A preseason college football article in Sporting News has gone so far as to rank the top 52 coaches from non-BCS schools. SMU's June Jones is No. 1. San Diego State's Chuck Long? 52. There's a joke in there someplace, maybe that Long ranks 52nd because there isn't a 53.
But that would be cold.
SCOTT LINNETT / Union-Tribune
The Sporting News has SDSU's Chuck Long ranked 52nd among the top 52 coaches from non-BCS schools.
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Preseason rankings mean zilch. No coach has had to make an in-game adjustment. There hasn't been a fumble, an interception, a botched field goal, wind, rain, heat, snow or an inept call by a zebra that could affect an outcome.
For example, Georgia is the August choice to finish the season as the No. 1 team in the country. The Bulldogs won't do it. But it's nice to think about – if you live in Athens.
There's absolutely no way of knowing. But it gets people talking. And thinking. And reading. All three aren't necessarily bad things, especially the latter two.
As for Long's rank, it's obviously based on his record and what lies ahead. The Aztecs won three games his first autumn on 55th Street, four last year, and prospects for this season – which begins here tomorrow night against giant Cal Poly – don't have the College Football Hall of Fame clamoring for recent SDSU memorabilia.
The terrific players, such as Marshall Faulk, Isaac Curtis, Willie Buchanon – all of them, including recent quarterback Kevin O'Connell – no longer wander the halls. And even when many of them did, as good as they were, winning didn't always come easy. Why? Can't say for sure.
SDSU continues to produce football players who eventually play for pay. But, for whatever reason, the Aztecs do not win. And we're tired of any excuse. State's is one of three Division I-A programs in Southern California. It should be better than it has been for the past 30 years. Period. It even has trouble finding a kicker. Cripes.
More than half of our major colleges go to bowl games now. State hasn't been to one since 1998, which also happens to be the last time it had a winning record. Inexcusable. So Aztecs football no longer draws, and football is the umbilical cord that nourishes athletics.
In this town, big surprise attendance is down. Put a product on the field, win and entertain. The Aztecs don't have the Petco Park downtown experience as bait to catch a bad team.
Hence, Long's ranking. I won't say it's right, but even he can see the why in it.
“I guess it means there's nothing for me to do but go up,” Long jokes. “I'm not big on rankings, but what this signals is that I have a lot to prove, and that's OK.
“I never had been a head coach before, so it's understandable. I just wish somebody would have talked to me about it.”
Welcome to the dot-com world, Chuck. Sporting News didn't have to ask you what you think of 52 – it was an opinion piece – but, while accountability and the Internet can be found in this paragraph, don't look for them together often on the Web.
I like Long. He's personable, and perhaps because he played quarterback in the NFL, he seems to have developed a hide. He wasn't Elway as a player, nor is he Rockne as a coach, so he has taken some hits. But, if the barbs have penetrated his skin, he hides the pain well.
At the very least, Long has to show progress this season. The schedule, which includes nonleaguers Cal Poly, San Jose State and Idaho, smells like bacon cooking in the woods, even though a trip to Notre Dame has the odor of boiling tripe. The schedule – once totally ridiculous – has been downgraded to induce success.
So, let's see some.
“We have to make progress; we have to move forward,” Long says. “For the first time, I feel good about our offseason. I made bold statements coming in, but after the first offseason, we knew we were a ways away. The second year we won four games and, if we had a better schedule, we might have won more.”
Play the schedule you're given. Didn't Appalachian State beat Michigan? Things happen – except here.
Long won't deny the jury remains sequestered on his coaching ability, and while the 12 men and women tried and true haven't rushed to judgment, judgment day is near.
“Oh, sure. Definitely,” he says. “Again, I have to prove it.
“Each coach I was under as an assistant who hadn't been a head coach before went through the same thing. Who's he? In a way, that's how I want it. I want to prove it. It gives me an edge.”
Long will start a redshirt freshman quarterback with a makeshift offensive line. His two best receivers have departed. The defense returns eight starters off a lousy year.
Yes, Chuck Long has much to prove. How much time he has to do so remains in the hands of higher campus authorities, who wouldn't tell you if you strapped them to a rack.
Nick Canepa: (619) 293-1397; nick.canepa@uniontrib.com
