San Diego State Football: 8 Bold Predictions for the Aztecs in 2011

The San Diego State Aztecs finished the 2010 season with a 9-4 record, which was their highest win total since the 1977 season. San Diego State capped off the season with a Poinsettia Bowl victory over Navy. The win gave the Aztecs their first bowl victory since 1969.

Normally, there would be a ton of media hoopla surrounding a school that had its best season in decades. However, the Aztecs lost their head coach Brady Hoke to Michigan. They also lost their two starting wide receivers Vincent Brown and DeMarco Sampson to the NFL. 

Despite the losses at receiver, the Aztecs still have a ton of firepower returning on offense, including Ryan Lindley and Ronnie Hillman.

On the defensive side of the ball, Miles Burris will strike fear in opposing offenses from the outside linebacker position and Leon McFadden is a shutdown corner.

The Aztecs lost Hoke, but they maintained some continuity by promoting Rocky Long from defensive coordinator to head coach. 

San Diego State opens up its season on Saturday against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, so it's time to make some predictions for the year. 

The last time San Diego State traveled to Ann Arbor, Mich. was in 2004 when the Aztecs narrowly lost to the Michigan Wolverines by three points.

While that game has no bearing on the Aztecs' upcoming matchup with the Wolverines due to completely different coaching staffs and personnel, it is still interesting to see that a terrible SDSU team kept up with a very talented Michigan team.

In 2011, the matchup between the two schools features one of the most interesting storylines in college football. The Aztecs will be taking on their once beloved former coach, Brady Hoke. 

With nine players returning on offense, it is clear that Michigan will continue to have playmakers on offense. Denard Robinson is the most exciting player in the country and Roy Roundtree is one of the best receivers in the country.

However, with Al Borges stepping in as the new offensive coordinator at Michigan, it may take a number of games before Michigan adapts to his pro-style offense. The talk in Michigan camp is that Robinson is evolving into a pro-style quarterback, but the transition will still take a long time.

On the defensive side of the ball, Michigan will have nine returners as well. Luckily for the Aztecs, Michigan's defense was terrible last year. Michigan gave up 188.92 rushing yards and 261.85 passing yards per game. The rushing defense was 95th in the country and the passing defense was 112th in the country.

That's where Ryan Lindley, Ronnie Hillman and the four returning San Diego State offensive linemen come in. The offensive line for the Aztecs should be able to beat the Michigan defensive line at the point of attack, giving Hillman room to run and Lindley time to sit in the pocket and deliver.

This game will be big for the receiving corps of the Aztecs. The receivers are as inexperienced as any group in the country. If just one receiver out of the group of Colin Lockett, Paul Pitts, Dylan Denso, Ezell Ruffin, and A.C. Colquitt step up in this game, then Lindley will have a field day.

The reason that Lindley will be able to have a field day if just one receiver produces is because of the embarrassment of riches the Aztecs possess at the tight end position. Gavin Escobar, Alston Umuolo, Bryce Quigley, D.J. Shields and Adam Roberts are all quality tight ends that will see playing time for the Aztecs.

Miles Burris will likely be tasked with the job of spying on Denard Robinson. Burris is a fast and physical linebacker that will be able to stay with Robinson and cause havoc in the backfield when the coaching staff calls for it.

It will be a close game, but Lindley and Hillman will be too much for the poor Michigan defense to handle.

TCU has been one of the best teams in the country in the past few years. However, it returns the second fewest number of starters in the country this season. Only four offensive starters and four defensive starters will be back for the Horned Frogs this season.

Although Tank Carder is a candidate for the Bednarik Award and the favorite for the Butkus Award, the defense is still losing seven of its starters. TCU will continue to be a good defensive team, but it will not perform at the same level as last year.

On the offensive side of the ball, TCU will have someone besides Andy Dalton starting under center for the first time in four years. Casey Pachall looks to be a solid quarterback, but Rocky Long will be sure to throw many different looks out of the 3-3-5 defense at Pachall in an attempt to confuse the first year starter.

One spot where TCU will remain strong is at the running back position. TCU has a great stable of running backs, spearheaded by Ed Wesley. Matthew Tucker and Waymon James are two great running backs that would be starting for many other schools in the country.

The weakness of the Aztecs on defense is their defensive line, but the Horned Frogs have a very inexperienced offensive line this season. This will be good for the Aztecs as they will be able to somewhat hide their one glaring weakness on defense.

The Aztecs lost to the Horned Frogs 40-35 in Fort Worth, Texas last year. This year, the Aztecs will get a shot the Horned Frogs at home. 

