Aztecs Carry Stolz to Victory in His Final Game

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The drama was played out in stadiums across the country Saturday, a day reserved for college football’s classic rivalries. The winning coach is hoisted upon his players’ shoulders and paraded across the field in celebration.

This is the time-honored way football teams say thank you and goodby.

The gesture meant the same thing in University Stadium after San Diego State concluded its season by defeating New Mexico, 18-10. Only the setting and meaning were unique.

This was a game with nothing tangible on the line. No Beehive Boot, no Old Oaken Bucket, no trip to the Rose Bowl for the winner. On the surface, it was nothing more than two losing teams thrown together at the end, for no other reason than the Western Athletic Conference schedule said so.

But this game had something deeper at stake--the dignity of a coach who had been told he was no longer wanted.

That is why Denny Stolz was carried aloft at the end, and that is why he was glad he was.

His only wish was that it had been in another place and time, and for a more joyous cause.

“You dream from time to time where will be your last game, and maybe this is and maybe this isn’t,” said Stolz, who was fired Monday in his third season as the Aztecs’ coach. “But I never dreamed of Albuquerque. No reflection on Albuquerque; I just didn’t dream it would end in Albuquerque.”

But, at least for now, this is where his 21-year career as a college head coach came to an end--on a cold, overcast day in a nearly empty stadium.

The crowd was announced as 7,923, but probably no more than a quarter of that figure actually ignored an early-morning dusting of snow to see a game between two teams fighting for seventh in a nine-team league.

Few of those who did show up came to see Stolz coach his last game at SDSU. That left the drama and emotions to the Aztec coaches and players.

Almost to the man, they found a way to embrace Stolz at the end. They took turns offering a hug, a handshake or a pat on the back.

Stolz, not a large man at 5-feet 9-inches, walked the last few steps from the field to the locker room swallowed in the embrace of Chuck Hardaway, a 6-5, 300-pound junior offensive tackle. But if tears were shed, they were saved for a private moment.

“A couple of times you could see he was choked up,” said Kevin Wells, the Aztecs’ senior center. “But he never broke down. We wanted to win this game, and we wanted to win it for him.”

The last time an Aztec game ended with such an emotional ride was 2 years ago, when San Diego State beat Brigham Young for its first and only WAC title.

“(This ride was different) I’d say,” Stolz said. “Eighty-six was a high. That was fun, and it wasn’t that long ago.”

The Aztecs have lost 16 of 24 games since that night, and that helps explain why this victory was Stolz’s last at SDSU.

It is one he will cherish more for the result than the process. As football games go, the action sometimes equaled the sparse surroundings.

Consider that this was a game in which Aztec punter Joe Santos had a partially blocked punt travel 46 yards in his favor. That Scott Barrick completed only 1 of his first 7 passes and threw 2 near-goal-line interceptions. That the Aztecs (3-8, 3-5 in WAC) managed only one touchdown against a team that was allowing a nation-leading 45.5 points per game. And that the Lobos (2-10, 1-7) received a sarcastic standing ovation for downing a kickoff in the end zone.

Those kinds of follies might diminish another victory, but Stolz certainly didn’t care how this game was won.

“No question I wanted to win badly,” he said. “The kids were trying so hard to win for me that they didn’t play well.

“I’m just happy to win a ballgame, because they are so hard to win.”

The Aztecs won because they took a 12-0 first-quarter lead and let senior tailback Paul Hewitt again do much of the work.

Hewitt carried 32 times for 140 yards, his fifth 100-yard game of the season. That was more than enough to make him the first Aztec to twice rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Hewitt finished with 1,055 yards. His 2,056 yards in 2 seasons made him the fourth Aztec to rush for 2,000 yards in his career.

He made another mark in the Aztec record book with his 7-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. That gave him 204 career points, tying in 2 seasons the school record set by Art Preston (1949-51).

“It was more important that we won for the coach,” Hewitt said.

It was a thought repeated many times by the players. Some, such as Hewitt, leave having experienced nothing more than 2 losing seasons under Stolz. Others depart having taken the best he had to offer--the reality of the 1986 championship season.

“He got me a championship ring,” said Mario Mitchell, the Aztecs’ senior cornerback, “and I will always remember him for that. He might not be the coach anymore, but they can never take that away.”

As for what the future holds after Al Luginbill takes over Wednesday as coach, Stolz is noncommittal. All he wants to say now is that he will continue to root for a team mostly made up of players he recruited.

“I would get no joy in seeing them fail, none whatsoever,” Stolz said. “I just want to get out of the way and get my stuff out (of the office).

“What I feel now is just a lot of uncertainty.”

Aztec Notes

Steve Matuszewicz, a freshman from Nogales High School in La Puente, made his first start for San Diego State at outside linebacker and scored a safety when he sacked New Mexico quarterback Jeremy Leach in the first quarter. . . . Monty Gilbreath caught 2 passes for 53 yards to extend his SDSU record for catching at least 1 pass in a game to 25, but his first catch did not come until 2:03 was left in the third quarter. . . . The 3-8 record was the Aztecs’ worst since the 1983 team finished 2-9-1. . . . New Mexico’s Rick Walsh made a school-record 56-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, breaking by 3 yards the record he set last year against Colorado State.