San Diego State will play it’s final season in the Mountain West Conference after nearly 25 years of ups and downs, and all that the changing landscape of college football could thrown at them. In the words of some in Aztec Nation, it’s time to burn it down to the ground, on the way out.
For Sean Lewis and his staff, they’re trying to build up what they’ve started last year. By the looks of the 3-9 finish last year, they’ve still got a whole lot of cement left to finish pouring their foundation. By the way this 2nd Fall Camp has been going, the coaches, staff, and players have been doing the work necessary to ensure their bonds are strong enough to hold up.
In the first half of our two-part preseason schedule breakdown, we take a big picture look at SDSU’s first six opponents—Stony Brook, Washington State, California, Northern Illinois, Colorado State and Nevada—and some of the challenges & dynamics the Aztecs have to go against to start the year.
Stony Brook (Aug 28)
As a result of the downward trend, Aztec Nation is in danger of becoming used to missing bowl games and conference championships. With FCS Stony Brook coming to town Thursday Aug 28, there’s very little chance to reverse that perception for an opening kickoff weekend. For many supporters it’s win big or else. What is this else you speak of?
Off seasons after a down year can be unkind and very very long. Long you say? The last thing Coach Lewis wants is to drop an FCS match and have his AztecFast brand of football be further compared to the likes of the Chuck Long era and not the Rocky Long one. Chuck’s three year stretch in the early 2000’s saw the Aztecs drop not just one, but two FCS games to Cal Poly and set the program back maybe a decade from the power conference arms race.
Stony Brook, as we will learn next week in our preview articles, brings with them an energetic group that is coming off the heels of a massive turn-around in their football culture. They ranked Top-25 in FCS, have tons of spirit with them and will be bringing it all the way from the east coast.
For some reason SDSU officials helped their cause by making this game on a Thursday to accommodate travel plans and allow everyone involved to have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Isn’t that wonderful. Listen, I’m all for making the season as fun as possible, but if officials within the walls of the football program find opening college football Saturdays a burden and not the most optimal experience over a holiday weekend, maybe they should find an industry that allows those holidays off, permanently and somewhere else.
at Washington State (Sep 6)
This trip marks the first trip to Pullman, Washington since the Aztecs were announced joining the Cougars in the new Pac-12 conference. While it was tempting to make this road trip, Sons of Monty will wait til that conference marriage is official and this road game can be played again in 2027 likely.
This game is extremely interesting and provides Lewis & team an early opportunity to grab some excitement—granted they can put the beatdown on Stoney Brook.
Just as he got that thing going in the right direction, gone is Cougar head coach Jake Dickert of the last four seasons. Gone are 32 players due to the transfer portal, including stars from both sides of the ball in QB John Mateer (Oklahoma) and standout LB Taariq Al-Uqdah (Washington).
Though Wazzu lost a ton of production, enter in new HC Jimmy Rogers and still a top caliber roster in comparison to Mountain West on paper. At home the Cougs are tough to beat and even though these two teams surprisingly have very little history between themselves, WSU holds a 2-1 edge, the energy to this one is going to be turnt up to the max knowing they’re about to get to know each other very very well for the foreseeable future.
Lastly Washington State can kiss my grits. Are they a solid CFB brand? Yes. Do they have history and tradition that adds a ton to the new blended conference? Yes. But c’mon, they were benefitting so much in revenues by being affiliated with the big boys of the old Pac12 and for so many years, it’s gross. Hopefully this will be a come back down to earth moment and the Aztecs can get revenge for last year’s near upset heartbreaker.
BYE (Sep 13)
This bye really is a blessing in disguise. Hate to have one so early in the season to cut momentum, but if the Aztecs can get to 2-0 by this mark, it really gives Lewis some time to evaluate and prepare for a possible triumphant return home against CAL.
On the other hand, if his team is down 0-2 or even split at 1-1, it’s great to have this week of preparation to regroup, game plan, and fix early mistakes in preparation for righting the ship against CAL.
California (Sep 20)
Last year’s road loss to the Golden Bears was as frustrating as any game I can remember in Aztecs history. The defense came out and put on a hell of a performance. Trey White was unstoppable and the defense was opportunistic, setting up the offense with chances. The offense just could not put it together.
Countless pre-snap penalties, in play infractions, and missed assignments made the game a hot mess. Backup QB Javance Johnson performed admirably, but just wasn’t effective enough to put the team on his back. Nothing went right.
