FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Chuck Long isn’t happy with the start of San Diego State’s season. His coaching counterpart at Colorado State, Sonny Lubick, feels even worse about the progress of his team.
“We don’t like what our record is right now,” Long said. “But that is over and done with and it’s time to move on.”
On Saturday, San Diego State (1-3, 0-0 Mountain West Conference) plays a Colorado State (0-4, 0-2) team that’s in the throes of a long stretch of misfortune. The Rams have opened with a four-game losing streak for the first time in Lubick’s 15-year tenure at CSU and the school’s first since 1988, when the Rams started the year with six consecutive losses.
Overall Colorado State is on an 11-game skid, with their last win coming Oct. 7, 2006, over UNLV.
“I can’t remember ever going through a stretch like this one,” Lubick said. “If you work at a job for 40 years, it just has to happen. That’s how I look at it; it’s just part of the game.”
Both Long and Lubick point to difficult opening games that have contributed to their misfortune.
San Diego State opened with losses of 45-17 to Washington State and 34-13 to Arizona State. The Aztecs then beat Portland State but lost a week ago to No. 20 Cincinnati, 52-23.
“We’ve played a tough non-conference schedule, the No. 10 toughest in the nation,” Long said. “We hope that there is some sort of resolve down the road from our guys.”
The Rams have dropped games to instate rival Colorado, No. 3 California and Houston, all three games where they couldn’t hold leads. A week ago they were manhandled by TCU.
“We still haven’t played a complete game,” Colorado State quarterback Caleb Hanie said. “That’s why we feel we could have won those first three games.”
Hanie has enjoyed mixed success, completing 65 percent of passes for 973 yards and eight touchdowns. But he’s also been intercepted seven times.
The biggest dilemma for the Rams is straightening out their run defense and special teams play. Colorado State ranks seventh in the nine-team MWC in run defense, allowing 182 yards a game on the ground while its kickoff return coverage ranks dead last giving up 34 yards per return.
“Areas we have to improve on,” Lubick said.
San Diego State’s troubles have come while running the ball and stopping the run, ranking next to last in the conference in both categories. The Aztecs’ defense is last in the conference in red zone defense.
“We’ve been trying to get our hands on something that will work defending the red zone,” Long said. “We’ve tried about every blitz there is and used our base package to mix things up.”
That aside, Long has some concerns about having to play a Colorado State team that is on a long losing streak.
“They are a dangerous team,” Long said. “We know what they are capable of and that makes them dangerous.”
