Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 11 – San Diego State | Sports

Game Info

• Game Day: Nov. 23
• Location: Merlin Olsen Field (Logan, UT)
• Kickoff Time: 1:30 p.m.
• TV Broadcast: CBS Sports Network

Quick-Hit Info on San Diego State

• Head Coach: Sean Lewis (1st season at SDSU)
• 2023 Record: 4-8
• 2023 Offense Rank: 114th (20.5 points per game)
• 2023 Defense Rank: 71st (26.8 points allowed per game)
• Returning Production Rank — 107th
• 2024 Preseason Consensus Ranking — 103rd

History of Utah State vs San Diego State

• All-Time: SDSU leads 13-4
• Current Streak: Utah State has won the last two meetings
• First-ever Meeting: Sept. 20, 1947 (SDSU won 34-19)
• Last Meeting: Nov. 4, 2023 (Utah State won 32-24 in OT)

Up until 2019 the Aggies had only ever won a single game against the Aztecs in a series that’s now nearly 80 years old. But in the last four matchups, USU has won three times, including two games hosted by SDSU. The most memorable of those games would certainly be the 46-13 win over the Aztecs in the 2021 Mountain West championship game but a double-OT win last year in San Diego is also up there.

There’s a long way to go in turning the series completely around, but the last four years have been a good start.

San Diego State Players to Watch

• Danny O’Neil (QB)
• Marquez Cooper (RB)
• Mekhi Shaw (WR)
• Tupu Alualu (DT)
• Owen Chambliss (LB)

The Aztecs in 2023

Last year put the final nail in the coffin of what had been a fantastic decade-plus run for San Diego State in football. Started by Brady Hoke when he was hired as head coach in 2009, passed to Rocky Long in 2011 and then back to Hoke in 2020, the 17 years between the coaches amounted to a 121-70 overall record and three conference championships. But a 7-6 record in 2022 followed up by going 4-8 in 2023 marked the end of an era. Long and Hoke had established an identity of elite defense and ball-control offense, but those two things began to fail, especially in 2023.

Firstly, the offense went from a typically solid unit to downright poor. The Aztecs ranked 114th in scoring last year (109th in yards per game). A strong rushing attack has typically been the identity of SDSU, but lead running backs Jaylon Armstead and Kenan Christon combined for just 826 yards all year with an average per-carry gain of only 4.15. The run game did get a significant boost by Jalen Mayden, who was the overall leading rusher with 528 yards, but the Aztecs were still only 72nd in the country in yards per game. Mayden didn’t really provide much more through his passing as he only averaged 169.3 yards through the air and had a 10-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

Simply put, the offense simply wasn’t making the plays it had to for San Diego State to be winning football games, and hadn’t been even in 2022 since that year the Aztecs ranked 108th in scoring offense with similar issues in the run and pass attack.

In the past, having a mediocre, or even bad, offense hasn’t stopped SDSU because it typically had a top-20 defense. But when the 2023 defense ranked 100th in yards allowed (71st in points allowed) it spelled doom. Of the Aztecs’ four wins last year, three were in games in which it scored 30-plus points, showing that it’s one surefire way to win was to simply have a great day on offense.

At the end of the year, Hoke retired, ending his time at SDSU more or less on his own terms and passing the torch to a new generation.

2024 Season Prospects

Sean Lewis is the new hope of San Diego State. The former offensive coordinator of Colorado under its increasingly infamous head coach Deion Sanders. Lewis was also the head coach at Kent State from 2018 to 2022. Aggie fans may remember the 2019 Frisco Bowl which was a shootout between USU and Kent State, ending with the Golden Flashes winning 51-41. High-powered offenses have defined Lewis’ time in college. He built Kent State up from 105th in offense in 2018 to 1st in 2020 (albeit a small sample size of four games) and 5th in 2021. He’s also been behind two great college quarterbacks, Dustin Crum at Kent State and Shedeur Sanders with the Buffaloes.

This is why he’s got SDSU hyped up for the future. The old ways of Hoke and Long are well-remembered but weren’t working anymore. Lewis is a fresh and new take on Aztec football. He’s also brought in some great recruits. One of the most notable is running back Marquez Cooper. He had back-to-back seasons of 1,200+ rushing yards at Kent State under Lewis and then had 1,043 last year at Ball State. In other words, the SDSU run game should be back on track in force thanks to the addition of a three-time 1,000-yard rusher to the backfield. One minor issue is that three offensive linemen transferred away in the offseason to Power Four conference teams, including two-time All-MW guard Cade Bennett. Lewis will be starting over on that front this year.

Another area of the offense were SDSU will be starting over is at quarterback. Mayden is no longer there after two seasons as the starter and he’ll be replaced by true freshman Danny O’Neil. The Aztecs had an offseason QB competition between him, the redshirt freshman Javance Tupou’ata-Johnson and Florida State transfer AJ Duffy. O’Neil was named the starter and will be charged with leading the new-look SDSU offense.

The group of pass-catchers doesn’t have any big names, but does three players who were productive in secondary roles either at SDSU or other schools. The top returner is Mekhi Shaw who had back-to-back seasons of just under 400 receiving yards with the Aztecs. Two transfers join the WR corps — Ja’Shaun Poke Louis Brown IV — and who had decent, though not elite, production at previous stops. Poke played four seasons at Kent State, all under Lewis, and had 1,033 yards spanning those four years. Brown had a minor breakout season at Colorado State last year with 481 receiving yards and five touchdowns. Even if the Aztecs don’t have an elite pass-catcher, they’ll have 2-3 good ones and that should be a good enough to start things off on the right foot for Lewis.

While there’s plenty of room for excitement on offense, there are a lot of questions for the defense. Lewis is more of an offensive specialist and seems to have taken care of that side of the ball, but how will the defense fare? Only four starters return from a defense that already struggled a bit more than it normally does. The Aztecs leaned into a few FCS transfers like defensive end Marlem Louis (Richmond) and safety Dalesean Staley (Northern Iowa) who are both starting at their respective positions. A pair of Division I transfers at linebacker, Tano Letuli (Army) and Owen Chambliss (Utah), step in and actually supplanted Cody Moon who played 12 games with five starts last year. Letuli and Chambliss are both at least 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, bringing a solid amount of size to the position.

With so many newcomers, there’s every chance they could make a big jump, but there’s also a low floor if things don’t mesh early and the season begins going south.

San Diego State, in many ways, is in the same position as Utah State heading into this season. New coaching staffs, new players and a lot of uncertainty. No one from a national perspective is really high on the Aztecs, or Aggies, but both programs are optimistic that the new regime will find ways to fix last year’s issues through the newcomers and changes to their respective schemes.

Preseason Game Prediction — Close Win

The Aztecs are as hopeful for a turnaround under their new head coach as the Aggies are trying to be. Many are buying into the new system and mentality under Lewis, and perhaps they’re right in that belief. For now, with Utah State still a step ahead of San Diego State it’s fair to predict an Aggie victory, especially one to be played in Logan where it’ll be freezing cold compared to the warmer San Diego.