Head Coach: Sean Lewis is entering his 2nd season as the head coach of the Aztecs with a 3-9 record. It was a major adjustment year but he comes in with great credentials, he won at Kent State, one of the toughest jobs in the country. His accolades include a bowl win, a division and 3 of his 5 seasons were .500 or better despite Kent State typically having 3 scheduled losses out of conference. He’s going to get things going here soon.
Program Outlook: San Diego State spent a long time looking for consistent success but was long viewed as a “sleeping giant” but finally in 2010 the Aztecs had their breakthrough and they didn’t have a losing record again until 2023. San Diego State is now the only show in town when it comes to football and that is huge. The Aztecs have their own stadium and overall their facilities are strong. Now they’re beginning preparations to finally head to the Pac-12 and this is a program that’s primed to be one of the best in that conference.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: San Diego State ranks 70th in the country returning 54.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players for the Aztecs starts with their defense. Edge Rusher Trey White is one of the best in the entire country, another big year will get him drafted pretty high in the NFL and there’s Brady Nassar on the other side who will likely take advantage of offenses keying on White. LBs Owen Chambliss and Mister Williams (Incarnate Word) will also make life difficult on opposing QBs. LB Tano Letuli is great in the middle. They have returnees Teivis Tuioti and Krishna Clay who will hopefully bring better play on the interior Dline, there’s also Malachi Finau (Hawaii) from the portal to help. The secondary rounds out a strong defense corner Chris Johnson is one of the best in the conference, safeties Eric Butler and Dalesean Staley are really good. There’s a reason I started with the defense here, the entire offense may as well be a question mark, it struggled last year. It starts at QB where they’ll have Central Michigan transfer Bert Emanuel Jr and Michigan transfer Jayden Denegal to battle it out. Emanuel Jr is a dynamic runner, he never got a real shot at Central Michigan due to injuries and the team was overall a mess last year. Denegal has a big arm. They need the receivers to be better, Jordan Napier was reliable but they definitely need more. The portal may help Myles Kitt-Denton made some big plays for a struggling Northwestern State, and Texas A&M transfer Jacob Bostick has a lot of potential. The Aztecs are in a solid position at RB with Coastal Carolina transfer Christian Washington leading the way along with Lucky Sutton returning. Now the biggest part is for the offensive line to come together, there’s a few good players to start with but they need some portal guys to help fill this unit out and allow this offense to get running.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Here’s the challenge the schedule for San Diego State is pretty tough. They open with Stony Brook and that game is no guarantee after the SeaWolves finished last year strong. The Aztecs also have tough non-conference games against Washington State, Cal and NIU. The good news? The Mountain West schedule is pretty nice. The Aztecs face a lot of programs who are in a similar building position to them. They avoid UNLV, Air Force and Utah State which is pretty preferable. Overall if San Diego State misses a bowl, the tough non-conference schedule will be to blame.
Final Thoughts: San Diego State is primed to make some progress this year but the offense will definitely determine how much they can make. Sean Lewis is the coach here but last year’s offense looked nothing like his usual offense. They have the pieces to make progress there and that will help the defense. It’s going to be interesting to see how the AztecFAST offense comes along mid-season when the field gets worn down by various soccer teams and becomes The Sand Turf. One last key factor to improve is penalties, San Diego State was the most penalized team in the country last year, fixing that would go a long way.
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