Aztecs' coach says overall record not as bad as it looks

ChargerRay · Sep 12, 2005

Craft is just full of excuses! :unknown: If he loses this week, he must go!

NC Times

By: MIKE SULLIVAN - Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO ---- Two games into his fourth season as San Diego State's football coach, Tom Craft has a 14-24 record attached to his name. And next up is Ohio State, which will be an overwhelming favorite to beat the Aztecs on Saturday.

But Craft thinks any criticism directed his way is misguided because of the team's difficult nonconference schedules.

"You keep looking at the overall record, but let's be realistic about it," Craft said. "It's been UCLA four times, and San Diego State has never had any success against them in history.

"Then you had Colorado in there, Arizona State, Michigan and now Ohio State for the second time. That's not a realistic way to re-establish and develop your program."

The tough schedules were put together by former athletic director Rick Bay before Craft's hiring. Craft repeatedly has called for softer schedules since he became coach.

The Aztecs went 4-9 in Craft's first season in 2002, which included losses to Colorado, Arizona State and UCLA. His second team went 6-6 and lost to Ohio State and UCLA. Last year, the Aztecs were 4-7 and lost to Michigan and UCLA.

The current campaign opened with a loss to UCLA, and the Aztecs' record sits at 0-2 after their 41-29 loss to Air Force on Saturday.

Three of Craft's 14 victories have come against Division I-AA programs: Eastern Washington, Samford and Idaho State. He would like to have more of such opponents on the schedule and fewer games against teams like UCLA and Ohio State.

"I'm not ruling out playing those types of teams in the future," Craft said of the powerhouse programs. "You always want to measure yourself against the best. But for so many years, the philosophy of the program was, 'We can't recruit against those people but we're going to play them.'

"My philosophy is we're going to recruit against them but we shouldn't be playing them all the time."

AZTECS NOTES ---- Aztecs coach Tom Craft said Sunday that senior CB Jacob Elimimian suffered a broken right arm in pregame warm-ups Saturday and will be sidelined "indefinitely." Elimimian played in the game. ... Senior LT Chris Pino (stinger) is expected to practice Tuesday. Sophomore RT Mike Kravetz (ankle) is expected to miss Saturday's game at Ohio State. He didn't play at Air Force. Also, junior DT Jonathan Bailes is playing with a sore shoulder.

Aztecs' coach says overall record not as bad as it looks

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Aztecs' coach says overall record not as bad as it looks

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