CAL lost QB Fernando Mendoza to Indiana. Stepping in at starting quarterback will be true freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. Surprisingly, he won the starting position over Ohio State transfer Devin Brown.
All of this may feel like an advantage for the Aztecs until you realize, by the time CAL comes to town they will already have three games under their belts—opening on the road against Oregon State, then home for two against Texas Southern and Minnesota. HC Justin Wilcox is a defensive minded guy who will be plenty prepared for Sean Lewis’ scheme again and the Golden Bears will be battle tested.
at Northern Illinois (Sep 27)
The first roadtrip on Sons of Monty’s list is heading to the Midwest area of Chicago for this matchup against future Mountain West conference member, the Northern Illinois Huskies of the MAC. This has the makings for either a really good road trip, or a really really bad road trip. And we don’t mean by getting mugged in Chicago.
The Huskies are coming off an 8-5 season in which they beat National Champion runner-up, Notre Dame. HC Thomas Hammock’s team were also victorious in the team’s Potato Bowl appearance against Fresno State. This team can play but they also suffered more losses of starting players to the transfer portal (9) than they had victories on the year.
Depending on where the Aztecs stand after their first three games, this matchup against the Huskies can either be a springboard opportunity or another shovel-full of dirt stacking down on the team. NIU represents the third layer of quality competition in a row for the Aztecs in their early season sandwich. I’m imagining them as the salami, or better yet the third layer of Italian beef in the roll.
Lewis doesn’t need the Aztecs to be undefeated coming in, or coming out of this highly anticipated return to MAC country for he and his inner circle, but he does need the team to maintain their confidence at this point. There cannot be any wavering of positional roles, doubt in the game plans each week, and/or disgruntled attitudes of game day opportunities through who gets the carries, targets, or package minutes.
Colorado State (Oct 3)
The odds of winning the National Championship or earning a spot in the College Football Playoffs are highly unlikely—and that’s just fine for now. But to keep the realistic goals of winning the Conference Championship and making a bowl game, begin and end when Mountain West play starts Friday evening, October 3 at Snapdragon Stadium.
This is what it’s really all about. Rolling into conference play feeling good about themselves is paramount. Colorado State to me is my sleeper pick to compete against Boise State for the Mountain West crown. Coach Jay Norvell is in his 4th season in Fort Collins and is just starting to get his style humming. The Rams finished one win away from being perfect in conference play last season.
Though this game is at home for our Aztecs and maybe the Rams won’t exactly make the linear improvement this season on paper, it’s still a tough challenge against a proven coach in this league. No matter how our Aztecs fare up to this point, a win for the Red & Black would be a signature victory in my mind.
at Nevada (Oct 11)
Finally some sweet relief. To this point we will have learned almost the majority of what we need to know about this years team. Questions like what will the boys really be playing for? Is Jayden Denegal all that we hoped for? Did this defensive unit that returned all of it’s starters live up to the billing? Who are the surprise X-factors that either helped propel the team to victory or who were the busts that didn’t live up to the hype?
It’s all going to be there when the Aztecs travel up to Reno, Nevada for perhaps the last time in a long time. The Wolf Pack have a new … ahh whatever. I don’t know a lick about these bums and I’m not going to dig in on learning about them right now.
Aztecs must win this game and should do it in convincing fashion—as this is the only other ‘gimmie’ game on the schedule to this point. UNR is stuck in neutral and has been for quite the same amount of time as SDSU. It’s time for this Aztecs program to give Reno the stiff arm to the face and create some distance from these has beens.
BYE (Oct 18)
A second bye to this point is unique but it’s what we’ve got. Take note while these are the first six games of the season, SDSU plays only one home game each month.
August 28–Stony Brook.
23 days later in September 20–CAL.
13 days later in October 3–Colorado State.
Then a full 29 days go by before the boys take the home field again in San Diego when they take on Wyoming, November 1st. This is one dynamic where I have no idea how it will play out. Will there be a benefit in preparation for the 2nd half? Hard to see how. With so little consistency in place it may be easy for the team to get lost in the shuffle of everything going on in the sports world.
Some way, somehow, Aztecs football needs to have stirred up a little excitement in San Diego to this point. Having the Padres in a potential pennant race and San Diego FC’s first place status should not hamper their ability to do so either—not one bit.
Having a robust sports landscape in San Diego should feed off of each other. Positive energy is something that is contagious in community gatherings and SDSU needs to dive into these waters—full submersion. If they fail to do so again this season, the currents of San Diego’s attention may continue to drift this program further and further away from where it once stood.
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