At San Diego State University, Stolz inherited a program that had three consecutive losing seasons and was coming off its second-worst home attendance in its then-19 years at San Diego Stadium, barely reaching 10,000 fans in each of its final two home games of 1985. In his first season in 1986, he led the Aztecs to their only Western Athletic Conference (WAC) title and appearance in San Diego's Holiday Bowl. In a nationally televised game, San Diego State clinched the conference title by defeating BYU for the first time since 1970, and earned their first bowl game since the Pasadena Bowl in 1969. Stolz was voted the WAC Coach of the Year, and the school rewarded him by extending his contract an extra year to 1991. He was fired two years later, when the Aztecs finished 3–8 in 1988. He was 16–19 in three seasons at San Diego State.
