There’s coach speak and then there’s coach speak.
San Diego State is coming off its first win over a ranked opponent in almost a decade and a half. The team is two plays away from being 6-0. The Aztecs are two games from a bowl berth.
And the team plays winless New Mexico on Saturday.
Winless, you say?
“The last four trips we’ve made to New Mexico haven’t gone real well for us,” SDSU coach Brady Hoke said during this week’s teleconference. “We have a great challenge in front of us. We have to prepare well all week and we have to prepare for a tough battle out in Albuquerque.”
That’s coach speak at its finest, especially if you take into consideration what both the Aztecs (4-2) and the Lobos (0-6) have done this year.
It’s almost like day and night, black and white, or left and right.
But, SDSU hasn’t won a game in Albuquerque since 2000 and has received beat downs at the hands of New Mexico in its last two trips. In 2008, the Lobos handed the Aztecs a 70-7 beat down. In 2006, 41-14 was the final in a New Mexico win.
Albuquerque can be a house of horrors.
“I don’t think that’s anything that we dwell on,” quarterback Ryan Lindley told the media Tuesday. “It doesn’t haunt us; we’re a different team with a lot of young guys that weren’t there. We have some guys to remind us, but it’s a whole new team and they’re a new team. We just have to go in Saturday and play good football.”
Lindley had a miserable day himself two years ago. As a freshman, Lindley was 18-for-37 for just 156 yards and one touchdown. Not the same light-up-the-scoreboard numbers he’s put up that last two years.
Then again, Rocky Long was the head coach at New Mexico then. He’s the defensive coordinator for the Aztecs now. And Long still won’t talk about that.
But at least for San Diego State, he’s on its sidelines as it tries to make a bowl game for the first time since 1998.
The Aztecs got to four wins last year and stalled. The players remember that, and even with New Mexico boasting a 0-6 record, there’s no one taking this game for granted.
At least that’s what they’re saying.
“We can’t overlook New Mexico, because we can easily be 4-3 if we don’t go out and play good football,” defensive tackle Ernie Lawson said. “The start is nice, but we have to keep it going.”
TCU, Patterson and concussions
It has come out that the live dressing down that TCU coach Gary Patterson gave to one of his team doctors was over whether or not one of the Horned Frogs players had a concussion.
Dr. Sam Haraldson, TCU’s team doctor, spoke to the American Medical News about the incident, which occurred while the Horned Frogs were playing rival SMU and TCU running back Ed Wesley was hurt on the field.
"Then five or six plays later, I literally was verbally accosted by the coach, screaming at me insanely at the top of his lungs that he doesn't think he has a concussion and what right do I have to hold him out," Dr. Haraldson told American Medical News.
Apparently, both Haraldson and Patterson have apologized to one another.
The problem here is, in the heat of the moment, coaches have to trust their physicians. That’s why they’re there.
No matter the game, no matter the gravity of the game, nothing is more important than the health of the players on the field.
Obviously, Patterson thought otherwise.
T.V. Timeout—Must See Games This Weekend (All times Pacific)
LSU at Auburn: Saturday, 12:30 p.m. on CBS
Wisconsin at Iowa: Saturday, 12:30 on ABC
Oklahoma at Missouri: Saturday, 5:00 p.m. on ABC
Air Force at TCU: Saturday, 5:00 p.m. on CBS College Sports
San Diego State at New Mexico: Saturday, 7:00 p.m. on The Mtn./Channel 4 SD
Washington at Arizona: Saturday: 7:15 p.m. on ESPN
For more info: Visit our College Football Examiner, Kevin McGuire. for more college football news. Check out the Examiner.com Top 25 poll. Follow me on Twitter.
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