Union-Tribune Aztecs beat writer Mick McGrane met with Long last week to discuss the coach's thoughts on his first two years at SDSU and the upcoming season.

Obviously, you had significant success at the college level both as a player and coach before coming to San Diego State. In your opinion, what is it that has prevented this program from achieving success over the past decade?

“To begin with, I think this (athletic) department has dealt with a lot of change. There's been too much change at the top, and by that I mean change with the athletic director. Jeff (current AD Jeff Schemmel) has been the fifth athletic director (two of whom were interim) in five years. That's not the only reason, but it's certainly a big one. When you have instability like that over the years, where you have that many ADs coming and going, you have coaches coming and going, too. But maybe more importantly, the philosophy (within the athletic department) changes. Right now, at least in my opinion, it's starting to become a more stabilized situation. We're not there yet (with football), but you can see it in almost all of our other sports. Where football is concerned, obviously one of our biggest problems has been attrition. If you're only going to have players who are here for two years (and then leave school), what good does that do for your program? That needed to change, and we've worked hard to address that.”

What was your initial impression of the football program when you arrived three years ago?

“That it was behind the times. It wasn't operating at a Division I level. I don't want to say anything about the previous staff that was here, but our offseason program (in terms of participation) during our first year was nowhere near where it is now; it's completely different. We've been playing catch-up with what's been going on at BYU and TCU and Utah for the past 10 years. We're just beginning to catch up to that. In my opinion, there was no consistency with what was going on. The academic support program (for athletes) was bare bones, at best. We've since doubled our efforts in that area. Are we all the way there yet? No. Obviously, you're not seeing it in terms of wins. But in terms of operating at a Division I level, not only athletically but also in terms of academic support, I think we're starting to see that now.”

You've had a number of problems during your first two years here that had nothing to do with blocking and tackling, problems most notably in the area of academics. How big an obstacle has that been for you?

“I spent probably 80 percent of my time during my first year trying to straighten things out (academically). It's not something you look forward to, but it had to be done; I had no choice. Where coaches get into trouble when they take over a program is that they want to do football all the time. They want to push (academics) off to the side and hope that it eventually goes away, but it never does. It comes back and keeps chipping away at your program. I had to bite the bullet on the football side during that first year, and that's why I hired a couple of coordinators (Bob Elliott and Del Miller) that have twice the experience I do. I knew coming in that I was going to have some battles to fight. Gaining trust from the academic side of campus has been a challenge. But since that first year, I've been able to get things to where I've been able to balance my time better. But I had to take a step backward during that first year to get the academic support in place. I didn't want to find myself saying in Year 4 (Long has a five-year contract) that I should have done that four years ago.”

How concerned are you that this community has grown accustomed to associating San Diego State's football program with losing?

“We have great fans, season-ticket holders who are with us through thick and thin. We're seeing it again this year, and that's a real credit to them considering the way the economy is. One of the first things I was told when I got here was not to expect the kinds of crowds they were getting back in the days when Marshall Faulk was here, when they were getting 45,000. In that regard, nothing has changed for me, because I don't have anything to draw on, I don't know what it was like during that time. The only thing I know is that when we get this thing turned around, and we will, we'll start getting more attention from the community. In the end, it comes down to a simple common denominator, and that's winning.”

Your nonconference schedule this season, at least on paper, would appear to give you a much better chance for success. How important is it for this program, at this point, to schedule teams that are more on par with your own?

“That's a battle we've been fighting since Day 1. When you look at all the teams that have turned their programs around, it started with scheduling. I worked hard with Don Oberhelman (chief operations officer) and Jeff Schemmel for a long time on nothing but scheduling. This is really the first year that we've had a schedule that's more conducive to what we're trying to get done, and it's something we're currently working on all the way through 2015. We played three BCS teams last year (Washington State, Arizona State and Cincinnati); we can't be doing that right now. Those are teams you start adding as you get better. But that doesn't mean we don't have to still go out and earn it. We start the season off with (Division II) Cal Poly, and we don't need to be reminded about what happened two years ago (when the Aztecs lost to Cal Poly 16-14). You have to at least give yourself a chance to win. We have some players on this team who are physically talented enough to play with those BCS teams, but mentally they're just not there yet. Part of teaching kids how to win is teaching them how not to lose. When we would lose a game in Year 1, there wasn't much remorse. Save for a few, it was better last year, players were more emotional after losses. That's when you know, at least from a mental standpoint, that you're taking steps in the right direction.”

You came out of spring drills with four redshirt freshmen holding No. 1 spots on the two-deep chart at their respective positions. Can you win with such little experience, or is this one of those necessary evils that comes with rebuilding a program?

“As a head coach, it's my job to get our players and coaches to throw out the inexperience factor. (Deceased Ohio State coach) Woody Hayes once said that inexperience is just another excuse for losing. I don't look at our team as freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. It doesn't matter. As far as I'm concerned, we're all one class out there. The best players are going to play. If I say to a freshman, 'Don't worry about that mistake, you're just a freshman,' he's never going to grow. There have been plenty of teams that have won with younger players. I think a lot of coaches in the past here have had the same intention, of seeing kids grow up together in the same class, but because of (attrition), a lot of those players were gone after their second year.”

In your mind, what would constitute progress this season?

“I believe we've made progress, but obviously the bottom line is winning games. The goal from Day 1, and it's never going to change, is to get to a bowl game. I know from a foundation standpoint that we're a lot closer to achieving that goal. I also know that when we do flip this thing around, this program is going to be solid for years. There won't be any slipping. You may dip a little bit, but you'll come right back. I do believe it's going to happen. And those are going to be fun times.”

Mick McGrane: (619) 293-1850; mick.mcgrane@uniontrib.com