April 30, 1999
San Diego State had taken two steps forward and one step back from 1995 to 1997 but Head Coach Ted Tollner's program made a quantum leap forward last season.
After struggling to an 0-3 start out of the gate against Wisconsin, USC and Arizona, the Aztecs went on to win seven of their last eight games, tie for the Pacific Division title in the Western Athletic Conference and earn their first post-season bowl bid since 1991.
Only a tipped-ball, interception in the North Carolina end zone in the final minute of the 1998 Las Vegas Bowl kept SDSU from forcing overtime in a 20-13 loss to the Tar Heels.
This season, as one of eight schools moving from the WAC to create the Mountain West Conference, San Diego State hopes to contend for the league's inaugural football crown. That hope is born out of a roster made up of 29 seniors, including nine returning starters on offense and six starters back for a defense that was the school's best in more than 20 years. In last year's final 7-5 record, all of SDSU's losses came to bowl teams.
The Aztecs will make their title bid within a league that Tollner believes is one of the most balanced in the country. In SDSU, Air Force, Brigham Young, Colorado State, New Mexico, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming, there are seven of eight conference members that have been involved in post-season play within the past two seasons.
The 1999 non-conference schedule sees San Diego State opening at home against South Florida prior to consecutive road trips at Illinois, USC and Kansas. While the Aztecs have struggled in recent years against major non-conference opposition, Tollner is hopeful his team has learned from that experience to have some success in 1999.
"Even though we're playing a Pac 10, a Big 10, and a Big 12 team on the road this year, I'm hoping that past experience will allow us to grow and have success this season," says Tollner. "We have a lot of returning veterans who have experienced playing 'elite' teams. We've been competitive with some of those people but now we've got to take the next step and improve so we can beat those teams. We believe we can line up and go on the road and be competitive."
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