Sources confirmed to us on Tuesday morning that SDSU Football is set to hire Sam Popper as assistant GM to the Aztecs staff. Several media outlets have confirmed the the hire of Popper who will join SDSU GM Caleb Davis’ staff this 2026 season.
Popper has spent several seasons in recruiting capacities at Memphis, Oregon and most recently former Director of Recruiting at Michigan.
With the new HC Kyle Whittingham now in place in Ann Arbor, Michigan Football parted ways with GM Sean Magee and others within the recruiting/personnel department that included Popper. But as usual the Michigan to San Diego State connection appears to be working very well for the Aztecs once again.
The success GM Caleb Davis and the SDSU football personnel program earned in 2025 no doubt increased the work load and elevated the importance of the role. The addition of Popper should reinforce many of those duties and research into the players, advanced scouting, and NIL/revenue sharing infrastructure SDSU continues to strategically build.
San Diego State’s 2026 football schedule has been officially released for the new Pac-12 season and it was met with excitement and intrigue.
With Davis and Popper gaining valuable experience at two of the biggest programs in college football, SDSU has an early advantage over some of it’s peers in the new Pac-12 conference.
SDSU currently stands top 10 in the country in terms of retention rate, especially when it comes to the production back on offense. According to HC Sean Lewis in his statements last week, “Over 11,000 reps return from the 2025 season—which amounts to roughly 50 percent of the total reps taken by all of our players.”
Count on a creative new ways for Popper to be included in strengthening the early successes in the player acquisition and retention fronts.
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