SDSU’s March to Fall Camp – #1: Time to Trust the Process

The 2025 Fall Camp is officially here for your ‘San Diego State University Aztecs.’

That’s how the PA inside the old Jack Murhpy Stadium used to announce the team. When the summers would slowly turn to fall in San Diego, the faint breeze would carry a smell of sunscreen, hot dogs, Marlboro cigarette’s and Budweiser beer around the old stadium parking lot each Saturday. It was the 80’s and football in San Diego was king. The Chargers had the Power—and the Aztecs had the Fire.

Despite a few exciting teams and tremendous standout players, it took all of the 80’s, 90’s and even 2000’s for SDSU to finally earn that bowl victory over Navy in the 2010 Poinsettia Bowl. With it carried a string of successes that lasted just over a full decade into the 2021 season when the team earned 12 wins, the most in program history for a single season.

Certainly it was the most dominant segment of Aztecs football since the Don Coryell and Claude Gilbert eras.

So to watch the last handful of seasons not hold up the standard that’s been set has been alarming for the Aztec faithful. Gone is Rocky Long and gone is Brady Hoke. Sean Lewis year #2 is now underway.

There’s no doubt about it, the program somewhere between transfer portals, NIL, conference realignment blunders, the new stadium development, has dropped down a peg, or two, in the collective sports mind of San Diegans. Though we can argue and list the many factors of that decline, nothing can turn that around quicker than a handful of W’s. For the next month the Aztecs will be working hard to do just that.

There’s about 150 humans that i’m responsible for and in that very complex human system, we’re chasing wins that ultimately will be judged on in the fall. Coach Lewis spoke to the media on Monday’s open presser.

Beginning Wednesday the team will take the practice fields on campus from 9:30am to 11:30am. For the first two weeks of fall camp season ticket holders will be allowed access to watch these open practices and get to know this years team full of new players and new position battles.

The program wants to engage with the fans more and build connections—but it also wants to reward the ticket holder base with that access. This is a great move hopefully aiding in retention of existing season ticket holders.

But for adding new fans (or wooing previous fans back) there will be an official Fan Fest Thursday, August 14th, at 7:05pm at Snapdragon Stadium. This will be a first glance at what this team looks like completely open to the public. It will be an open scrimmage during that time as detailed by Lewis. So have no fear, there will be football played again.

Will there be other games or competitions as well? Not sure. Lewis did detail the day will consist of new game-day traditions the program has set forth and the evening will be a bit of a dress rehearsal.

We’ve addressed the task at hand to turn things around. We’ve looked at the returning defensive unit giving the team a leg up this season with nearly a complete starting roster from a year ago.

Comparing & contrasting styles of the QB1 battle between Jayden Denegal and Bert Emanuel Jr. is something we’ve taken a dive into and should be the top priority this fall camp. As well as the rebuilt & ready to go offensive line that coach Lewis & Schmidt hand picked to lead this team towards reinforcing the war in the trenches.

All of these storylines make for one very interesting SDSU football camp and season. Show some improvement over last year and the program is on the right track. Fall short of increasing the win total from a year ago and the program may be in danger of sliding way past the bottom of the cellar.

“It’s an everyday thing to make sure that each individual knows and understands that no one, including myself, is bigger than the program—and in saying that each individual matters.” And that is where Coach Lewis is banking on this year being the difference.

Last season saw over fifty new players from all over the nation come to an SDSU program that was chaotic. The locker room was influx with a completely new staff, ideology, and new player personalities with different egos. Add in all of this to an environment full of competition and no real brotherhood—you get what you saw.

“That’s the dichotemy of balancing all this. You get everyone to align to a vision and get going in the same direction. That’s what we’re all here to do and clearly I didn’t do a good enough job of that last year.”

The old ways vs the new culture. A battle of philosophies and attitudes of the mind, that clearly defeated the unity of the team, led to an undisciplined bunch by the time the adversities & challenges of a grueling football season took their toll on the physical.

“We want to protect everyone from everything and think that there’s not going to be some sort of pain that doesn’t hit? That’s the beauty of sports—there’s a winner and a loser. We came up short way too much last year. So now are you going to do something about it and change the pattern of behavior so results change? Or are you going to accept it and hit exit?”

For Lewis & staff, while a select few hit the exit via the transfer portal, the large majority of leadership have returned, gone through the phases of conditioning and are eager for redemption this season. Their time to gain this city’s hearts or at least their attention back is now. If they can earn that, maybe a return to the great Saturdays in San Diego is in the near future. We will soon find out.

“Our guys are ten toes down. There’s business that needs to be finished and we’re excited to do that.”

Stay tuned for more coverage here at sonsofmontezuma.com and online via our YouTube channel for podcast episodes, interviews and more analysis.