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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Saturday, December 7, 2002

Aztecs struggling since leaving WAC

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

In a conference room at the Denver International Airport in 1998, San Diego State received an offer it believed it could not refuse.

The Aztecs were asked to join seven other schools in seceding from the Western Athletic Conference, ditching such dead wood as the University of Hawai'i, to form the Mountain West Conference.

At the time, the Aztecs fielded a consistently successful football team, and plans were in the works to build a $20 million athletic complex.

The Aztecs accepted the offer and, soon after, the eight secessionists filed notice with the WAC. On July 1, 1999, the divorce was finalized — and the Aztecs have never been the same.

Tonight at Aloha Stadium, San Diego State and UH meet in a football game for the first time since the split. The four years have changed both teams, and now each is heading in a different direction. After tonight, the Warriors (9-3) prepare to play Tulane in the ConAgra Foods Hawai'i Bowl on Christmas Day; the Aztecs (4-8) are headed for an eight-month offseason.

Four years ago, few imagined it would turn out this way. In the early 1990s, Fred Miller, the athletic director at the time, vowed the SDSU football program would become the Miami of the West. SDSU developed into a feeder school for the National Football League, producing such standouts as running back Marshall Faulk, tackle Kyle Turley and wideout Az Hakim.

In particular, the Aztecs regularly placed "kick me" signs on the Warriors' backs. The Aztecs won all nine meetings between the teams in the 1990s. In 1998, SDSU paid for UH's charter flight to San Diego. During that decade, the only time the Warriors won in San Diego was when they beat Illinois in the 1992 Holiday Bowl.

But the teams' change in fortunes appeared to coincide with another event in San Diego. During a dinner with UH officials in December 1998, June Jones decided to become the Warriors' head coach, rejecting a multi-million offer to remain as head coach of the NFL's San Diego Chargers.

The Warriors had just completed an NCAA-record 0-12 season, the last under Fred vonAppen, but Jones was confident he could resurrect the program.

Jones, a former UH player and assistant coach, believed his run-and-shoot passing attack would be attractive to recruits and fans.

"I had great confidence we were going to move the football and people would come," Jones said. "I knew with the combination of those two things, we'd have success."

The Warriors amassed three nine-victory seasons in Jones' four years as UH's head coach. He predicted that two players from his first UH recruiting class — right guard Vince Manuwai and outside linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa — will be selected in the first two rounds of April's NFL draft.

"That's not too shabby," Jones said.

The Aztecs, meanwhile, have not had a winning season since the defection. This year, they finished third in the Mountain West with a 4-3 league record. But they were 0-5 in nonconference games, failing to meet the postseason requirement of an overall winning record necessary to claim a berth in one of the four MWC bowls.

The SDSU athletic complex has been completed, but the Mountain West lost its automatic tie-in with the Holiday Bowl. That bowl was one of the factors in the decision to invite the Aztecs to join the Mountain West.

The Aztecs' short-term goals no longer include emulating Miami. What's more, they are thinking of scaling back on nonconference schedules in which they often must travel.

First-year coach Tom Craft has implemented a passing attack he believes will help the Aztecs eventually compete for a league title.

"I don't know if it's a four- or five-year plan, but it'll take a good three to four years to get (the program) where it needs to be," Craft said.

Or, at least, where UH is now.