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Post by cvtower on May 27, 2015 12:00:55 GMT -8
First of all, besides beating the Sooners, 1996 was a near perfect season. Aztecs went 8-3 that season with losses at Cal (37-42), at Colorado State (18-27), and at UNLV (42-44). According to the goaztec.com archives, attendance was 34,812 at Jack Murphy Stadium, after there having been a Padres game earlier that day (what would a full capacity Aztec game in the Murph days have been anyway? 45,000? 50,000?). The previous year, SDSU beat Cal at home 33-9 and lost at 14-ranked Oklahoma 22-38.
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Post by aardvark on May 27, 2015 12:07:34 GMT -8
Capacity for football in 1996 was just over 60,000.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2015 12:15:37 GMT -8
So basically the P5 are doing all they can to dismantle what was D1 FB and our attendance really hasn't fallen off much if at all...especially when you consider the effect of HD television on live sporting events...the sky is falling, the sky is falling!
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Post by McQuervo on May 27, 2015 12:42:41 GMT -8
I remember their fans crying... lol
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Post by sleepy on May 27, 2015 13:06:46 GMT -8
I went to both games that day. Padres played the Dodgers earlier that day in a big NL West game with title implications in front of a huge crowd. Much of the media that week focused as much on the ground crews as either of the games.
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Post by Frantic on May 27, 2015 13:18:42 GMT -8
I was at that game. We kicked the snot out of them.
That 1996 Aztec team is the best I've seen. Billy Blanton, George Jones, Az Hakim, Will Blackwell and Leandrew Childs on offense. Eric Lewis, Rico Curtis and Ricky Parker on defense. Still can't believe we lost to UNLV.
That 1996 Oklahoma team was probably the worst in the past 40 years, although the 1997 team sucked too.
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Post by aztecsiggy on May 27, 2015 14:33:44 GMT -8
Those announcers look familiar....
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Post by vision on May 27, 2015 14:36:39 GMT -8
good work. P5 goes down
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Post by tonatiuh on May 27, 2015 16:11:20 GMT -8
I was at that game. We kicked the snot out of them. That 1996 Aztec team is the best I've seen. Billy Blanton, George Jones, Az Hakim, Will Blackwell and Leandrew Childs on offense. Eric Lewis, Rico Curtis and Ricky Parker on defense. Still can't believe we lost to UNLV. That 1996 Oklahoma team was probably the worst in the past 40 years, although the 1997 team sucked too. {quote} Yes, I was at that game with my cousin, and it was a great game! It was somewhat disappointing that we only had 34 thousand plus there, but it could be that some of the Aztec fans may have thought that since we got beat by the Sooners the year before in Norman that we may have not had a chance of beating them at home. How wrong was their assumption. That may not have been a very good Oklahoma team that year, but they were still Oklahoma, and we beat them, so that's all that matters as far as I'm concerned.
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Post by tonatiuh on May 27, 2015 17:39:46 GMT -8
A couple of interesting side notes to the Oklahoma /Aztec game in 1996 was Tollner's assistants he had with him at the time. Two former Aztec HC's on staff ( well, one would be an Aztecs HC in the future anyway). On defense he had Claude Gilbert as DC, and OC was Tom Craft.
One thing that was very humorous was that Gilbert wanted Craft to make his offense slow down, and score while taking more time to move the ball down field. But, Tom, after Oklahoma's ground game took 6-7 minutes to score would put his passing offense in gear, and come back to score within 2 minutes or less. They didn't know how to stop Blanton, and the Aztec's pass offense. They were only good at stopping the run game like they did in the Big 8. They had never seen such a sophisticated passing game like teams in the WAC had at that time. And, they couldn't handle San Diego State in San Diego. Anyway, Gilbert the announcers said was really getting upset at Craft for scoring so quickly, and making his defense stay on the field so long trying to stop OK's ground game which ran for over 300 yards, and 4 TD's. But, our pass offense got 5 TD's to 0 for them, and we still ran for 187 yards on the ground against them.
Another thing about this game was that I believe that we taught Oklahoma a very key point about what they would need to do in order to become a National Champion team in the future. They could no longer be just a great run team, and expect to go very far. They would also need to have a balanced attack with a good QB who could not only hand off, but pass well down field. They have had some good QB's, over the decades, but most did not pass well, and only handed off to great RB's, or ran well themselves. They seem to have learned their lesson that night, because it was only 4 years later that Oklahoma with a very good passing, and running QB (Jason White-Heisman winner) & won the National Championship (2000). And, I might add the QB coach for them that year was another future Aztec HC we all know by the name of Chuck Long.
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Post by Old School on May 28, 2015 8:15:36 GMT -8
"The Boz" sighting at 9:50
Oldie Out
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Post by TruAztec on May 28, 2015 10:44:53 GMT -8
Didn't that game start at 8pm or some really late time?
