Pioneer Football League Commissioner Patty Viverito hesitated a few seconds, choosing her words carefully before beginning to talk about whether USD was in the league's forefront when it comes to scheduling tough nonleague opponents.
“Let's just – let's just say that San Diego has really sort of stepped outside of the nonscholarship scheduling comfort zone – consistently,” said Viverito, adding that the league has never pushed its eight teams, which are all nonscholarship, to “schedule up.”
As the Toreros (2-0) prepared to host Northern Colorado of the Big Sky Conference at 6 p.m. today, they practiced knowing this: It's the first time a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) scholarship team will have visited Torero Stadium.
USD's only loss in the past 22 games was against a scholarship team (UC Davis, last season). And although Northern Colorado's Bears are 0-2, their first lost was at then-No. 23 Hawaii.
In the third week of the season, the Toreros are in an unfamiliar position of playing a nonleague game with significance beyond surface level.
Northern Colorado
at Toreros
When: Today, 6 p.m.
Where: Torero Stadium
Radio: AM-620
Records: Northern Colorado 0-2, USD 2-0
Outlook: The Bears, from the Big Sky Conference, have lost 63-6 to Division I-A Hawaii and 31-0 to Chadron State. The team was the focus of national stories because punter Rafael Mendoza was stabbed by backup punter Mitch Cozad last September. Mendoza is back with the team and punting well. . . . USD is averaging 40 points and 416 yards.
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Athletic Director Ky Snyder likes it that way. It's why the 2007 schedule is the school's first containing two scholarship teams.
“We're at that level competitively” said Snyder, who's been AD since 2003 and oversees a team coming off consecutive midmajor national and league titles. Snyder, who said he's in discussions with Southern Utah of the Great West Conference for future games, believes wins against this caliber of competition could come in handy: when at-large bids for the FCS playoffs are given (nonscholarship teams don't receive automatic bids) or when USD's schedule is scrutinized.
The latter might explain what happened when The Sport Network midmajor poll was released Tuesday. Drake (2-0), which last week upset Illinois State, a scholarship FCS team, leapfrogged the Toreros for the No. 1 ranking by one vote. USD's victories have come against Marist College (0-2) and Azusa Pacific (1-2), whose win came against NAIA squad Malone College.
In a way, some of the Toreros' season will be spent explaining differences, encouraging doubters to buy into their particular brand of football, regardless of FCS or Football Bowl Subdivision labels.
When it comes to separating USD's quality of nonscholarship players from those with scholarships, first-year head coach Ron Caragher already has made a distinction.
“At the I-A level, at the FBS level, there are guys who are playing the game only because they can't give up their scholarships,” said Caragher, who spent 12 years coaching at UCLA and Kentucky. “And it goes on everywhere. You find some guys somewhat going through the motions and they lose the love of the game. And they cannot quit because financially they can't give up their athletic scholarships.
“At this level, what I've learned, is every single one of these kids playing football loves the game of football and has a passion for playing the game.”
Senior quarterback Josh Johnson said that, ultimately, the game between scholarship and nonscholarship players is played the same way, with the same rules, the same expectation to win. He's experienced the matchup before, in the UC Davis loss, where the Toreros led early in the third quarter.
“I feel like we gave that game away,” he said. “They ended up winning. I'm not going to make excuses about it. They won. But (the talent level) wasn't as different as I think a lot of people perceived it to be. We matched up well with a scholarship team and we were winning the game until the fourth quarter.
“That's the way I feel about playing anybody in the FCS – the Davis game gave us the realization that we can play with these teams. I think it's gonna show on Saturday.”
