Midway through the third quarter last month against Air Force, San Diego State head football coach Chuck Long called timeouts on back-to-back series, the first one coming on the Aztecs' first offensive play after halftime.
The reason: disorganization on offense, then defense.
SDSU's Chuck Long has only one victory to show after seven starts. Five games remain.
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A short while later, Long said he thought about, but decided against, burning his only other timeout of the game. If he did – thanks again to confusion on offense – his team would not have had the timeout it used with two seconds left to kick the field goal that won its only game of the season.
“I'm glad I saved it,” said Long, whose team (1-6) plays at Wyoming on Saturday at noon.
It was the rarest of occurrences this year: SDSU winning despite player disorganization, flat performance or the play-calling that even Long has second-guessed at times.
Some might chalk it up as part of a rookie head coach's on-the-job training. In 11 seasons as an assistant coach for Iowa and Oklahoma, Long coached defensive backs, specials teams, quarterbacks and the offense – but never officially more than two areas during the same season.
Now, he's ultimately responsible for all that and more. Organizing and motivating the team. Clock management. Timeouts. Team discipline.
Rolled together, it's all new for Long. Critics – from fans to talk radio pundits – have said the newness shows.
Long acknowledges that, to a degree. “With anybody that's brand-new at head coaching, you learn some things as you go,” he said.
On the other hand, Long has been playing or coaching football for more than two decades and feels good about his team's game management thus far, saying, “We've had some great management in just about every game we've had.”
Some head-scratching moments still pop up when you win just one of your first seven games. Among them:
The third game against Utah. Two timeouts are burned in the first offensive series because of more disorganization. SDSU runs the ball on its first eight carries, showing little imagination. Three offside penalties on its first defensive series. Then the team plays flat the rest of the game and loses 38-7. Afterward Long said, “I guess we did regress a bit.”
The Air Force victory, a game Long cited as maybe the best managed of the season.
At the end of the first half, though, the Aztecs have a 3-0 lead and get the ball back with 1:43 left at their own 18. They have two timeouts left to try to get within field-goal range. Instead, they run it up the middle three times, burn 10 seconds waffling around and don't call timeout until 22 seconds left. After the timeout, instead of taking a shot downfield to get within scoring range, they let the clock run out and don't use their final timeout.
As it turned out, the Aztecs are lucky Air Force missed a field goal and an extra point and had a pass tipped high in the air, deep in Aztecs territory, where SDSU intercepted it in the second quarter.
Season opener against Texas-El Paso. After coming out flat and falling behind 27-3, SDSU closes the gap to 27-24 in the fourth quarter. The Aztecs faced third-and-1 at their 32-yard line. Instead of playing it safe and running the ball, SDSU opted to pass. UTEP's Quintin Demps intercepted it, giving his team a 28-yard field. The Miners scored another touchdown to take a 34-24 lead with 4:38 left. SDSU lost 34-27.
Afterward, Long said he thought it was a “great call.”
If it would have worked, it would have been. The irony is that this call looks quite imaginative compared to other recent games.
The 16-14 loss against Cal Poly last week. Keep in mind the Mustangs are limited to 20 fewer scholarships than SDSU and start a 240-pound offensive tackle. The Aztecs burst out to a 14-3 lead on two touchdown passes, then play it safe by trying to sit on the lead and run out the clock. They throw the ball just four times in the second half before their last desperate drive.
The defense also suddenly goes flat right before halftime and gives up an 81-yard drive for Cal Poly's only touchdown of the game.
Afterward, running back Lynell Hamilton says, “You can't quit. You can't just accept having a lead like that and lay down.”
The next day, Long says his game plan did get “a little too tight.”
It's part of the job to cringe at some mistakes, he said.
“I see professional head coaches who have been at it for 15 years, and you might look at it and say that might not be the greatest strategy,” Long said. “You've got to decide fast in games.”
Long helps decide the general flow of play-calling on the field, with offensive coordinator Del Miller calling plays from the press box.
“There are things we'll do differently obviously,” Miller said.
Notes
After yesterday's practice, Long proclaimed that this week's three practices were the “the best three days of practices all year.”
“I just feel like they're getting it, and they're understanding it and they're sinking in more and more to the system,” he said.
Starting cornerback Donny Baker sat out with an ankle injury and might not play Saturday. It probably will be a game-time decision. Redshirt freshman Aaron Moore worked in his place.
Brent Schrotenboer:
(619) 293-1368
brent.schrotenboer@uniontrib.com
