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Be afraid - be very afraid
By Ryan Finley
 Think that little San Diego State from the lowly Mountain West Conference is going to be yet another Middle Tennessee State or Idaho? Think again.
While they might play in one of the weakest major conferences in football, the Aztecs are hardly small time.
Marshall Faulk, Darnay Scott, Robert Griffith, La'Roi Glover, Az-Zahir Hakim, Will Blackwell, Dan McGwire and Webster Slaughter all played there.
More impressively, John Madden, Joe Gibbs, Don Coryell and Brian Billick all coached there.
For the uninitiated, SDSU football is yet another laid-back, coastal sports program that places athletics slightly below the day's surf report in terms of importance. But look closer - beyond the small crowds and non-existent national media attention - and you'll see a team that is chomping at the bit to shock the world.
The Aztecs - a team that has been picked by many news organizations, including the San Diego Union-Tribune, to win the MWC - have brought in a Pacific 10 Conference team in the middle of an identity crisis to their home field in front of a national television audience.
So the stage is set.
They have a star player - senior running back Larry Ned - with a history of success against Arizona's trademark "Desert Swarm" defense. In two career games against the Wildcats, the tailback has carried the ball 62 times for 231 yards, an impressive feat considering UA's defense has been one of the best run-stopping schemes in college football during the past two seasons.
Ned is not alone. If anything, San Diego State has traditionally been a passing - not running - school. Aztecs head coach Ted Tollner was the inventor of the Buffalo Bills' popular "K-Gun" offense in the early 1990s and brought the same pass-happy scheme to Montezuma Mesa, where the Aztecs have shown varied degrees of success throwing the ball.
And anyone who remembers Rafell Jones and Kelvin Hunter's success (or lack thereof) in the 1999 season opener against Penn State should watch closely tonight and hope a new generation of UA defensive backs can contain junior J.R. Tolver and senior Derrick Lewis, two of the conference's top wideouts.
But despite their skills, nothing SDSU does will mean a thing if UA can get its offense off the ground tonight against the Aztecs. New Arizona head coach John Mackovic has been lauded as an offensive genius - not unlike Tollner - during his years at both the college and professional level. If his complicated scheme can suit the current Wildcats, most of whom were recruited for former head coach Dick Tomey's old-school (if not Neanderthal) offense, Arizona should win easily.
But that's a big if.
UA quarterback Jason Johnson has never started a college game, and his primary receiver, junior Bobby Wade, has never been the focal point of Arizona's offense before. Sophomore tailback Clarence Farmer is no longer a well-kept secret, as he was for most of his freshman season. Not to mention the fact that UA lost the backbone of its running offense, center Bruce Wiggins, to graduation.
Tonight might be the biggest game in recent UA history. If Arizona's defense can maintain its dominance at the line of scrimmage and its offense can master a new scheme, the Wildcats should be fine.
If not, you better watch out. Like the UA basketball program learns year after year, it's dangerous to play a team that nobody - including the players - respects. Win, and you're beating up on the little guy. Lose, and you're the laughingstock of the nation.
There's only one problem - San Diego State isn't so little anymore.
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Look out below!
By Connor Doyle
 San Diego, find shelter for your women and children, 'cause UA's dropping a bomb tonight.
Not some wimpy, I-live-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods bomb that only takes out a couple of people at a time. We're talking some IRA-quality stuff here, baby.
Yeah, I know - none of the Wildcats have ever played in John Mackovic's offense before·but I don't want to hear it. Arizona's going to win, and they're going to win big.
My prediction is based on equal parts well-founded opinion and blind optimism. I think that Mackovic, UA's new head coach, is an offensive genius, and that a Wildcat offense that has been under wraps for so long will react well to the loosening of the reigns. We've heard Jason Johnson already say that the new offense is a quarterback's dream, and almost every time you see that, good things follow.
Mackovic has coached one of the most storied college programs in the nation in Texas. He coached a Heisman-winning running back in Ricky Williams. He coached at the professional level with the Kansas City Chiefs. All things considered, this guy may be too qualified for the Arizona job. He knows how to put points on the board, period. I just hope they checked to make sure that the "1" on the scoreboard that allows them to post a score in the teens still works, because they haven't used it in years.
I also strongly believe that there's no better time for uninhibited optimism to spring then before the first game of a new coach. The bottom line is this - Arizona fans have no idea how well this team is going to play. Until they step on the field, I'm going to wrap myself in a myopic haze and think that the Wildcats will be the second-coming of the St. Louis Rams. Hell, I'll take the New England Patriots right now.
But, if I must, I will try and justify my prediction with some facts.
Lots of people are ranking San Diego State higher than Arizona this season. Well, the Aztecs may end up with a better record, but it's because they play in a conference where a Pop Warner squad could get a bowl bid. All one needs to do is look at SDSU's all-time record against the Pacific 10 conference - 11-47-3.
In the words of some British guy, "Release the hounds!"
The best player on the Aztecs is Larry Ned, their running back. The best player on the Wildcats is Lance Briggs. They essentially match up in the game. Only one of them is a preseason All-American, and it sure as hell ain't Ned.
Arizona is, no matter what Mackovic says, a defensive team. They routinely have one of the best units in the Pac-10, not to mention the country. Even worse for opponents, Larry Mac Duff is back as coordinator. San Diego State will likely not see a defense like Arizona's for the rest of the season, and they have nowhere close to the talent to beat it. Then again, they can't score points against BYU, and they haven't had a good defense since John Smith was sermonizing in his diapers.
There's always the chance that San Diego State can make it a game. If that's the case, then I'll be willing to eat my words. But I don't see it happening. The Aztecs are trying to run with the big boys, and someone needs to remind them just how small they are. That someone's going to be the Wildcats tonight.
Bombs away. |
