Ryan Lindley is no stranger to embarrassing losses.
He was San Diego State’s quarterback in 2008, when the Aztecs infamously lost 70-7 at New Mexico.
The embarrassment was on the other side of the ball on that occasion. This time, it was the Aztecs’ offense that went AWOL in a 6-0 loss to Nevada two weeks ago.
The sentiment was the same in the locker room.
Lindley, now SDSU’s offensive coordinator, connected past and present recently with the current Aztecs.
“The worst thing, hands down, about football is you can’t get in the saddle for another week,” Lindley said after practice earlier this week.
SDSU (3-5, 1-3 MW) had an open week last week, making the Aztecs wait twice as long to return to the field. They meet Utah State (3-5 1-3) for Saturday afternoon’s Mountain West game at Snapdragon Stadium.
“I’m pretty happy about how they’re internalizing it,” Lindley said. “It would be soft to tell our guys to forget about it. I don’t think we’ve told them to completely flush it. We’ve told them to let it fuel you. …
“Let’s get real about how everybody felt about that and the fact that it’s embarrassing. Players felt that way. Coaches felt that way.
“You want to get back on the horse. That’s the No. 1 thing.”
Indulge Lindley’s horse and saddle references. After all, he attended El Capitan High School, where the football field was adjacent to the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds.
“When you get slapped in the face,” Lindley said, “the reaction is either you cower, you hide and you don’t want to get back in the saddle, you don’t want to get back in action, or you’re chomping at the bit to lose that taste out of your mouth.”
While he wants the loss to fuel SDSU this weekend and the three that follow it, Lindley doesn’t want the players to dwell too much on one game.
“It’s the same group that put up 21 points in the fourth quarter against Hawaii (in a 41-34 win) and scored as many points as we did against Boise State (in a 34-31 loss) and have done some good things,” Lindley said. “Don’t let one hiccup — and it’s a bad one — but don’t let one hiccup make you think that we don’t have this figured out or we aren’t getting in the right direction and trending positively overall.”
Lindley said the focus was on fundamentals when the Aztecs returned to the field last week.
For his part, “I looked at all the places where I could have put the guys in better situations to be successful,” Lindley said.
He challenged the veterans, in particular, to be better.
“There was blame to be placed all around,” he said. “For me, I look at our coaching staff and we’re the adults in the room. We’ve got to get the guys ready to play. I take that all on our shoulders.”
There is some level of confidence that needs to be restored.
“When you’re coming off a game like that, if you come back and you’re extremely confident, you might be some level of a sociopath,” Lindley said. “The reality is you need to make sure our confidence takes a boost after that game because we need to build it back up.”
As far as potential changes in the starting lineup or rotation, Lindley said, “for gamesmanship purposes, I wouldn’t get into details of that.”
He did hint at more carries for redshirt freshman running back Lucky Sutton (Cathedral Catholic High School) and another opportunity for junior running back Jaylen Armstead.
Both have used scout-team reps to prepare for opportunities.
“They’ve kind of gotten a little role reversal,” Lindley said. “Jaylen’s spent some time on scout team (after opening the season as a starter), using those reps, and explaining to him that that’s the same way Lucky sharpened his sword.”
There should be better balance than was displayed against Nevada — 39 runs and 14 passes — but there will be no dramatic changes to the offense.
“We’re going to stick with what we do,” Lindley said. “We’re going to execute what we do better. We’re going to get our guys to play a little faster and trust in what they do.”
