By Agustin Gonzalez, Assistant Sports Editor

Dear San Diego State football players,

What’s up? I’ve wanted to personally meet all of you, but the bright lights and rapid-fire questioning at postgame press conferences don’t exactly make for the best conversation opportunities.

But wow. You guys almost beat TCU on Saturday! That performance you put on was something no one outside of San Diego (or even many in “America’s Finest City”) saw coming. In fact, a lot of people thought you were going to get your asses handed to you.

Guilty as charged.

Who knew that a 27.5-point underdog would put a scare into one of the scariest teams in the country, hang 35 points on the nation’s leading defense and do it on the road, where that team has struggled all year against far less talented foes?

But you did, and in the process you very well may have ruined the Horned Frogs’ chances for the national championship. Not only that, but if you hadn’t fallen asleep in the second quarter, you could have upset the best team in Mountain West Conference history, maybe even the best team this school has ever faced.

Who are you guys? This isn’t the same team I saw barely beating the conference’s cellar-dwellers earlier this season, so who are you? In fact, that question ranks up there in my life’s biggest questions, right behind, “Why do bad decisions make the best stories?” “How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?” and most importantly, “Was learning cursive really necessary?”

I heard from a short, green, frog-like source that some of you weren’t too happy with what I wrote last week.

Good.

Here’s what I want you to do: Tape that column to your locker to read before every practice. Envision this pretty face when you unleash vicious hits on the tackling dummies. When you’re out in battle on Saturday, remember the words critics such as myself, and let it add fuel to the competitive fire that burns deep inside each and every one of you.

And let that fire out against Utah. Wreak havoc on the field. Crush the Utes. Send them out of our house looking like a scared dog with its tail between its legs, happy it’s leaving the MWC so it never has to face us again.

Do it for yourselves. Do it for Coach (please stay Hoke!). But mostly, do it for the red and black faithful. Do it for Tom Ables, who has been to more than 700 Aztec football games. Do it for the fans and the alumni who saw you guys go 2-10 two years ago but still continued to yell until their voices were hoarse and painted their bodies completely red and black every week at the “Q.” There weren’t many of them at first, but the fans are coming around. In fact, after the display you guys put on last week, you should have 45,000 of them on Saturday. Make sure they don’t go home disappointed.

Your motto all season has been the same: “Finish.” Let’s see you do it, and end the year with no more “Ls.”

Maybe we’ll get the chance to meet face-to-face sometime. On second thought, you probably wouldn’t like a skinny, smart-ass ex-frat boy. Yeah, let’s skip the formal introductions. It’s way more fun talking to you here anyway.

P.S. You guys are starting to look like your head coach: A perennial winner.

P.p.s. Is it too early to start a TCU-SDSU rivalry? Make it happen fellas.

—Agustin Gonzales is a journalism senior.

—This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec.