Who’sto blame for losing season?
All of us had high hopes at the start of the Aztecs’ footballseason. The team began the new Mountain West Conference with twoAll-American defensive players leading a strong defense, a juniorcollege All-American quarterback, and 18 returning seniors comingback from a season in which they went to a bowl game.
Four conference games later they have a 1-3 record. The Aztecslost to Air Force Academy, New Mexico, and now, Utah — teams wecould have beat but didn’t.
While we support and love our football players, the time to take aserious look at “what went wrong” this season has come.
Last week’s The Daily Aztec online opinion poll question asked:”The Aztecs football team was predicted by some to win the inauguralMWC title. Who should get the most blame for their first twoconference losses?”
The majority of people who voted picked coaching out of the fourchoices available — coaching, offense, defense or fan support/badluck.
It’s a little of all four, but the Aztec agrees with the majorityof voters that coaching played the largest role in the demise of theseason.
Let’s take a look at Ted Tollner. A great coach. A wonderfulrecruiter. But why hasn’t he been able to direct his offensivecoaches to call the plays that will put points on the board?
Tollner knows talent, and there’s plenty of that on this year’steam. As a matter of fact, it was his recruiting talent that ledLarry Smith to a Rose Bowl after Tollner left University of SouthernCalifornia.
But he just doesn’t seem able to coordinate his coaching staff,particularity offense. He was in over his head at USC and he is inover his head now. The offense has had opportunities to score, andtherefore win, in every conference game. But they never make theright plays.
One of the best attributes of AFA’s game is that they are able torecognize their talent and exploit it on the field. SDSU should havebeen doing the same.
A final word on Tollner. He doesn’t bad mouth his players. He’s agood guy. He’s just not effectively running his coaching staff.
On to offensive coordinator Dave Lay.
He lacks imagination. His play calling in key situations neverseems to pan out. Like the shovel pass on third-and-13 at the Utah15-yard line. The shovel pass is considered a pass, but why aren’tthe Aztecs throwing the ball down field?
One of the biggest problems with the Aztecs’ offense is that toomany drives come up with no points or just a field goal. A perfectexample — even with a career high game day for running back LarryNed, with 202 rushing yards, he didn’t put one point on the board.
As a matter of fact, Nate Tandberg — the place kicker — was theleading scorer in the Utah game.
The average offensive output in the three years before Lay tookover was 34.1 points per game. The average offensive output in Lay’stenure? 21 points.
The numbers speak for themselves.
When it’s all said and done, the ultimate responsibility lies withthe coaching staff. They’re the ones who recruit the players, callthe plays, determine which players play, and work with the talent tomaximize the team’s potential.
This year’s coaching staff falls short.