San Diego State desperately needs a win

It’s going to be something to see how the Chargers and San Diego State react on the football field this weekend.

The Chargers will just be playing/hoping not to get anybody hurt when they close their exhibition season Friday night at San Francisco.

But it will be much different Saturday night for SDSU.

The Aztecs will be fighting for their season when they open by hosting Cal Poly, a team from the next division down in college football.

This is the same Cal Poly bunch that came to San Diego two years ago and upset the Aztecs, 16-14, when Coach Chuck Long became too conservative.

If SDSU loses to the Mustangs again, it may be the beginning of the end for Long on Montezuma Mesa.

While experienced on defense, the Aztecs are very young offensively.

Much of their season rides on redshirt freshman quarterback Ryan Lindley out of El Capitan High School.

His father, Tim Lindley, was a water polo All-American at Monte Vista High School. Ryan will try to take the family genes to another lofty status when he begins his Aztec career.

The SDSU defense is solid; the offense may not be. We’ll see.

Prediction: SDSU 20, Cal Poly 13

Channel 4 San Diego ready for some (prep) football

Channel 4 San Diego is going straight to the top for its 2008 prep football coverage.

Poway High School, the defending San Diego Section CIF Division I champion, will be featured in the first telecast of the season when it travels to Scripps Ranch on Friday, Sept. 5.

There will be something new about the telecasts this fall. Each will be shown on a tape delay on Saturdays at noon or 1 p.m.

Traditionally, the taped broadcasts have received better ratings than live telecasts … probably because the multitudes interested in high school football are already at a game on Friday night.Here is the taping schedule for the four weeks of Friday Night Football:

Sept. 5: Poway at Scripps Ranch
Sept. 12: Ramona at El Capitan
Sept. 19: El Camino at Escondido
Sept. 26: Otay Ranch at Helix

After Week 4, Channel 4 will announce its coverage on a “flex” schedule similar to the one used by the NFL for its Sunday night games on NBC.

Those games will be based on attempting to cover the best match-up in the county each week.

Steve Quis and Lew Bush will again return as the more-than-capable announcers for prep football on Channel 4.