Look for the Aztecs to take advantage of the huge turnover in personnel for the Horned Frogs. Ryan Lindley and Ronnie Hillman will have big games against the Horned Frogs and upset TCU in their last season in the Mountain West Conference. 

Tim Jefferson is tough to stop.

Tim Jefferson is even tougher to stop in high altitude and on five days rest. 

Following their euphoric upset over TCU, the San Diego State Aztecs will be riding high. Rocky Long will try to tell them to get over the win and move on to the next opponent. However, that will be far too tough of a task to achieve.

San Diego State will travel to Falcon Stadium unprepared and lose to the Air Force Academy. 

This is a trap game, made even harder due to the altitude and lack of rest. San Diego State is just unlucky that this game is scheduled right after one of its biggest games of the season.

Despite being a tight end, Gavin Escobar is the best receiver on the San Diego State football team. With a plethora of inexperienced wide receivers lining up for the Aztecs this season, Ryan Lindley's passes have to go somewhere. Why not throw it the best receiver on the team?

In Escobar's freshman season, he had 29 receptions, 323 receiving yards and four touchdowns. To cap off his great season, The Sporting News named Escobar to its freshman All-American team.  

Entering his second season, Escobar will likely become the primary target on the team. He is a huge target at 6'6", 245 pounds. In addition to his size, Escobar has decent speed, runs solid routes and has huge hands that catch anything that come near them.

Some of Escobar's success last year can be attributed to the attention opposing defenses paid to Vincent Brown and DeMarco Sampson. However, Escobar knows that he must become a focal point of the offense and he will step his game up. 

The one knock on Escobar is that his blocking isn't up to par. However, tight ends are rarely docked for being subpar blocking tight ends when it comes to media attention. Also, it will not hurt the Aztecs much this year due to the outstanding blocking Bryce Quigley provides at tight end. 

(photo by Ernie Anderson)

Miles Burris is an absolute beast. 

Last season, Burris led the Aztecs in tackles with 80. His 9.5 sacks and 20 tackles for loss led the Mountain West Conference.

His play on the field mirrors that of Clay Matthews, and fittingly Matthews is his idol. Similar to Matthews, Burris works extremely hard during the offseason to hush the critics who didn't give him a chance to be a big time football player coming out of high school.

Burris is the strongest player on the team and has gotten much quicker coming off the edge. Thanks to his constant improvement, Burris will be terrorizing opposing quarterbacks and running backs this season en route to an All-American selection. 

(photo by Ernie Anderson)

This is the last All-American slide, I swear. 

Brian Stahovich has a huge boot and he has progressively gotten better each season. He averaged 45.4 yards per punt last year, good for eighth in the country.

One of the highlights of last season for San Diego State was Stahovich's 89-yard punt from the back of the end zone against Wyoming. The punt was the longest in college football since 2004 and the longest in San Diego State history.

Stahovich may not be the best punter in the country, but I certainly believe that he will end the 2011 season as one of the top three.

(photo by Ernie Alexander)

One name on 2012 NFL mock drafts that has surprised many casual football fans is Ryan Lindley.

Ranked by Mel Kiper, Jr. as the best senior quarterback in the country, Lindley comes into the 2012 season with a lot to prove.

Some critics believe that Lindley will do poorly this season due to his inexperienced receivers. However, I believe that Lindley will improve and turn his raggedy group of wide receivers into a decent, experienced receiving corps by the end of the season.

One thing Lindley must focus on is his footwork. He has all the arm strength in the world, but he doesn't step into some of his throws. 

However, it is clear that Lindley can make all of the throws necessary to be an NFL quarterback. His arm strength makes it easy for him to throw deep curls and deep outs.

One of the most important things regarding Lindley's NFL potential is that he works in a pro-style offense. His college stats are not inflated because of gimmick offenses and all of his skills are easily transferable to the NFL.

Looking at the 2011 schedule, I thought that the Aztecs could go 10-2. Then I thought, "That's crazy, SDSU never stepped up in the past." Soon after, I thought about their performance in the Poinsettia Bowl last year. My mind then moved to their four losses last year. All of them were by five points or fewer.

Two of the losses featured huge mistakes by the officials. In the Missouri loss, there was a block in the back by Missouri that went uncalled. In the BYU loss, J.J. Di Luigi clearly fumbled and replay officials, including a BYU video coordinator, claimed Di Luigi did not fumble.

Without these two mistakes, San Diego State possibly could have finished with two losses. But enough with "what ifs."

San Diego State has the talent to be a two loss team this season. Looking at Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated's prediction of a 10-2 season for the Aztecs made me feel a little less crazy.

If everything comes together just right under Rocky Long, a 10-2 regular season could easily happen.