Another Practice in the Books for Aztec Football

SAN DIEGO -- Following a day off from practice on Monday, the San Diego State football team returned for its fifth practice of fall camp on Tuesday. The Aztecs wore shoulder pads for the two-hour workout, which was conducted on both the grass practice field and the turf field at SDSU’s on-campus facility.

San Diego State ran position drills, 1-on-1s, skelly and team situations, while also running many special teams sets and working on third-down plays. The Aztecs also worked on red-zone sets for the first time this camp.

“(Today) was a good day one of week two and I really like where we are at,” Lewis said. “I like the way we are progressing as we are moving through this (camp).”

One of the most innovative minds in college football, Lewis brings an extensive résumé to San Diego State, having served as head coach at Kent State from 2018-22 before spending the 2023 campaign as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Colorado under head coach Deion Sanders. He has also witnessed great success as a coordinator/assistant coach in stops at Syracuse (2016-17), Bowling Green (2014-15) and Eastern Illinois (2012-13).

Lewis is particularly looking forward to Saturday’s Fan Fest at Snapdragon Stadium.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Lewis added. “The whole purpose of this is to get the team trained and I think Saturday is an awesome opportunity for the community to come out and see how hard these kids have been working. We also get to have a true pre-game routine, get to the stadium, have people in it, turn the lights on and see how guys react to how we can best simulate a gameday environment. We’ll learn a lot about our squad on Saturday.”

First-year safeties coach C.J. McGorisk has been impressed with the Aztec safeties.

“It’s a lot of fun,” McGorisk said. “Number one, we are with great people. Coach Lewis put together an unbelievable staff. I’ve walked into a great room (of players). And you’re here (in San Diego), you can’t beat it. It’s a combo of all three, working with great people, great players and being in a great city.”

McGorisk came to San Diego State with defensive coordinator Eric Schmidt from Washington, where he helped the Huskies earn a College Football Playoff berth as the No. 2 seed, a Pac-12 Championship, and a perfect, undefeated 12-0 regular season before falling to Michigan in the championship game. Working with the defense as a quality control coach, McGorisk helped mentor six all-Pac-12 honorees including top safety Dominque Hampton.

“I tell (the safeties) we’re driving a lot of communication, especially in the back end,” McGorisk added. “The linebackers drive the communication in the front end, but we’ve got to be on the same page with the backers and our cornerbacks. We come out and set a standard and the standard is the minimum. There are days where we need to keep stacking plus-1 moments and we have continued to stack those. It’s far from a finished product but each day we are continuing to learn and move on.”

Sophomore safety Dalesean Staley is liking what he sees from the new-look 4-2-5 defense.

“I love our defense,” Staley said. “It’s electric. Everybody flies to the ball. Guys out there just making plays. Playing against (SDSU’s offense) helps us a lot. They try to tire us quick. The offense going quick helps us identify formations faster, personnel faster, and helps us call what we need to make faster. This will help us against more traditional offenses.”

Tickets are on sale for all six Aztec home games, including season tickets, two or three-game mini-plans and single-game tickets.

The Aug. 31 opener against Texas A&M - Commerce is set for 5 p.m. PT.