2010 NCAA football preview: San Diego State
The Aztecs of San Diego State have not had a lot of success in the gridiron lately. Head Coach Ted Tollner lead the team to back-to-back eight-win seasons in the mid-1990s, but ended up finishing his tenure with a losing record of 43-48 (1994-01). Tom Craft took over and really did not do much better winning less than 40 percent of his games from 2002-05. The losing continued with Chuck Long over the next three seasons (2006-08) with the team averaging three wins a season.
However, the turnaround could be near for the Aztecs. Brady Hoke took over in 2009 after heading up the program at Ball State for the last six seasons. It took a few years to build up the program, but he succeeded in turning around Ball State football. In his final season in Muncie he led the team to an undefeated conference record, the school’s first victory over a BCS team, its first appearance in the BCS standings, and a 12-0 regular season record.
After losing the conference championship game he resigned from Ball State (prior to the team playing in the GMAC Bowl). San Diego State was more than happy to bring him out to the West Coast. His first season with the Aztecs was much like his first season at Ball State, 4-8.
With the holes that the Aztec program had prior to Hoke taking the job it would be an impressive feat if he were able to lead the team to a winning season, but the Aztec faithful might be content with just making progress.
Offense
You would think that a team that ranked 30th in the nation (second in conference) in passing would have won more than four games. The Aztecs, however, had a lot of trouble putting the ball in the end zone (85th in the nation and sixth in conference) and were one of the worst when it came to running the ball (116th in the nation and ninth in conference).
The team should actually be better at passing the ball this season which will be good since they will likely still have a pretty poor running game. Junior quarterback Ryan Lindley passed for more than 3000 yards and 23 touchdowns last season, and with the return of senior wide receiver Vincent Brown should be even better in 2010. Brown missed five games due to injury issues, but still caught the second most balls on the team with 45. Demarco Sampson will give Lindley another quality target.
Running was not something that the Aztecs were good at last season at all. The leading rusher was Brandon Sullivan who carried the ball 154 times for just 558 yards; this season he will move to fullback. Sophomore Walter Kazee is penciled in to start at tailback for now, but was really unimpressive last season and is rather small.
Passing will still be the key for the offense. If Lindley can cut down on the mistakes (16 interceptions) and improve on his 55 percent completion rate than there could be hope for the Aztec offense.
Defense
The defense will need to see some improvement across the board if the Aztecs are going to win more than half their games, especially with power running games in Air Force and TCU and a dominant passing attack like Utah in the conference.
Andrew Preston is a senior and leader of the squad who is coming off the worst season of his career in 2009. He went from making 82 tackles in 2008 to almost half that, 46, in 2009. His position will change somewhat in 2010. Instead of being a linebacker, he will be more of a linebacker/ safety hybrid which should maximize his speed and minimize his lack of size.
The front three return along with some depth at the position. Last year was their first year in coordinator Rocky Long’s 3-3-5; while they did not do bad, they also failed to have a break-out season under the new form. The added experience should help the unit improve and become more consistent, but the line really lacks the size that you would normally see in a three man front.
In the end, Hoke will have his work cut out for him. His offense will likely be better than last season, but may find it in too many shootouts with their smaller defense having a hard time stopping opponents. He will definitely see improvement in his team, but whether he will see a winning record or a bowl game will depend on how much his defense can over-achieve.
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