all pay attention when Army plays Navy that goes back to the late 1890s.

Even the small college guys have great rivalries.

Harvard-vs-Yale is really something, if you lived in New England, or were part of the Crimson or Elis.

Lehigh-Lafayette just had their 154th reunion in Pennsylvania, small college foes with big time dislike.

Of course, the expansion of conferences has changed so many things in college football.

Can you believe Texas no longer plays Texas AM? Nebraska-vs-Oklahoma is just a memory? Pitt-Penn State is no longer an annual matchup. The Backyard Brawl, West Virginia-Pitt is gone too.

Here at home, San Diego State needs lots of things to rally the community to support its program better.

I’m not sure who the Aztecs real rivals should be. Some say the battle for the ‘Oil Can Trophy’ with Fresno State carries validity. But because it might be a season ending rivalry game, it would be ridiculous if you had to play them twice in two weeks in an MWC playoff game..

There’s not much else in terms of ‘hate’ games involving SDSU, but I have a suggestion.

The Aztecs have just signed home and home to bring BYU back on board. Why not make that game with the Cougars the season ending game, and restore the fierceness of the rivalry, that dates back to the old WAC days.

There’s lot of hate-history with these two, dating back to the late Lavell Edwards, all those Cougars QBs, the 51-51 tie on ESPN’s Thursday Night Football back in the day.

BYU wants to remain an independent, so they might not be coming back to the Mountain West in the future. Make this a season ending game for both schools.

Rivalry weekend coming up…lots of fun other places…should create some fun here. Aztecs do something about it.

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“Thanksgiving-Lots to Say Thanks For”

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The morning sun comes up, and the three of us are still here, working at various levels in sports journalism.

I guess all three of us have had great careers, and all three of us consider what we have done in this community, in the media, as special.

And all three of us can truthfully say we are thankful we are still here, to write, talk, broadcast sports.

I’m not sure we’re very close friends, in fact, I’m not sure we are friends at all these days, but we have followed each other, competed against each other, and survived bad times together.

Nick Canepa is the longest tenured member of the media, a hometown guy, who has been an anchor of the San Diego Union-Tribune sports section for decades upon decades. Nick writes columns a couple of times a week.

Ted Leitner turned a look at me TV anchor career into a lifetime of doing play-by-play of the Padres. Ted is still doing Padres-Aztecs radio.

Lee ‘Hacksaw’ Hamilton pioneered sports talk radio here, doing things no one had ever done before on the radio, and driving a noisy Chargers broadcast crew to stardom during the teams Super Bowl run. I run this website, after 3-decades on radio and television.

None of us would be here without the help of special people.

Canepa was so seriously ill a couple of years back, we didn’t know if he would-could rally from severe stomach problems. He kept it private for the most part, but he was at death’s doorstep. I asked fans to pray for him. He rallied and remains active.

Leitner bounced back from kidney problems, and a cancer scare, and was saluted by Padres fans upon his return. It probably forever changed his feelings about the views and listenership he built. I even wrote him a note of prayer.

I survived a fire, burns, a staph infection and a blood infection. I saw the ‘white light’ while on the operating table when doctors had to deal with 3-different issues at once to rally me.

All three of us would say it’s not fun to be in ICU. All three of us would say we never expected to have health issues broadside us so suddenly, after years and years of enjoying life, travel, parties and fine food and drink.

And for all three of us, we’ve all been given another chance to serve you, whether you like or dislike our columns, our broadcasts, our talkshows, or our play-by-play.

We’ve all developed very different styles, and from a distance, I think we respect each other, or we should..

But if I can speak for all 3-of us this day, we all have the same thing to be thankful for.

We wake up Thanksgiving morning because of modern medicine, doctors, nurses and caregivers, who nursed us back to health.

Those people were just doing their job on each of the operating tables we were on, so we could get back to work. We are indebted for what they do daily, in their chosen field.

Nick… Uncle Teddy…. Hacksaw. We all say thank you for those who saved us, so we could celebrate another Thanksgiving, with family, friends, and the fans.

Lots to be thankful for at this hour.

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“Padres Begin Off Season-Not Done Either”

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The busiest team in baseball on Tuesday, roster deadline day, was in San Diego.

Why not? When you have a 96-loss tin can tied around your tail, you cannot stay with the same roster.

And so the Padres made 3-trades of fringe players to clear roster spots. They are about to sell off last year’s starting 3rd baseman, and promoted 7-kids from the farm system, to be protected from the Rule 5-draft.

The one things that still might happen, is the rumored trade of OF-3B-1B-Wil Myers.

I reported two weeks ago at the GM’s meetings, he was being shopped to Seattle. Voila, now the national media has picked up on what I reported.

Myers and his 64M-contract, shaky glove, and laissez-fair attitude, might be headed to the Seattle Mariners, as I said he might, in a package deal for 2B-SS-3B- Jean Segura and mid-rotation workhorse starter Mike Leake.

The Padres would be taking on some 20M in additional salaries in the transaction, but Segura hit (.304) last year, and Leake is a (10-10) pitcher with a fierce starters personality.

There may still be more transactions coming. Part time infielder-outfielder Jose Pirela is still here, so is the overload of other outfielders, and 4-catchers are still on the protected list. P-Brett Kennedy Bryan Mitchell..and utility men Carlos Asuaje-Greg Garcia-Javy Guerra are still in San Diego, but trades could still happen.

Say goodbye to Christian Villanueva, with reports he might be going to the Hanshin Tigers in Japan. Good start to last season, lousy 3-months and then he got hurt. Lots of errors at 3B too. Not a bad guy, just not a complete player.

The club is sending out Corey Spangenberg and Colin Rea among others to AAA-El Paso, exposing them to the Rule 5-draft.

Dispatched in trades, P-Colton Brewer went to the Red Sox; P-Rowan Wick is now a Cub; P-Walker Lockett was shipped to the Indians, for minor leaguers, who did not need to be protected.

They had to create at least 7-roster spots to protect a series of young arms, led by fast moving prospect Chris Paddack, power hitting catcher Austin Allen, infielder Ty France and others.

The Padres have a big bargaining chip in Myers as well as fellow flychaser Hunter Renfroe. Only time will tell if one, or both, are moved. This franchise still desperately needs veteran pitching presence, so anyone, most everyone, with the exception of Eric Hosmer could be in play.

Tough to say goodbye to some of these guys, but it’s the transient part of baseball, and the Hot Stove League is starting to heat up.

It’s just the beginning of a busy winter of trades.You can’t keep everyone here, and why would you. The bad taste of another last place season, this a 96-loss campaign, is not going away unless you rinse your mouth and get rid of a chunk of players who made it a 96-loss year.

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