Getting Focused: The San Diego State Dossier
As a particularly robust August (Olympics! Presidential races! The Dark Knight rolling towards box office immortality!) reaches its midpoint, I imagine we in the Irish blogging business should begin looking ahead to this season's opponents. When you go 3-9, you're not allowed to overlook anyone, so
Coach Chuck Long, former Heisman Trophy runner-up, is in his third season, and despite a pledge to "Win now" way back in December 2005, his team has struggled mightily to do so since he took over. The story linked above makes it seem as if there is limited pressure on Long, who is making slight progress in local recruiting and in the middle of a five-year, $700,000 per year (plus incentives) contract after time spent working under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Unless that article is drastically underestimating the need for Long to start winning now in year three, there will be considerably more pressure on the sidelines in South Bend than in San Diego during the season, although there are dissenting opinions.
On paper, it doesn't appear as if Long has a whole lot to work with in 2008. On offense, he lost his quarterback and top two receivers in the NFL draft, but the Aztecs were a below average offensive team last season with a future third round pick running things. It's hard to say what will happen without some pro talent there to support things, but it appears as if freshman Ryan Tindley will be in charge of running Long's offense. Things did not go particularly well for Tindley – or any of the quarterbacks, for that matter – in the spring game, where he went 2 for 7 with a pick. Things certainly turned around in Saturday's spring game, where he was a crisply efficient 11 for 13 for 125 yards and three scores. It's looking like it will be a committee at running back, with former quarterback Darren Mougey and sophomore Vincent Brown on the outside. Bottom line for the
The defense has a slew of starters remaining, but it's debatable whether that is a good thing considering the Swiss cheese-like performance they turned in last season. If trends continue from last season, it'll be a blessing for the much beleaguered Irish offensive line, since the Aztecs ranked 107th in the country last year in sacks, registering only 1.25 per game. The Robert Hughes (or James Aldridge) Show should also continue rolling on, as the fine gentlemen up front for SDSU gave up 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns – on a 6.5 per carry average – in the final four games alone. Before he broke all of our hearts at SBN and departed for Yahoo, Sunday Morning QB Matt Hinton put together this handy chart of just how bad the Aztec defense was:

The one guy you really feel for in this whole mess is linebacker Russell Allen, the only guy on the team to have a hint of All-Mountain West honors last season and a pick in the preseason's All-MWC team. The team is 12-24 in his time there, despite some amazing efforts from Allen, who averaged over ten tackles a game last season, highlighted by a 22 takedown effort against a very good
Injuries have maimed the front line of
When things have been as dour as they were the past few years for the Aztecs (as dour as things can get in southern
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