You ask the question directly, face to face, because it’s the topic almost everyone following San Diego State football is wondering.

Are you the Aztecs’ offensive coordinator next season?

“I firmly believe I am,” Jeff Horton said.

The reality: There’s hardly anything firm about it. The Aztecs — despite being 8-3 — continue to flail away at offensive problems without any confidence-stoking solution in sight.


The record says almost nothing about the offense and everything about an elite Mountain West defense that ranks third and sixth nationally in rushing yards and points allowed, respectively.

The other side of the ball, despite rare glimpses, has been atrocious by almost any standard. The Aztecs are ranked 112th out of 130 FBS programs in total offense and 118th in points scored.

The uncomfortable clues revealed themselves early as San Diego State collected just a pair of field goals against FCS Weber State in the opener. Versus the last five opponents, all allowing more than 30 points per game, the offense is averaging 17.6 — including 11 in the last matchup with Hawaii, the 86th-ranked defense in the game.

Throw in Colorado State and Utah State, both essentially in the same 30-points-allowed club, and it’s not like the Aztecs are facing Mike Singletary and the 1985 Bears.


The production woes rank among historic lows in program history. Union-Tribune reporter Kirk Kenney mined numbers to show the current average of 19.5 is flirting with the Chuck Long basement. That, after the Aztecs implemented a spread offense as coach Rocky Long vowed everything was on the table following a late-season collapse in 2018.

“We’ve got to get more big plays,” Horton said. “What have we done good? We’re top (two) in the nation in fewest turnovers. We’re (seventh) in time of possession. Those things are good. That helps keep your defense off the field.

“But if you have the ball like that without turning it over, you’ve got to score more. That’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job scheming things.”

That’s why the offense’s inability to finish has grown so confounding. Of the six teams ahead of the Aztecs nationally in time of possession, five have been ranked at some point this season. Just one major-college team has coughed up the football less than San Diego State.


Those numbers underscore the head-scratching failures as drives grow whiskers. With simply average offensive numbers the last two seasons, the Aztecs might have lost as few as two games — against Stanford and Frisco Bowl-opponent Ohio in 2018 — instead of nine.

“It’s totally based on execution,” Long said. “That’s personnel, too. They’re the ones that have to execute the scheme. Do we think that we don’t enough talent? No, we think there’s enough talent there.

“I don’t think there is any other issue (than execution).”

When Long insists the talent is there and the hiccups are entirely execution-based — whether intended or not — it signals coaching. This isn’t Week 3 or 4. The fly in the scoring ointment remains an issue 11 games in.


So, what might fix this? Here’s a start: Keep the phone number for Mike Martz handy. These are uncomfortable things, unseating loyal and hard-working lieutenants with piles of sweat equity — but something substantial needs to change.

Martz wields an elite offensive mind, winning the Super Bowl as an offensive coordinator before guiding the Rams to another as head coach. The San Diego native fell in love with Air Coryell. He jumped at the chance to coach the fly-by-night Fleet of the Alliance of American Football, telling the U-T, “How good is this? Coaching in San Diego. It doesn’t get any better.”

Imagine a Martz offense paired with a Long-Brady Hoke defense.

That might not be the direction Long opts to go — either with a change at all, or Martz if there is a change — but it’s hugely unwise not to consider it, at the very least.


The Aztecs have not been dealt the best hand late in 2018 and again in ’19, considering top running back Juwan Washington continues battling injuries. It’s true, too, that the officiating fates have dented momentum in recent weeks.

But that, as they say, is football.

Horton, a good guy in a less-than-ideal situation, who once led the nation in offense at Nevada in 1993, admitted feeling the outside heat.

“When you sign up, that’s part of it,” he said. “You’re going to get barbecued on social media. Everybody’s going to have a better play. That’s part of the job. If I let that stuff bother me, I wouldn’t have lasted 39 years.


“I answer to coach. He’s my boss. That’s all I worry about.”

This team still could finish with 10 wins. With Stanford falling short this season, the Aztecs will become the only FBS program in California with an active, decade-long bowl run.

In the past, you could thank the combination of star running backs D.J. Pumphrey, Rashaad Penny and dependable defensive grit. This season, the gratitude needs showered on a defense that has been a rock during a point-scoring drought.

The last season and a half have revealed very real and concerning offensive cracks.


If interested, Martz could be the glue the Aztecs sorely need.