The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 79

1 I I i 1 7a MONDAY. NOVEMBER 27. 1989 SD 1 I LOS ANGELES TIMES San Diego County .1 SDSU 1 --t i if" vw wi tint i 1 i3v yvs Man YT Itf t. 4 1 I iS 1 4 I i Jf: Continued from CI backward last week a 42-6 loss at Miami and against BYU." Or maybe they merely settled into their rightful place. Because despite the team's more lofty goals, their pattern of victories dropped the Aztecs into a definable niche: They were merely a middle-division conference team.

They beat the four teams they played that finished below them in the standings and lost to the three that finished ahead of them. That is not the results Luginbill sought, but that is the reality of how his team played and a possible indicator of where his program stands. Luginbill wanted this season to demonstrate that the Aztecs had "turned the corner" in their efforts to return the team to its Holiday Bowl form of 1986. But what he might be left with instead is the lesser satisfaction of knowning that the two-year slide that followed that Holiday Bowl loss to Iowa has been stemmed. For the demanding Luginbill, that might not seem like much consolation.

But it could be a start. The Aztecs, with quarterback Dan McGwire and All-WAC wide receiver Monty Gilbreath leading the way, reestablished their offensive-minded reputation. They scored 368 points (an average of 30.7 per game) and averaged 467.5 yards per game. Their 5,610 yards in total offense broke the school record of 5,322, established in an 11 -game season in 1969. This success followed a 1988 season in which they scored 204 points, their lowest total since 1980.

The best news here is that much of the offense is back. At the starting skill positions, only, Gil-breath, tight end Mitch Burton and running back Ron Slack are seniors. And only two starting linemenguard Damon Baldwin and tackle Roman Fortin are seniors. The Aztecs also return kicker Andy Trakas, a freshman from Patrick Henry High School who, after only one season, is a threat to break every school kicking record. Trakas came back after missing six of his first 10 field-goal attempts to make 12 of his last 13, including the last nine in a row.

Better yet, he showed a range that makes him a serious threat from 50 yards. He also has a streak of 37 consecutive extra points. But Luginbill's efforts to build a more credible defense were not as successful. The Aztecs did allow fewer points (378) than they have in three seasons, but that is comparing their progress against the teams that allowed more points any two teams in school history. And the 442.8 yards per game they allowed were 11 above last year's gaudy average.

That was more than enough to again rank them among the worst defensive teams in the nation. And if not for the play of senior nickel back John Wesselman, who knows how the Aztecs might have Brigham Young quarterback Ty Detmer dives into the end zone for the BRUCE K. HUFF Los Angeles Times night against the Aztecs, who ended their season with a 48-27 defeat. .1 Jl. Jtv' i SDSU game-by-game results for 1989 (Home team in bold) SDSU 36, Air Force 52 SDSU 25, UCLA 28 SDSU 41, Cal State Fullerton 41 SDSU 38, Utah 27 SDSU 24, Hawaii 31 SDSU 30, Cal State Long Beach 26 SDSU 35, Pacific 7 SDSU 34, Texas El Paso 31 SDSU 45, New Mexico 28 SDSU 27, Wyoming 17 SDSU 6, Miami 42 SDSU 27, Brigham Young 48 determined.

Luginbill said he has left the door open for his return, but that the next step is up to Wagner. Also unresolved is the status of running back Tommy Booker, the one-time Parade Ail-American from Vista High School. He sat out the season for personal reasons and must decide shortly whether he jwants to return next year. But whether Booker or Wagner return, Luginbill has said he is confident he has built a program that will only improve with time. He has pointed with pride to a freshman class that he said will contribute significantly to his team next season.

Most of those players were red- fared defensively. Wesselman led the team in tackles (124) and interceptions (six). When they needed a big play or a saving stop, chances are it was Wesselman who came through. Replacing his leadership and skill might be the toughest task facing the Aztecs next season. The first year under Luginbill was not without its hardships.

Not all agreed with the changes Luginbill wrought In the year since Luginbill took over, 23 scholarship players quit, were suspended, left for medical reasons or were dismissed for disciplinary or academic reasons. Luginbill accepts most of the departures as inevitable and a willing price to pay to bring about the changes he said are needed to turn the program into a consistent winner. The most celebrated of these departures was the suspension of running back Darrin Wagner for the final four games. Wagner, a redshirt freshman from Lincoln High School, was the team's leading rusher and scorer at the time. But when for the third time in three months he missed practices without permission, Luginbill suspended him.

