SAN DIEGO – Certain sounds are unmistakable signs that football season is back on The Mesa. The hoots and hollers while going through stretching. The cracking of helmets and crunching of pads. Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” blaring while the San Diego State Aztecs all raise their fists before practicing their two minute drill.
Hot off the heels of a 9-4 season where the Scarlet and Black finished in a four-way tie atop the Mountain West Conference and competed in a bowl game, there is an unmistakable energy surrounding the SDSU program as they embark on their first season as a member of the reconstituted eight team Pac-12.
“We’re still trying to prove ourselves. The success of it all, the external noise, it’s all well and good and I’m really proud of what we did, but this team this year has got to forge their own identity, so having day one energy, day one enthusiasm, it’s Christmas morning…that’s what it feels like this morning. I rolled over at 3 a.m. and I didn’t need my alarm…that excitement is there,” head coach Sean Lewis said.
“All the preseason accolades and where we’re picked…none of that noise matters, and that’s the beauty of camp, we’re going to get to put that bubble up and live in our little bubble (and) tune all that other stuff out.”
Picked to finish second and receiving one first place vote in the preseason Pac-12 media poll organized by the Denver Gazette, as well as receiving a pair of votes in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll — their first time receiving votes since 2022 — there are plenty of expectations, as well as questions to be answered before opening the season against Portland State on Sept. 5.
How will the offense look with seven returning starters, including Maxwell Award Watch List senior running back Lucky Sutton, healthy and fresh off a summer of weight room personal bests senior quarterback Jayden Denegal, and a wide receiver corps with as much depth as the program has had in years?
“Jayden, from last year to this year, I can see a tremendous growth in his leadership and just him as a football player over this whole off season, he’s been doing wonderful things with the receivers and him just overall leading the team…I just can’t wait to see what he does throughout camp and the season as well. To go through what he did last year just shows you how he is as a strong player,” Sutton said.
What about the defense with only three returners, with linebacker Tano Letuli coming back from ACL surgery and so many new faces at the edge position and in the secondary — two areas that keyed the unit’s dominance last season?
“I think we were flying around today, I think it was faster than last year’s day one. I think it’s a credit to (head of football performance Jeff) Sobol and the strength staff on our conditioning over summer. I think guys are in shape so that we can got at a different tempo than we have in the past,” senior edge Brady Nassar said.
How will the big man ballet dance on both sides of the line? What of the battles on special teams, traditional areas of strength, at the kicker and punter positions?
With 26 true freshmen and 27 transfers on the roster, having a bedrock of 18 players who have been with the program since Lewis’s first year will be counted upon for a roster that had seen 50% turnover.
“To have a team meeting yesterday and look at a Nassar who’s sitting in the front row, you’ve got Lucky (Sutton) who’s sitting in the front row, even Joe (Borjon) who came after the spring portal then that has been with us, and the rest of those other 15 guys who have been with us since the beginning, they get to be an extension of the staff when we talking about doing it the Aztec way, doing it our way,” Lewis said.
“They’re force multipliers that champion that message… The way that we play it’s really a lifestyle, so you’ve got to embrace that and you’ve got to do to it all, and to have guys in the locker room that are championing that and are proof of concept to what we do and how it works, those other guys make it happen much quicker because of that.”
The first opportunity SDSU fans will have to see the team is the “First Saturday at Snapdragon” on Aug. 15 for an open scrimmage. Fans can claim up to four free general admission tickets through Ticketmaster for the event, which will also have free parking. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and the scrimmage will start at 5:30 p.m.
“(Expect to see) some great football, guys flying around. It’ll be our 10th day, so people will probably walk away saying ‘hey I wish it was a little bit cleaner.’ Yeah, me too, I’ll feel that as well, that’s the work that we get to do, but we’re going to put the ball down and play,” Lewis said.
“We’ll have a full Pac-12 crew that’s going to be out there, and we’re going to have the coaches up in their locations for game day, and so it’s truly going to be an inter-squad scrimmage.
“It’s a really important day for us, we’ll run about 100 ball plays on that day, and it’s the one opportunity that we get in our stadium, obviously where we’ve been undefeated for the past year, to go do great work there before we get to do it for real on Sept. 5.”
San Diego State kicks off the season against the Portland State Vikings at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5 at Snapdragon Stadium. Tickets are available at GoAztecs.com, including reduced price season ticket packages as well as single game tickets, and also available as family-four packs that includes tickets and parking for four separate home games this season.
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