By Ken Ables
Contributing Writer
San Diego State will be honoring the 2015 Mountain West Champion Aztecs at the Cal game this Saturday. Ten years ago, that Aztec squad ran the Mountain West table to finish 8-0 in the regular season, then beat Air Force 27-24 in the MW Championship game at Qualcomm Stadium. They finished the season with a 42-7 dismantling of Cincinnati in the Hawai’i Bowl on Christmas Eve.
Two Honor Warriors from have been chosen to highlight for this weekend’s festivities of that 10 year old Championship team: RB Donnel Pumphrey and Head Coach Rocky Long.
Rocky would coach four more seasons after that remarkable 2015 season, including back-to-back MW championships after beating Wyoming on the road in 2016. He retired from head coaching after the Aztecs beat Central Michigan 48-11 in the New Mexico Bowl, in the same stadium where he played as a college QB and later coached his alma mater.
Rocky spent 11 seasons on Montezuma Mesa from 2009-2019.: the first two as Brady Hoke’s defensive coordinator, and the final nine as head coach. How good was Rocky as Aztec head coach? His record is 81-38, and his 81 wins are second only to Don Coryell’s 104, and 20 more than Claude Gilbert’s win total. Rocky’s .681 winning percentage is third best among Aztec head coaches after Don’s .840 and Claude’s .697.
Rocky valued toughness from his players and, also from the fans. For example: the temperature at kickoff was 5 degrees for the night game at Boise State in 2014. All but one of the fans who usually were on the sidelines for road games stayed warm in the athletic director’s box.
That one die-hard on the sidelines? My Dad, 88-year-old Tom Ables. At a booster lunch the following week, Rocky made a comment about it. One of the fans in the lunch shouted out “Not Tom. He stayed on the sidelines all game!” Rocky’s response: “Tom’s tougher than all of you.”
The old joke among opponents was that if you punched the Aztecs in the mouth, they ran to the beach. (That may have been Rocky’s quote while head coach at New Mexico). That joke died in 2009.
Among Aztec coaches who coached multiple seasons, only Rocky and Don Coryell never had a non-winning season. A Rocky Long coached team never won fewer than seven games in a season. That’s the “best worst” for any Aztec coach (Don was 6-5 in his only season with more than two losses).
Rocky’s Aztecs appeared in bowl games in each of his nine seasons as head coach, six games ahead of Don and Brady. And his 119 games coached is second only to Don’s 125.
Rocky was known for his 3-3-5 defense, and his Aztecs were 10-4 vs. Washington State, Boise State, Cal, Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA and BYU. But his Aztec offenses and special teams excelled as well. During the Rocky Long era at San Diego State, four players set or tied 9 NCAA records, and the 2016 team set a tenth.
Donnel Pumphrey: 6,405 career rushing yards; most seasons gaining 1,500+ rushing yards (3).
Rashaad Penny: 9 career kicks (kickoffs and punts) returned for a touchdown; 8 career kickoffs returned for a touchdown; most yards gained per rush (minimum of 280 rushes) in a season (7.78 yards in 2017); most consecutive games with 200+ rushing yards (5 in 2017); scoring a rushing, receiving, kickoff and punt return touchdown in a game (Nevada in 2017).
Ronnie Hillman: 99-yard touchdown run (can be tied, but never broken).
Calvin Munson: Most pick-sixes in a game by a linebacker (2 vs. USD in 2015).
And the 2016 Aztecs are the only team in NCAA history with a 2,000 and 1,000 yard rusher (Pumphrey and Penny).
Donnel, Rashaad and Nico Siragusa were all first-team All Americans that Rocky coached. And Ronnie, Gavin Escobar, Tyler Roemer and Tariq Thompson were all first-team Freshman All Americans.
Rocky was named MW coach of the year three times. Donnel was a two-time MW Offensive Player of the Year, and Rashaad was a four-time MW Player of the Year (Offensive POY and 3x Special Teams POY). Rocky and Donnel will be the Honor Warriors for the Cal game on Saturday.
Before winning 10 games in a row, the 2015 Aztec season got off to a rocky start (no pun intended). After taking care of an overmatched USD team, the Aztecs lost their next three games: at Cal (unremarkable: the home team is 9-0 in the series; a good omen for Saturday!), South Alabama at the Q (unbelievable) and at Penn State (understandable).
In the Sons of Montezuma podcast this week, 2015 team Captain Pearce Slater told us that the captains held a team meeting after Penn State and made it clear that the losing had to stop. The next week the Aztecs beat Fresno State, took back the Old Oil Can and won the next nine games after that. Mission accomplished.
Ten years later, the Aztecs also find themselves 1-1 after two games. Even if the visitors manage to win a game in this series, there is still a lot of football to be played. See you at Snapdragon.
GO AZTECS!
The Aztecs host CAL Golden Bears at 7:30pm PST in San Diego, California. The game can be televised on CBS Sports Network and audio broadcast available on AM Sports 760.
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