Rocky Long fields a question from KUSI correspondent Vern Troyer.

There was a legendary exchange between former athletic director Jeff Schemmel and Rocky Long when the latter was interviewed for the Aztecs’ head coaching position back in 2005. The actual wording varies depending on who you believe, but here’s the gist:

Jeff Schemmel: I’m not one to screw around so let me just cut to the chase: How have you managed to have such shocking success against us over the years? Are you filming our walkthroughs or something?
Rocky Long: (Laughs). It’s not that, exactly. It’s just that when you punch San Diego kids in the mouth, they run to the beach.
Jeff Schemmel: Punch kids in the mouth? You brute! I’m a family man, sir, and I will not stand for such talk. You can show yourself out— good day sir!
Rocky Long: OK, then. Thanks for your time.
(door swings open, Chuck Long bursts in like Kramer from Seinfeld)
Chuck Long: O hai gaiz!
Jeff Schemmel: You’re hired!

I’m pretty sure it went down exactly like that.

The point of the anecdote is that Rocky Long is a tough-minded son-of-a-gun, and he instills that mindset in his players. He’s like Jack Palance in City Slickers—a grizzled, ornery cuss who can take Billy Crystal and Daniel Stern and mold them into rugged frontiersy types in a hilarious, yet moving adventure.

It’s how he took New Mexico to a bunch of bowl games, and why the Lobos have won a grand total of two games since he left. Well, you can probably also credit the Benny-Hill-like awesomeness of Mike Locksley for what has happened at UNM since, but you get the idea.

So here we are, a week after an emotional beatdown in Ann Arbor that left Aztecs players too distraught to speak to the unrelenting, viscous San Diego media (read: one or two writers and a couple of camera crews). I’d say they’ve been punched in the mouth.

Meaning now is the time for Rocky to prove that he wasn’t just running his in that interview with Schemmel back in 2005.

Two-loss TCU, while a far cry from last year’s Rose Bowl championship squad, still provides a good litmus test of how mentally tough the Aztecs are—and of how effective a coach Rocky actually is.

If the players come out of the bye week flat and dazed? This one will be on him.

If the players look energized and give the Frogs all they can handle? He should get the credit.

My gut tells me the Aztecs will respond well, but this is San Diego State so you can never be sure of such things. Here’s hoping Rock remembered to confiscate those beach towels and boogie boards.