2010 San Diego State Aztecs Football Preview

2009 Results: 4-8, No Bowl

Head Coach: Brady Hoke (2nd year @ SDSU, 38-46 Overall)

Home Venue: Qualcomm Stadium (54,000), San Diego, California

No team in the Mountain West has gone longer since their last bowl appearance than the Aztecs, who last saw postseason action in 1998. However, 2nd year Head Coach Brady Hoke has given SDSU fans high hopes to end that drought after arriving on the heels of former school Ball State’s highest finish in history. While his first year had some growing pains, he has a very veteran team back in 2010. Will this be the year that San Diego State gets back to a bowl game?

OFFENSE

The first good sign for the Aztecs is that they have one of the most veteran signal callers in the conference. Junior Ryan Lindley (3,054 yards, 23 TD, 16 INT in 2009) has had two full seasons starting under his belt and should be in for a big campaign in his second year in Hoke’s offense. Another great sign is that his wide receiver corps will be one of the best in the league. Led by seniors DeMarco Sampson (62 catches, 851 yards, 8 TDs) and Vincent Brown (45 catches, 778 yards, 6 TDs), both of whom were All-MWC picks last year, Lindley should always have someone open to throw the ball to. This will be one of the league’s best passing attacks.

Lindley’s only major drawback is his complete lack of mobility, so the SDSU line needs to be better. The good news there is that the Aztecs return four starters up front and should be much improved this season, especially since they had so many players fill in for injuries in 2009. Another year in the new offense should help their development as well. There is only one downside to this offense: The tailbacks. Senior fullback Brandon Sullivan actually was the team’s leading rusher last year (558 yards, 4 TDs) and it seems likely that underclassmen Walter Kazee (371 yards, 2 TDs) and true frosh Ronnie Hillman will be relied on to have a big season.

After only putting up 23 points per game last fall, SDSU looks primed for a major improvement this season. They have a veteran quarterback throwing to a great group of receivers and a solid line to give him time to throw and cut down on turnovers. With the improvement of the line should come the improvement of the running game and I fully expect the Aztecs to jump into the upper half of the league in scoring in 2010.

DEFENSE

The other half of the SDSU equation already showed great progress last season, allowing a full touchdown less per game under former New Mexico boss Rocky Long. However, they did still allow a middling 30 points per contest, so there is a lot of room for improvement. Up front, all three starters return from the defensive line that made massive strides against the run. Even better, all three are upperclassmen, so this should be a very stout unit.

With a solid line occupying blockers, San Diego State’s linebackers should have plenty of space to run to tackles. Unfortunately, junior Miles Burris is the only returning starter, though he is the team’s top returning tackler. But the cupboard isn’t as bare as you would expect with three open spots because seniors Marcus Yarbrough and Andrew Preston saw the field a lot and combined for 87 tackles last year!

The secondary should also see improvement this season. Despite a very inexperienced unit, Long’s scheme actually enhanced their pass defense last year and three starters return from the group that only allowed 15 TD passes all season! Long’s history at New Mexico shows the has a great grasp of both his defense and opponents in the league and the amount of experience coming back combined with the strength of the D-Line leads me to believe that this SDSU defense is in for another big step forward in 2010.

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SCHEDULE

The Aztec schedule is agreeably split into two distinct portions. The non-conference schedule, which features road trips to Missouri and New Mexico State, along with a visit from Utah State, isn’t very tough. Then SDSU has an off week before embarking upon their Mountain West slate, which holds back favorites Utah and TCU until late November! With six home games, this is the kind of schedule that gets teams bowl eligible.

OUTLOOK

There were some growing pains for the Aztecs last year in Brady Hoke’s first season, but there were also a lot of positive signs as the campaign wore down. This year, San Diego State has one of the league’s best quarterbacks, a great set of receivers and an extremely good defensive coordinator. Furthermore, they’re strong along the line of scrimmage and should do a much better job of protecting the football. Considering that the Aztecs finished a league-worst minus 10 in turnovers last year, this looks like a squad ripe for a turnaround. I believe that the bowl drought ends this season for San Diego State thanks to an improved team across the board and a relatively easy schedule.

PREDICTED RESULT: 7-5 (4-4 Mountain West)