Cougars look to rally vs. SDSU

What's not easy during a campaign like this one is remaining positive. And Crowton is Norman Vincent Peale with a headset.

"He's a competitor. That's one thing about coach Crowton," said junior middle linebacker Mike Tanner, who will make his first collegiate start today in place of Paul Walkenhorst, who has switched to strongside linebacker.

"He doesn't like to lose as bad as anyone I've ever seen. When he loses, he's very positive about it. You can see it in his face and in his emotions that it's hard on him and it's hard on everybody. When you have a leader like coach Crowton, who's positive in the worst situations, it's easy to be positive."

It appears that Crowton's disposition has indeed spread through most of his team. At practice, the mood is light, as if the players are oblivious of their 3-5 overall record and 0-3 conference mark. Discouragement is not readily evident, despite all that's gone wrong.