"I think everybody is saying the same thing: There should be no reason that San Diego State isn't a whole heck of a lot better."

Craig Thompson | Mountain West commissioner to the San Diego Union-Tribune at the conference football meetings in July.

Seven seasons ago San Diego State played its last football game in the Western Athletic Conference before hopping the fence to the Mountain West Conference, where it was convinced the grass would be considerably greener.

The Aztecs, who had helped send Hawai'i to an 0-12 finish in 1998, were 7-4 and postseason-bound in what was to herald the beginning of the long-anticipated rekindling of SDSU glory.

Now, as the two former WAC foes are reunited Saturday night at Aloha Stadium, the 5-6 Aztecs are still waiting for the good times to roll and victories to pile up. And, waiting...

As disappointed as UH and its fans might be about missing out on a bowl for the first time in four years or the first losing season in five years, consider the Aztecs' head-scratching plight. SDSU has had one bowl appearance in 14 years, this season will be its seventh in a row without a winning record and Tom Craft (20-28) could be the second Aztec head coach in five years to pay for the drought with his job.

Indeed, the Aztecs' only consistency has been the curious ability to underachieve over the long haul. This despite assets many schools dream of. Located in a fertile recruiting area, blessed with good weather, fine facilities and less than arduous admissions, the Aztecs have been the tease of West Coast football, a program with the potential to be so much better than it has turned out. A program stuck in mediocrity as illustrated by having three players taken in the 2005 draft off a 4-7 team.

Once upon a not-so-distant time the Aztecs' loudly stated ambition was to become, in the words of then-athletic director Fred Miller and a series of head football coaches, "the Miami of the West."

Once the Aztecs had running back Marshall Faulk and receiver Darnay Scott roaming as free on football fields as the untethered dreams of their coaches and administrators. "Miami took off in the 1980s, and we think we can take off in the '90s," Miller told anybody who would listen as he campaigned for Pac-10 membership.

But liftoff never came. In three seasons of the tandem of Faulk and Scott, both high NFL draft picks, the Aztecs didn't win a single title and went to one bowl. Meanwhile, UH won the 1992 WAC title, played in San Diego's Holiday Bowl and had a Top 20 finish.

Nor have subsequent administrations and coaches succeeded in turning potential into performance for the shoulda, coulda, woulda Aztecs. Even after leaving the WAC, the Aztecs remain tougher to explain than to beat.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.