Associated Press
Chuck Long, officially fired as San Diego State's football coach Sunday, said Monday he had no inkling of his impending dismissal when approached by Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel before Saturday's season finale against UNLV.
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Chuck Long, officially fired as San Diego State's football coach Sunday, said Monday he had no inkling of his impending dismissal when approached by Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel before Saturday's season finale against UNLV.
“I was surprised, especially with it coming on the day of a game,” said Long, who in October had been given assurances by Schemmel that he would oversee the Aztecs through at least the 2009 season.
“When they (gave me a vote of confidence), I felt good. We were moving forward with our plan and looking forward to next season. But things can turn, and obviously that's what happened.”
Indeed, things had been turning for some time. In announcing the decision to dismiss Long, SDSU President Stephen Weber disclosed that an effort to raise private money to buy out the final two years of Long's contract had been in the works for more than two weeks. Weber said approximately $1 million had been raised as of Sunday to cover the more than $1.4 million still owed Long.
Long declined to comment on whether he felt betrayed by the university's dealings to help facilitate his ouster. He did say Sunday's news “was tough to listen to.”
“I was hired to build a good, strong self-sustaining program at San Diego State which needed more than three years,” he said. “It's disappointing to be cut off before we get to see the hard work of building an infrastructure that didn't exist before.”
Long said he has not met with the team since Saturday's game, a 42-21 win that ended a 2-10 season, the program's worst in 25 years.
Chosen to succeed Tom Craft in 2005, Long finished with a 9-27 record. The Aztecs were 1-7 in the Mountain West Conference and at one point endured a seven-game losing streak, their longest since 1983.
Spending much time trying to improve academic support for a program suffering from a downturn in Academic Progress Rate (APR) and its accompanying scholarship reductions, Long also was forced to deal with a number of injuries this season that reached the realm of the absurd. The Aztecs had 19 of 22 starters miss at least one game and had seven defensive linemen suffer season-ending injuries.
“I'm disappointed,” Long said. “If this program stays the course, and you never know how that's going to turn out with a new coaching staff, I think it's very close to being successful on a consistent basis. It's important for the guys on the team to be very coachable and receptive to the ways of a new staff as soon as possible.
“They have a chance over the next couple of years to become pretty darn good. I truly believe that.”
Mick McGrane: (619) 293-1850;
mick.mcgrane@uniontrib.com