Whether Wagner will ever play for the Aztecs again has not been sprained right knee in the first quarter. Caravello did not return. After the game he was more unhappy about the Chargers' losing ways than his injury. "No comment," he said. "I've already made comments on games like this six or seven times.

It's the exact same thing." The Chargers passed for 23 yards in the first half. During that same span Colt running back Eric Dickerson rushed for 19 yards on 12 carries. Indianapolis lost left tackle Chris Hinlon to a hamstring injury in the second period. The Chargers (4-8) are tied for last in the AFC West with Seattle. New Charger punt returner Phil McConkey returned eight for 75 yards.

His longest was a 20-yarder. Former Charger Chip Bnks started at left outside linebacker and had one tackle. The first 10 possessions by both teams resulted in a punt, a punt, a punt, a punt, a punt, a lost fumble, a lost fumble, a punt, a punt and an interception. Dickerson needs 67 yards rushing next week against the Patriots to become the first player in NFL history to rush for 1.000 yards or more in seven consecutive years. The Chargers have failed to score a touchdown in their past eight quarters against the Colts.

Indianapolis shut out the Chargers, 16-0. last year. Time of possession favored the Chargers 37:34 to 22:26. The Chargers out-gained the Colts 314-264 yards. "We overcame some things two lost fumbles and seemed like we had control," said Charger Coach Dsn Hen-inf.

The Colts converted only two of 14 third downs. The Chargers' special teams, coached by beleaguered Jm Mad-den, played poorly again. Asked to assess them, Henning said, "Too many penalties." GAME AT -l. ft Aft. Cougars' second touchdown Saturday shirted this season as Luginbill tried to build for the future.

But so far, the roots of this planned revival have gone relatively unnoticed in San Diego, at least judging from attendance at home games. The Aztecs drew an average of 20,462 to their seven home games at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. That average was the lowest since 1985 and the fourth lowest in the 23 seasons since the Aztecs began playing in the stadium in 1967. This despite the presence of UCLA and BYU, two traditionally strong draws, on the home schedule. The BYU game Saturday drew just 26,868.

School officials estimate the football team likely fell about $250,000 short in revenue from football ticket sales. The shortfall threatens to add considerably to the department's overall $512,000 deficit and force the department to make severe cuts in its sports programs. But to best understand where the Aztecs are one year into Luginbill's tenure, throw out the statistics, forget about the scores, ignore the intangibles and look at the schedule. The 12-game schedule had a pronounced beginning, middle and end. It was two tough bookends, sandwiched around a soft core.

The Aztecs struggled at the start and Associated Press 6 10 PA PC PI Yd TD 24 14 I 153 I 6 2 0 63 0 Trudeau Ramsey Avg. TD 3.9 0 4.6 0 20 5 0 Totals 30 16 I 216 I 8.5 0 RocelvtASj Chargers A. Miner Holland Spencer Co 5.4 0 No. 5 4 3 3 2 I Yd. TD 55 0 Avg.

TO 1.8 0 18.0 0 5.5 0 3.0 0 3.0 0 Totals 18 173 0 No. Yd. TD 2.5 0 PI Yd TD 0 173 0 Brooks 101 Bentley Rison 62 23 29 0 0 0 Dickerson 0 173 0 16 216 0 FMAL STATISTICS TEAM SDSU Of? FM4MM 292 257 Rushes-yards 502-1913 454-2171 raids passing 3,697 3,143 Passes 262-449 211-412 21-252 20-229 Plays-net yd Punts ret-yd. Nekoflsrelyd. FumWes-lost 24-12 22-9 Penalties-yards 90-831 7665 MOMDUAL RwMif TCB NYG Avg.

TO Slack 220 914 4.1 13 Wagner 134 721 5.4 10 Butts 70 379 5.4 4 Wesselman 2 82 41.0 1 GDbreatti 6 29 4.8 0 Claiborne 1 18 18.0 0 Jennings 2 4 2.0 0 M. Baton 11 1.0 0 SMS 1 -4 4.0 0 Lowery 1 -5 0 McGnire 64 -228 2 Totals 502 1,913 3.8 30 Opp 454 2.171 4.7 26 Pwsim PA PC PI Yd. TO McGwire 440 258 19 3.651 16 Lowery 9 4 1 46 0 Totals 449 262 20 3.697 16 Opp 412 211 19 3,143 20 RectMnf No. Yd. TD Gilbreath 80 903 4 Claiborne 55 938 5 Raye 45 745 4 Arey 24 439 1 Slack 20 230 0 Wagner 9 123 I Nettles 8 137 0 M.Burton 7 71 0 R.Rowe 6 74 0 Butts I 4 17 0 Hanawalt 3 12 0 Weymiller 18 0 Totals 262 3.697 16 Opp 211 3.143 20 OTHER LEADERS: PUNTING-Santos, 55-2, 190 39.8 avg.

