By Edward Lewis, Sports Editor
It’s Dec. 8, and the San Diego State football team has practice tomorrow.
That’s weird because for as long as anyone around here can remember, December has been a month when SDSU players say goodbye and go their separate ways.
But now, like so many things swirling around this year’s 8-4 bowl-bound Aztecs, this month is very different.
“The last three years, after the last week’s game, it’s been ‘See you guys later. See you at the banquet. Probably won’t see you much after that,’” junior quarterback Ryan Lindley said. “So it’s an awesome thing that we get to come together and have fun this month and then go out and play in a bowl game.”
SDSU hasn’t been to a bowl game since 1998. But that will change on Dec. 23, because the Aztecs accepted an invitation to play Navy at the Poinsettia Bowl, which will be played at Qualcomm Stadium.
With its first bowl berth in more than a decade, SDSU gets 13 more practices this month, and head coach Brady Hoke plans to use those extra practices well.
Part of the practice schedule will include preparing for Navy. But the other practices will be all about developing younger Aztecs for next season.
“We’ll get a lot of kids a lot of snaps, a lot of reps, a lot of teaching, a lot of fundamentals and a lot of technique,” Hoke said. “It’s all part of the excitement of being able to play your 13th game.”
Lindley was a redshirt freshman back in 2007. He sat out the entire year preparing for the next season when he was more suited to be the starting quarterback. But his squad was 4-8, which meant December was a time for working on his golf game, not preparing for a bowl game. He said an extra month’s worth of practice would have helped him “tons” back then.
“It’s like an extra spring ball,” Lindley said. “It’s extra reps (the younger players) are getting and extra time they’re getting to get a jump on it.”
Hoke said SDSU will likely stop the developmental practices on Dec. 18, and begin full preparation for Navy in its final four or five practices.
