SDSU’s Freshman Up Front Hopes to Make Big Impression : College football: Aztec tackle Chris Finch will be starting his first college game Saturday against USC.

SAN DIEGO —  His name is Chris Finch, and there will be nobody younger in San Diego State’s starting lineup on Saturday against USC.

A redshirt freshman, Finch will make his Aztec debut at strong tackle--against the Trojans, with Marshall Faulk in his backfield, on a network telecast, in what is arguably as important a game as SDSU has ever played.

But don’t expect Finch’s 6-foot-6, 270-pound frame to turn to mush when he sees the Trojans come storming onto the San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium field.

He had his chance to be impressed by the marquee names two seasons ago during recruiting, while he was at Ramona High in Riverside. He didn’t blink.

Besides, if he blocks as well as he ignores his mail, the Aztecs will be thrilled.

USC once recruited Finch, and Finch even attended a USC-Notre Dame game and a USC luncheon during that time.

Then he scored poorly on a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and never heard from USC again. Finch was soon discovered to have dyslexia, which explained the SAT score.

The recruiting letters kept coming.

Correspondence from the University of Miami filled his mailbox during his senior season.

“I didn’t write back, though, because I didn’t want to leave the state,” Finch said.

He also heard from UCLA.

“Didn’t write them back,” he said.

And then, there were the letters from the University of Washington.

“I never wrote them back, either,” he said.

Instead, he signed with the Aztecs for two reasons: The school’s proximity to his home and SDSU’s reputation for offering a good program for dyslexic students.

Now, after a year of adjustment, Finch will find himself lining up Saturday across from Willie McGinest, a 6-6, 240-pound outside linebacker, and Davis Webb, a 6-4, 225-pound defensive end.

“It’s going to be a big jump for me from high school to be starting against those guys,” Finch said.

SDSU Coach Al Luginbill figures that Finch will be helped by the fact that veteran guard Carlson Leomiti will line up next to him.

“What you don’t like is to take two inexperienced interior linemen and line them up right next to each other,” Luginbill said.

Finch is not surprised at his current position. Before fall camp started, members of the SDSU offensive line were asked to list goals. “A starting position,” Finch wrote.

“I think he’s got a real bright future,” said Bret Ingalls, SDSU offensive coordinator. “He’s done some things as a redshirt freshman that not many guys I’ve ever seen here before did. He’s got such good control of his body for a 6-6, 200-pound person.”

During his senior season at Ramona, his team rushed for a school-record 4,700 yards--”most of it behind Chris,” said Myron Miller, his high school coach.

Finch’s SDSU teammates are impressed by his ability to hit people, as well as by his brains.

“He’s got a real feel for the offense,” guard Joe Heinz said.

The Aztecs have seen Finch last fall, last spring and again for three weeks during fall camp in 1992. The only thing left is to see him in a game.

“This first game will be an experience for him,” Ingalls said. “Things are going to happen that he hasn’t seen before.

“You can’t practice what people do. We’ve tried to emulate what we think (USC) will do, but when it comes to that first snap of that first play, it is going to be an experience for him. Hopefully, his eyes won’t get too big. He is very capable if they don’t.”

As for Finch, he is smart enough to know that it isn’t always the line that makes a running back look good. Sometimes, it can happen the other way around.

Enter Faulk.

“I just feel I have to make holes for him,” Finch said. “But I also feel that if I mess up a block, he is good enough to make the play happen.”

Spoken like a true veteran.

Only one Aztec has faced USC: linebacker Shawn Smith, who was on Notre Dame’s second-team defense in 1989 before transferring to SDSU.

That was the year Notre Dame held on to defeat USC, 28-24, in South Bend, Ind. It was also the year that there was a near-brawl in the tunnel leading out to the field before the game.

Smith’s biggest memory of that game was of former USC quarterback Todd Marinovich.

“He just stood over the defense and started dropping dimes,” Smith said.

Aztec Notes

About 45,000 tickets have been sold, according to Bruce Binkowski of the Greater San Diego Sports Assn. . . . An SDSU spokesperson said the Aztecs have sold about 13,000 tickets and a USC spokesperson said the Trojans have sold about 11,000.