SAN DIEGO -- Like music mogul Jay Z and building tycoon Donald Trump, San Diego State's football coach is in an empire state of mind.Only without the artistic riffs or weird hair.
San Diego State, Rocky Long tells me, can become football's next TCU or Boise State. Which is to say, San Diego State can rise into mid-major prominence and crash a BCS bowl.
"That's realistic within a five- or six-year period," Long was telling West Coast Bias on letter-of-intent day.
Hearing this, my mind raced back to a different time yet on the same sunny campus here 11 miles east of the Pacific Ocean.
Twenty years ago, another Aztecs head coach painted SDSU as a latent "Miami of the West," and he meant Florida's mighty Miami, not Ben Roethlisberger's Miami of Ohio.
Making his dreamy talk seem less dreamy, Al Luginbill recruited several future NFL players to his SDSU offenses and defenses. But his Aztecs more resembled the misbehaving Hurricanes than the triumphant Canes. Luginbill was pink-slipped in 1993 after five interesting, if maddening, seasons that yielded no conference titles or bowl victories.
"We should've been better," one of those Aztecs, Robert Griffith, an electrical engineering grad and former Pro Bowl safety for the Minnesota Vikings, told me in November.
Long should do better because he has done better.
Here's all you need to know about Rocky Long's coaching prowess: He led the University of New Mexico to five bowls and nearly a .500 cumulative winning percentage from 1998-2008. That's nearly the same as healing lepers. New Mexico may be the land of enchantment, but as football states go, it's Alaska or Maine.
Defense is Long's area of expertise, and as SDSU's defensive coordinator the last two years, he made headway at improving a chronic weakness.
Like TCU coach Gary Patterson, he expertly runs a 3-3-5 defense that alleviates the need for top-drawer tackles, who are the hardest recruits to find, but I'd like to see what Long would do with a tackle like La'Roi Glover. Glover, a dancing bear who anchored Aztecs lines in the early 1990s, would become a Pro Bowler for the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys.
Even without elite talent, Long's defense engulfed potent Navy in SDSU's 35-14 victory three months ago in the Poinsettia Bowl. While it wasn't as impressive as TCU knocking off Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl or Boise State ending Utah's streak of nine bowl victories, the postseason victory was SDSU's first since Don Coryell's Aztecs won the Pasadena Bowl in 1969.
I like that if Long is to build SDSU into a mid-major empire, it's another empire that'll help him do it.
Southern California's Inland Empire, home to 4 million people who are within a three-hour drive of San Diego, is central to his recruiting strategy. As defensive coordinator, he recruited almost exclusively within the Inland Empire's 27,000 square miles.
Wednesday, when SDSU announced its freshman class for 2011, Long's sky-blue eyes sparkled at mention of the region.
"There's a whole pocket in the Inland Empire that plays as good of football as I've ever seen," he said. He then mentioned the talent-rich states of Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Inland Empire matches up with each one, he said."I know because I've seen them all," said Long, who's in his 40th year of coaching. He added: "They make a bigger deal out of it in some of those states."
When Michigan stole Aztecs head coach Brady Hoke and Long ascended into Hoke's job last month, the Aztecs had seven players from the Inland Empire on their wish list. Long said SDSU retained all seven, plus the 10-11 other recruits who verbally had committed to San Diego State before Hoke departed and took all but Long and three coaches to Ann Arbor.
Soon, Long will assign one of his assistants to the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area that forms the Inland Empire. The decision may be as important as any he makes this winter, especially if Long's recent wisecrack to an aide revealed a deeper truth.
"I told him we've had 13 guys signed from the Inland Empire the last two years, and if there's any fewer than that, he'd better look for a job," he said.
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