PUNT RETURNS Gilbfealri, 25-173, 6.9 avg. KICK0FF RETURNS Claiborne, 18-284, 15.7; Wagner, 13-295, 22.7 avg. INTERCEPTIONS Wesselman, 6, Moses, 4. SCORING Trakas, 83, Slack, 78 points: Wagner, 66 points. TD Slack, 13; Wagner, II.

FG-Trakas, 16-23. TACKLES-Wesselman, Pairings All times PST Friday Villanova 66, San Diego State 58 North Carolina 80, James Madison 79 Louisville 89, Chaminade 70 Missouri 68, Evansville 53 Saturday James Madison 56, San Diego State 53 North Carolina 78, Villanova 68 Missouri 82, Louisville 79 Evansville 70, Chaminade 53 Sunday San Diego State 63, Chaminade 49 James Madison 70, Evansville 60 Louisville 83, Villanova 69 North Carolina vs. Missouri to himself in Maui. The alternative was to play the Silverswords (0-4), a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II school from Honolulu with an enrollment of 950.

This is not the program that made national headlines with its upset victories over Virginia and Louisville earlier in the decade. The Aztecs trailed, 12-7, in the first seven minutes and needed to score the final four points of the first half to take a 30-28 lead at the break. Not until senior guard Rodney Jones made the second of two free throws with 17:56 to play did the Aztecs take the lead for good, at 33-32. SDSU then scored 10 of the next 12 points to break the game open at 43-34 with 12:31 left. The Aztecs have been waiting for Best to show his form of a year ago since he underwent an operation in early October to remove two screws from his left knee.

The screws had been implanted after Best, a 6-foot-4 senior from Seat Pleasant, broke his leg before his senior year in high school. Best did not practice for about a month after the surgery. During his inactivity his weight grew to 240 pounds, 25 more than he prefers. He has slimmed down to 225 pounds. "If I lose about 10 more pounds," Best said, "a lot of teams are going to be in trouble." finish, and beat up on the teams in between.

The five-game beginning featured contests with Air Force, UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, Utah and Hawaii. The Aztecs went 1-3-1 in that stretch, winning only at Utah (38-27) and tying Fullerton, 41-41. The two-game finish featured games at Miami and against BYU. Both were one -side losses. In the middle was a five-game winning streak, the longest by an Aztec team since 1979.

The victories came against Cal State Long Beach, Pacific, Texas El Paso, New Mexico and Wyoming, teams that finished a combined 19-52. The Aztecs played four teams that went to bowls and lost to all of them. Only one of these games was close a 31-24 loss at Aloha Bowl-bound Hawaii. The Aztecs played, five teams with winning records and in them managed only a 41-41 tie with Fullerton, the Big West Conference runner-up. Their six victories came against teams with losing records.

There is no shame in that, but it does give one reason to pause before proclaiming that the Aztec program is back in force. The Aztecs proved that they could defeat the teams they expected to beat; now the challenge is to beat the more successful ones. AZTECS Continued from Cl after missing 13 of 20 shots in the first two games. His performance could not have come at a better time for an Aztec team that had more than enough reasons to come out flat against the Silverswords (0-4). The game, was SDSU's third in three days, was played at noon in a gymnasium cooled only by fans.

It came after close losses to Villanova (66-58) and James Madison (56-53), both well-regarded teams. And it was contested in front of the kind of crowd one would expect to find inside watching two winless teams on a perfectly sunny day in Mauij no more than 100 were there for the start. If those weren't enough reasons to worry, the Aztecs (1-2) were without junior reserve forward Michael Hudson, who was suspended for the game by Coach Jim Brandenburg moments before tipoff for what Brandenburg said were disciplinary reasons. Hudson apparently was not properly running drills in the pregame warmup and talked back to an assistant coach who tried to correct him, according to some who witnessed the incident. "It is just something that needs to be taken care of this time of year," Brandenburg said.

