Barnhouse's Bottom 25: San Diego State

Legendary sportswriter Wendell Barnhouse recently left the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and is now a correspondent for Big 12 Sports.com. With 30 years experience of observing the college scene, his expertise is unmatched. In the spirit of Steve Harvey's Bottom Ten, Wendell will provide us a capsule look at college football's less fortunate, counting down the Bottom 25 teams in Division I-A football.

No. 18 San Diego State
Location: San Diego.
Nickname: Aztecs.
Conference: Mountain West.
Coach: Chuck Long, 7-17 in two seasons.
Division I-A history: 469-367-32 in 85 seasons, .559 winning percentage.
Last bowl season: 1998.
Best record last five years: 6-6 in 2003.
Rank(ed) because: A school located in a paradise like San Diego, in a state that produces hundreds of Division I-A players, shouldn't be struggling to stay out of the basement of a non-BCS conference.
Negative number: The Aztecs last had a winning season in 1996 and have finished above .500 five times in the last 20 years.
Possible victory: UNLV, Nov. 22. San Diego State should defeat I-AA Cal Poly in the season opener. Instead of the obvious answer, we'll go with the season finale. If the Aztecs haven't lost hope by late November, they should be able to defeat the Rebels. The winner might avoid finishing last in the Mountain West.
Biggest blowout: At Notre Dame, Sept. 6. Considering the Aztecs are facing the insecure and inconsistent Irish, maybe the scoreboard won't get too lopsided.
Is there hope?: Long proved himself as an outstanding offensive coordinator at Oklahoma. He has yet to prove himself as a winning head coach. The program needs to show improvement this season or Long's tenure could be short.

Thanks to the Helmet Project.