When UCLA was in the Pac-12, the conference would make fun of the Big Ten because the Big Ten had more than ten members. These days, the Big Ten is now up to 18 including four former Pac-12 schools.
Meanwhile, Washington State and Oregon retained the Pac-12 name when the other 10 schools left, and they have reconstituted the conference with five former Mountain West schools, plus Texas State from the Sun Belt as well as Gonzaga which has joined the conference for basketball.
As a result, San Diego State is finally a member of the Pac-12, but almost all of the schools SDSU wanted to join have left.
As far as the Aztec football team goes, the team’s head coach is Sean Lewis, who is now in his third season leading SDSU football. Since taking over the Aztecs, Lewis has led the team to an overall 13-13 mark, but that record is deceiving. It makes it seem like San Diego State has had two mediocre seasons. To the contrary, that isn’t the case.
While Lewis’ first season with the Aztecs was a bad 3-9, he flipped the script last year and led the team to an impressive 9-4 mark, which included wins over UC Berkeley, Fresno State and Boise State and losses to Washington State, Hawai’i and New Mexico. Last week, SDSU thumped Portland State 53-20 at Snapdragon Stadium.
Interestingly, SDSU may have faced UCLA head coach Bob Chesney even if he didn’t come to Westwood as the Aztecs will host James Madison next week.
Prior to joining SDSU, Lewis worked as the offensive coordinator at Colorado under Deion Sanders. In fact, Lewis left h is head coaching gig at Kent State to work for Sanders. His overall record in five seasons with the Golden Flashes is as sneaky as his record with the Aztecs.
In his first season in 2018, Kent State went 2-10. He led them to a 7-6 mark in 2019 including the school’s first-ever bowl victory over Utah State in the Frisco Bowl. The team went 3-1 in 2020 and went 7-7 in 2021, closing that season with a loss to Wyoming in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. In his final season with the Flashes, the team went 5-7.
Matt Johnson joined Lewis with the Aztecs as the team’s quarterbacks coach for 2024 and was promoted to offensive coordinator last year. Johnson had worked with Lewis at Syracuse and he followed Lewis to Kent State when Lewis was hired as the head coach of the Golden Flashes. Johnson was promoted to offensive coordinator when Lewis left for Colorado.
After each of Lewis’ first two seasons at SDSU, he lost his defensive coordinator at the end of the season. Eric Schmidt was hired as the head coach at the University of North Dakota after the 2024 season. He was replaced by Rob Aurich last season, but Aurich was hired as Nebraska’s new defensive coordinator. Demetrius Sumler was promoted to defensive coordinator this season, having spent his entire coaching career with the Aztecs working his way up since 2016 when he joined the program as a graduate assistant.
SDSU Special Teams
The Aztecs’ kicker will be senior transfer Cooper DiLeva, who comes to SDSU after playing at Arkansas last year. Last week against Portland State, DiLeva was a perfect 6-for-6 on PATs and he made his only field goal attempt from 31 yards. DiLeva kicked off nine times last week. He averaged 65.0 yards per kickoff and eight of his kickoffs were touchbacks. Portland State probably should have taken a touchback instead of returning one of those kickoffs as it was returned 24 yards, making the effort not worth it.
Senior punter Tashi Dorje is returning for a second season with SDSU after beginning his collegiate career at the College of San Mateo. Last week, Dorje punted just twice. One was a 48-yarder and the other was a 46-yarder. Last season, he punted three times for an average of 50 yards.
Last week, the Aztecs returned four kickoffs from Portland State. Three of the kickoffs were returned by redshirt freshman receiver Jaylon Hawkins. He managed to return one of those kickoffs 100 yards for a touchdown. He totaled 141 return yards last week. Sophomore received Parker Threatt returned SDSU’s fourth kickoff for 30 yards.
The Aztecs were not as good returning punts as they were at returning kickoffs. Junior safety Jelani McLaughlin was SDSU’s leading punt returner last week with nine yards on one return. Nathan Acevedo was the only Aztec to return more than one punt. He returned two punts for five yards last week. Sophomore linebacker Oberhiri Eyafe returned a punt for four yards.
Go Bruins!!!
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