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Post by retiredaztec on May 28, 2015 11:56:20 GMT -8
A couple of interesting side notes to the Oklahoma /Aztec game in 1996 was Tollner's assistants he had with him at the time. Two former Aztec HC's on staff ( well, one would be an Aztecs HC in the future anyway). On defense he had Claude Gilbert as DC, and OC was Tom Craft. One thing that was very humorous was that Gilbert wanted Craft to make his offense slow down, and score while taking more time to move the ball down field. But, Tom, after Oklahoma's ground game took 6-7 minutes to score would put his passing offense in gear, and come back to score within 2 minutes or less. They didn't know how to stop Blanton, and the Aztec's pass offense. They were only good at stopping the run game like they did in the Big 8. They had never seen such a sophisticated passing game like teams in the WAC had at that time. And, they couldn't handle San Diego State in San Diego. Anyway, Gilbert the announcers said was really getting upset at Craft for scoring so quickly, and making his defense stay on the field so long trying to stop OK's ground game which ran for over 300 yards, and 4 TD's. But, our pass offense got 5 TD's to 0 for them, and we still ran for 187 yards on the ground against them. Another thing about this game was that I believe that we taught Oklahoma a very key point about what they would need to do in order to become a National Champion team in the future. They could no longer be just a great run team, and expect to go very far. They would also need to have a balanced attack with a good QB who could not only hand off, but pass well down field. They have had some good QB's, over the decades, but most did not pass well, and only handed off to great RB's, or ran well themselves. They seem to have learned their lesson that night, because it was only 4 years later that Oklahoma with a very good passing, and running QB (Jason White-Heisman winner) & won the National Championship (2000). And, I might add the QB coach for them that year was another future Aztec HC we all know by the name of Chuck Long. I was at the game too. Here's the difference between OU and State. That year the OU head coach was John Blake. His successor was Bob Stoops and we all know how that turned out. Ted Tollner, the USC reject, had three winning seasons at State. After going 7-4 then an appearance in the Vegas Bowl, his subsequent teams were a combined 11-22, (my flying from the ATL every weekend to watch that crap). It didn't get any better with successive coaches TC and even worse, if that was possible, with Chuck Long. State backed into a winning season with Brady Hoke, (who left the program one game over .500), threw the job to UNM reject Rocky Long and the mediocrity continues. I will gladly contribute to the cause of The Campaign for SDSU, which is raising $750 million to support students, faculty and programing. But as far as extending the life of this pathetic program with a new stadium, presuming the Chargers leave, the program had better hope there's some fat donors who ultimately walk the walk.
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Post by zurac315 on May 28, 2015 16:27:34 GMT -8
So, we beat the Sooners without too much trouble but couldn't beat UNLV. No real surprise there, I guess.
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Post by rolf tomato on May 28, 2015 16:48:14 GMT -8
Didn't that game start at 8pm or some really late time? I think it actually started at about 9:30 or so, but I could be wrong. Originally, ABC was to televise that game as a regional broadcast and the start time was for early afternoon, with the Padres playing the night game afterward. Unfortunately, some other station, (Fox ??), decided it wanted to broadcast the Padre game in the afternoon instead of at night. And since the Padres are the more 'senior' tenant, (for lack of a better term), the Padres played in the afternoon. Then the field had to be reconfigured to football, and then the Aztecs played. So it was a very late start time. For the OU players, it was like playing a game past midnight.
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Post by jdaztec on May 28, 2015 16:48:30 GMT -8
I was at that game as well . The OU Fans sitting behind us were completely shell shocked. If their offense didn't take so long we could have scored 75.
In regard to the UNLV Game our defense was horrible. We still could have won that game.In the last series we were moving the ball in 10-15 yard chunks and could have easily scored.When we got to about their 20 yard line Tollner had us basically center the ball by running it into the middle of the line three times so we could kick a field goal which of course we missed. Then Offensive Coordinator Tom Craft was really pissed at the play calling (so was I).
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Post by AccessBowlTime on May 28, 2015 17:07:17 GMT -8
A date which shall live in infamy: www.fanbase.com/photo/1235282Rumor had it the staff didn't do a bed check the night before and one of our defensive starters was seen by a few SDSU fans shooting craps circa 3 a.m., or about nine hours prior to KO. Somebody once said on the old Aztectalk it was Rico Curtis but in Rico's defense, it couldn't have been him since he was just 18 at the time and Vegas casinos are very diligent about carding anybody who isn't patently over 21.
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Post by aztecmusician on May 29, 2015 11:24:17 GMT -8
I remember driving in Colorado listening to this game on the Oklahoma broadcast. The announcers were shocked at all of the big plays the Aztecs rang up on the OU Defense.
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Post by pbbroker on May 29, 2015 11:30:17 GMT -8
Fun post!
Sooners - wow!
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Post by tonatiuh on May 29, 2015 21:25:58 GMT -8
Gee, retiredaztec, doesn't sound like the Aztecs can do anything to please you! May be you should just do as your name implies, Retire...., and stay that way!
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