Here’s what new San Diego State football Coach Brady Hoke is selling:
“T” — toughness.
“E” — effort.
“A” — accountability.
The question is: are you buying?
While you ponder your potential purchase, a quick word from the guys that really matter: the Aztec players.
Not only are these guys buying Hoke’s TEA, they’re practically getting high on the stuff. And that’s a good thing.
While it may seem almost hard to believe, there are no signs whatsoever on Montezuma Mesa of the disaster that was the 2008 football season. A 2-and-10 season that was so messy it made the famous Boston Tea Party seem almost civilized.
You’d have an easier time cleaning up an oil spill than you would trying to straighten out a year in which SDSU lost three consecutive games in October by a combined 146-24 and then, to prove it was no fluke, lost three consecutive games in November by a margin of 139-36.
But with the ‘09 training camp getting underway earlier this week, amazingly, the good times appear to be flowing. Talk to Aztec players and the word is this: turning things around this season should be a Snap (ple?).
Yes indeed. At least for now, Hoke’s TEA is a best-seller. And to hear that, my friends, feels better than taking the Nestea Plunge.
Milling Says This Year's Aztecs Will Be A Hit
I visited with senior defensive leaders Jerry Milling and Jonathon Soto on Monday and both sounded as if they’re ready to make a run to the BCS. (the entire interview can be heard here on 619sports.net).
Milling talked a lot about the “T”: “We’re going to be so much tougher this season.” Soto discussed the “E”. “You’re going to see a 100-percent effort for four quarters in every game.” They both mentioned the “A”: “As seniors we’ve been made accountable. And that’s the way it should be.”
Of course, to hear any player on any team anywhere talk confidently about an upcoming season is no great surprise. But to hear them talk confidently — and believe what they’re saying after what they went through last year — is at least somewhat notable.
If nothing else, Hoke has managed a 180-degree change in attitude faster than you can down a sweetened glass of Lipton.
The new coach’s message from day one: forget everything that happened in ‘08, and here’s the way we’re going to do things in ‘09.
One of those things included a spring and summer of hell for the players under the watchful eye of SDSU’s new strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman.
Said Soto: “That guy worked us so hard it was almost scary.”
The results are already showing. Most every Aztec offensive and defensive lineman has trimmed weight and added muscle. Most every other Aztec is already talking about dominating fourth quarters.
Hoke, himself, said: “The first thing we needed to do was to make sure that our players will be just as strong finishing games as they will starting them.”
New offensive line coach Darrell Funk said: “Our guys are going to be able to keep pounding for 60 minutes. I saw what Coach Wellman did in my one season with him and Coach Hoke at Ball State. And he’s doing it again here.”
Said Milling, summing it up: “Coach Wellman is one bad a**.”
I haven’t met the strength and conditioning coach yet, and I’m not so sure I want to. He may want to make the sure the radio announcers are in better shape as well (you listening, Mr. Leitner?).
Of course, none of the talk and none of the belief and even none of the TEA will amount to even so much as refreshing squirt of lemon if SDSU doesn’t show progress on the field.
And with 10 consecutive non-winning seasons lined up ahead of this one, it’s understandable that you’d be wary. After all, people seemed fired up when Tom Craft arrived on campus several year ago and were equally enthused about the hiring of Chuck Long in 2006.
But those guys had no TEA for sale. I must admit, at the moment, I’m drinking.
– Ello
