From the Union Tribune:In a country bent on “going green” from its car lots to its compost piles, from its bed sheets to its blue jeans, San Diego State’s football team is right in step.In this case, however, green is a color of concern, a disquieting definition of a team whose naivete either will prove greatly refreshing or serve as a lead-in to the sour refrains of seasons past.
With Saturday’s annual Red-Black? Game having marked the conclusion of spring drills, one item is especially evident:
Unless SDSU can accelerate the aging process by a year over the course of the next four months, its offense may find the end zone harder to locate than Waldo in downtown New Delhi.
Attrition takes its toll, in this instance sweeping the Aztecs clean of eight starting offensive players from a year ago. Identifying an heir to quarterback Kevin O’Connell, selected by the New England Patriots in the NFL draft, is clearly priority one. Yet an heir beset by broken bones is of little value, leaving an awfully large load for an offensive line that currently includes two redshirt freshman tackles.
Three candidates – junior transfer Drew Westling, sophomore Kelsey Sokoloski and redshirt freshman Ryan Lindley – stand braced to climb into O’Connell’s cleats. Today, coach Chuck Long is expected to announce that the list has been pared to two.
Based on Saturday’s collective performance, however, eliminating any of the three would seem akin to throwing darts in the dark. Combined, the trio completed 9-of-24 passes for 89 yards, an effort made all the more disconcerting when one considers that 27 of those yards came on one play. In sum, the offense managed 110 total yards and scored one touchdown – on the final play of the day.
Still, despite the (limited) experience offered by Sokoloski and Westling, this would seem Lindley’s job to lose. A heralded local high school star who emerged from El Capitan High rated the nation’s 34th-best quarterback by the scouting service Rivals.com, Lindley is not about to lounge for a year while Sokoloski and Westling wrestle for the starting job. Anointing either would only make for a similar decision next year, in addition to costing Lindley a season’s worth of experience. If one is intent on going green (SDSU returns three starters on offense who saw extensive playing time last year), why settle for olive drab?
While the dearth of experience at quarterback is largely linked to Kevin Craft (now a junior at UCLA) having exited the program a year ago, the lack of seasoned offensive linemen can be affixed to his father, former Aztecs coach Tom Craft. Enamored with acquiring skill players who could make his offense go, Tom Craft in the process left the offensive line to wither. When Long was hired as Craft’s successor in 2005, SDSU was completely bereft of offensive linemen in its sophomore class.
With four starting offensive linemen having graduated from last year’s squad, Long is left to bridge the gap with players far from their prime. Taylor Wallace, a junior transfer from El Camino College, might have helped facilitate the revamping but was unable to take part in spring drills because of academic issues. As such, one of the most prominent positions on the field, offensive tackle, has been left in the hands of two players – Mike Matamua and Kurtis Gunther – who are two years and zero college starts removed from their high school homecoming games.
“We have some guys who are going to have to grow up real quick,” Long said.
One already in the process of flattening the learning curve is redshirt freshman linebacker Miles Burris, whose play in the two spring scrimmages was arguably the best of any defender. The emergence of Burris, who shows the potential of being able to find the football under an expanse of flagstone, could prove an asset on multiple fronts.
Only one team in the nation last year ceded more rushing yards, and just 10 teams had fewer sacks per game. Burris had three sacks – or one-fifth of SDSU’s season total last year – in the two scrimmages. Positioned at middle linebacker, Burris also brings size (6 feet 2, 245 pounds), a boon to a less-than-hearty group that often was overrun by offensive linemen last year because of a lack of bulk across the defensive front.
That shortcoming should improve, assuming players such as juniors Avery Williams (6-3, 280) and Peter Nelson (6-5, 285) and sophomore Ernie Lawson (6-3, 300) hold their own in the middle. The pass rush also should be enhanced with the addition of junior defensive end Ryan Williams, a transfer from Ohio State who enjoyed a strong spring. Yet the Aztecs still lack size. In a world in which 300-pound offensive linemen are standard, SDSU lists just five defensive linemen in excess of 270.
Getting bigger can be achieved in the weight room. Getting older cannot.“This is going to be the most competitive fall camp we’ve ever had,” Long said of a group that reconvenes the second week of August. “It’s going to be intense.”
If a tad green.
For more Notre Dame info visit www.ndfootballwiki.com
