Columnist Steve Guiremand: Aztecs’ Tollner one of the best in coaching ranks

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 9:14 a.m.

Steve Guiremand's college football notebook appears Friday. Reach him at steveg@lasvegassun.com or 259-2324.

You know that old saying that "nice guys finish last."

Well, don't believe it. All you need to do is look at the man pacing the sidelines for San Diego State in Saturday afternoon's Las Vegas Bowl VII at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Aztecs head coach Ted Tollner is one of the true nice guys of the college coaching profession. And he's here in Las Vegas this week because San Diego State finished tied for first --- not last --- with BYU in the WAC's Pacific Division this year.

This was Tollner's ninth year as a college head coach. I was fortunate to cover him in 1986, his final year at USC.

For those Jeff Horton supporters who think Horton got the short end of the stick for being fired after a 0-11 season and 16 straight losses, consider the plight Tollner faced at USC.

He was fired after just four seasons by new athletic director Mike "The Executioner" McGee and just two years after upsetting fifth-ranked Ohio State in the 1985 Rose Bowl, 20-17.

Tollner took over a Trojan program that was in the midst of probation for ticket scalping that had been going on all the way back to the heyday of John McKay, and he brought in blue chip recruits like Rodney Peete, Tim McDonald, Mark Carrier, Tim Ryan, Dan Owens, Paul Green, Dave Cadigan and Jeff Bregel. Those players would be the cornerstone of USC teams that went to three straight Rose Bowls under his replacement, Larry Smith.

But McGee, wanting to bring in his own guy, never gave Tollner the chance to reap the benefits of his hard work. He fired him in 1986 despite the fact Tollner's young squad went 7-4 and was invited to play in a New Year's Day bowl game, the Florida Citrus Bowl, against Auburn. Four of those wins came against teams ranked in the Top 20.

Class in session

Tollner could have been bitter but exited with class and dignity. Ironically, it wasn't until about six years later, when Smith fell on his face, that Tollner finally received his just due from Trojan alums.

The popular theory around Heritage Hall among boosters was that Smith had won with Tollner's players, but failed miserably with his own recruits.

"Class is the only way Ted knows how to operate," Chicago Bears head coach Dave Wannstedt, a defensive coordinator for Tollner at USC, said. "Look at what he did at USC. He took a program from probation to a bowl. He restocked USC, then got fired before he got a chance to reap the benefits. He is one of the best men I've ever met in this game."

Tollner, one of the most respected quarterback coaches around and the man who helped groom Jim McMahon and Steve Young at BYU, won't have to worry about getting the rug pulled out from under his feet at San Diego State.

Aztecs athletic director Rick Bay, in an unusual but brilliant move, gave Tollner an almost unheard of 10-year contract extension in 1997.

Staying put

Why would Bay do such a thing? Well, for one thing, he was A.D. at Ohio State when Tollner's Trojans upset the Mike Tomczak and Keith Byars-led Buckeyes with arguably the worst starting backfield in recent USC history --- quarterback Tim Green, plodding fullback Todd Steele and tailback "Four-yard" Freddie Crutcher.

"I just knew that if Ted left that I'd be out there looking for someone just like him," Bay said.

"I knew that, like me, Ted likes living in San Diego. He's running the show here. It's his program. I thought that if I could make it reasonably attractive for him in salary and compensation and also give him security, maybe that would be enough to compete with the offers he'd be getting from NFL teams and other schools. And it was."

Tollner has gone 28-18 in his last four seasons at San Diego State despite annually playing one of the nation's toughest preseason schedules. The Aztecs lost their first three games this year to Rose Bowl-bound Wisconsin, Sun Bowl-bound USC and Holiday Bowl-bound Arizona. Their only WAC loss was to Liberty Bowl-bound BYU.

But Bay says it was a successful year for the Aztecs for more than just wins and losses.

"Not only did we have a co-championship team in our division, but, knock-on-wood, we also had very few off-the-field problems and citizenship problems. And all 13 of our seniors are on pace to graduate.

"That's really the key," Bay continued. "Winning, academics and citizenship. If you have all three or near all three in a season, then you've had a pretty successful year."

Elsewhere ...

Even though he may play only a few series in Saturday's Las Vegas Bowl, it figures to still be worth the price of admission just to say you once saw North Carolina's talented freshman quarterback Ronald Curry in person. And Tar Heels corner Dre Bly is a future NFL first-round pick. It's not every day you get a chance to see this type of talent at Sam Boyd Stadium. ...

The most exciting player in Saturday's game will be San Diego State's lightning-quick 5-7 return man, Damon Gourdine, who led the WAC and was No. 2 in the nation in punt returns with a 18.4 average. He returned two punts for touchdowns. His father is "Little Anthony" of the Motown group "The Imperials." ...

Long Beach Poly quarterback Chris Lewis (6-4, 205), who has verbally committed to Stanford, was named Gatorade's national player of the year this week, but some scouts believe Los Angeles Venice QB J. P. Losman (6-4, 180) could be even better. Losman is going to graduate early this month and enroll in UCLA in January so he can take part in spring drills. He is expected to make a serious challenge to replace Heisman finalist Cade McNown at starting quarterback next fall. ...

Ted Tollner had a pretty fair special teams coach at USC in 1986. Some energetic, go-getter guy by the name of Steve Mariucci. ...

Rumor has it that Florida's Steve Spurrier and former UCLA coach Terry Donahue are on the short list for the vacant San Diego Chargers head coaching job. ...

In the wake of the disappointing season-ending 49-45 loss at Miami, UCLA defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti has been getting crucified on L.A. sports talk shows and also in the letters to the editor section of his local sports pages. But shouldn't Aliotti, the architect of Oregon's 1994 "Gang Green" defense that took the Ducks to the Rose Bowl, actually be praised for managing to find a way for his young and inexperienced defense to come up with 10 wins in a very competitive Pac-10 race? ...