He said he expected Hudson would play in the home opener Thursday against UC Riverside "unless it escalates into something else." This was not the best of tournaments for Hudson, a transfer from Pratt (Kan.) Community College. He missed six of his eight shots while playing 37 minutes in the first two games, made five turnovers and lost a chance to take a last-second, game-tying shot in the loss to James Madison Saturday when he went the wrong way on an inbounds play designed for him. But Hudson never got a chance for redemption Sunday as he was banished to the team hotel. Some punishment three hours CHARGERS Continued from CS Keith Taylor and Eugene Daniel, the two men Miller so effectively screened from covering Nelson. But Henning was especially incensed with what he thought was the failure of line judge Ron Baynes and replay official Chuck Heberling to determine that Tom Ramsey's incomplete third period swing pass to Dickerson was a lateral.

The Chargers would have recovered and scored on the play. But the whistle blew the play dead. Review of the replay upheld Baynes. One play later Henning wasted a timeout to ask for a "clarification" of Baynes' ruling which he said he never got. "I wanted to clear up a cloud," Henning said.

"I wanted our players to know exactly what the circumstances were." Henning used up his second timeout seven minutes later to decide whether to kick or go for a first down on fourth-and-one at the Colt 21. More bad news for the Chargers: They got the first down and lost it on a false start by guard Broderick Thompson, Bahr then missed a 44-yarder. The net effect of which was that McMahon had only one timeout left when the Chargers took over at their own 31 with 1:49 remaining. It didn't matter. Two incomple-tions and a sack forced the Chargers to turn the ball over on downs.

McMahon finished with 18 completions on 32 attempts for 173 yards. But the Colts sacked him five times, the most the Chargers have allowed all year. Indianapolis starter Jack Trudeau, relieved briefly by Ramsey when he injured a finger, completed 14 of 24 for 153 yards. The Colts' only other score came on a 22-yard Dean Biasucci field goal in the dying moments of the first half. Charier Notes H-back Jo Caravello was lost with a The Colts' Jon Hand brings down Jim McMahon, just one of five sacks of the Chargers' quarterback in the 10-6 loss to Indianapolis Sunday.

A GLANCE Chargers Brooks, 25-yard pass from Trudeau at 13:06. 87-yard dnve, 6 plays. Key gains Rison, 18, pass from Trudeau to Indianapolis 27; Ockerson, 18. run to Charger 47; Bentley, 22, pass from Trudeau to Charger 25. PAT Biasuca.

Field goals missed Bahr (San Diego) I (44). 1 .822 no-shows) MMVIOUAL STATISTICS Clursart TCB Spencer 20 78 Nelson 9 Holland 2 McManon 2 17 Totals 33 TCB 17 1 2 I 3 NYG 30 18 II 3 3 Dickerson Rison Bentley Ramsey Trudeau NYG 41 41 177 San Diego 0 3 0 36 tnOianapoM 0 3 0 7-10 SCCOW QUARTER Clurftri 3. MlaiMooIrs 0 Ban. 33-yard field goal at 4:21. 42 yard drive, 1 1 plays after Glenn intercepted Trudeau pass at Charger 43.

Key play McMahon, 1 1, run to to rorJianaooks 38 on trwd-and-eight. Char SefS 3, IndlaAaooflf 3 Biasucci. 20 yard flew goal at 14 06. 69-yard drive, 6 (Hays. Key gains Bentley.

25, pass from Ramsey plus 22 more often Bentley later Med to Verdin for total of 47. fOURTH QUARTER Chargers MUnapots 3 Bahr. 3B.yard field goal at 11:19. Minus 8-yard dnve, 4 plays, after McConkey 20.yard punt return and 1 2 yard face mask penalty against Lowty gavt Chargers first down at Indianapolis 12. MUnapoItt 10, Chargers I TEAM STATISTICS SO I First downs 14 II Rushes-yards i 33-177 24-59 Net.

yd. passing 137 205 Sacks yd lost 5-36 211 Passes 18330 16301 rm.yd.ret 10 00 Plays net yd 71-314 56-264 Puntsaverage 9 40.7 Puntsret.yd 8 75 114 Kickoffsret.vrJ 3-62 3 61 FumNes lost I I I I PenaNiesyards 13-97 4 45 Time of possession 37:34 22:26 Totals 24 PA 32 Chargers McMahon I Totals 33 59 PC 18 0 18.