Posted by: Chris Vannini on January 10, 2013

Rocky Long understands that success can cause some problems.

Specifically, losing assistant coaches. San Diego State lost offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig to Wisconsin and replaced him with Bob Toledo.

Before announcing the Toledo hire, Long chatted with Xtra Sports 1360 in San Diego about losing assistants.

"Well, that's a good problem to have," he said. "They think maybe our coaches have magic. We don't. I promise you we don't have any magic whatsoever.

"But everybody, whenever you have a program that wasn't very good for a long time and all of a sudden you have success, they think you're doing something different than everybody else and they start hunting your coaches."

As for the always-fun topic of realignment, SDSU is set to join the Big East, but Boise State's decision to remain in the Mountain West reportedly has Aztecs officials on the fence. Long doesn't concern himself with any of that.

"I don't have any control over it, so I don't worry about it. ... Some of our recruits, they're not nervous about it, but they just want to know what's going on, just like everybody else," he said. "I don't think it will be a problem in recruiting, because I think it will be decided by the end of the month. I have some personal feelings about it, but for the program's sake, we'll do whatever is in our best interest, and I have confidence in Jim (Sterk) that he's going to what's best for us as a program. We'll play whoever they put on the program and try to win them all."

Asked about those personal thoughts, Long wouldn't bite.

"No, I'm a company man."

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Chris Vannini is the lead writer for CoachingSearch.com and has covered Michigan State sports for The State News, The Oakland Press and MLive.com. He writes a weekly column for the Detroit Free Press on behalf of SB Nation. Vannini lives in Big Ten country, so his foot speed is far from SEC caliber, but his pulse on coaches is hard to match. Be sure to follow @CoachingBuzz on twitter and send your feedback to chris@coachingsearch.com