When San Diego State had the chance to be boring, predictable and stuck in its bruising defensive ways as it hired a new football coach, it chose a new stretch of road.
Under Brady Hoke and Rocky Long, the Aztecs amounted to a back-alley street fight. Trade punches. Bloody some lips. Tear up the turf between the tackles. Out-tough the other guy and win at the wire.
It was classic football … generations ago. The style helped the Aztecs win plenty of football games for plenty of seasons, but fit less and less in an evolving sport with schools playing tug of war over recruits craving the excitement of the video-game era.
So, San Diego State bear-hugged change. Real, catch-your-attention change. The 180-degree-pivot type of change.
It chose 37-year-old Sean Lewis, an offensive tinkerer extraordinaire who won a bowl game at Kent State — Kent State — and held the play-calling keys for Deion Sanders at high-scoring Colorado for most of the season.
The Aztecs knocked the defensive-minded dust off things.
“It wasn’t something that you know, it had to be that, but that was something that I think we heard from our student-athletes, that it’s kind of a different game right now,” Athletic Director J.D. Wicker said.
”… Just kind of turning that a little bit and finding a way on the offensive side of the football to be more exciting. That will help with recruiting. It will help with the fan base.”
Wicker joked about the “love letters” he received from fans as the most recent season wilted like month-old lettuce. It wasn’t just losing. It was the moribund, pulse-less nature of things.
His inbox bulged. Some were reasonable. Many were as far from that as possible. The consensus: The fans who cared and those on the verge of abandoning ship had seen enough of a toothless offense.
“There were a lot,” Wicker said. “A lot.”
San Diego State Athletic Director John David Wicker, left, introduces Sean Lewis, right, as the new football coach.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Scooping up a 30-something who is just wet enough behind the ear lobes to see San Diego’s blue sky as limitless constitutes a fresh and refreshing starting point.
San Diego State could not have gotten that with another veteran name like former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo or another bite of the defensive apple with Nebraska coordinator Tony White.
The SDSU program, in its current state, demands reinvention and reinvigoration. Tall orders both, but the only acceptable expectation with a new stadium and expanding campus is search of Power 5 parachutes.
As the college football landscape quakes with NIL deals and transfer portal madness, a true change agent not only needs Gumby-like adaptability, but the enough gas in the mental and emotional tank to face the next curveball around the corner.
And you need some of this, from Lewis: “I’m looking forward to bringing that excitement, that brand of football where we’re lighting up the scoreboard, where we’re playing fast …
“Fans need to get their tickets now because there’s not going to be tickets available very soon with the product that we’re going to put on the field.”
Will it work? No one knows, of course. Lewis had his play-calling duties ripped away by Sanders late in the season, but it’s impossible to know how much Deion’s son playing quarterback entered into a complicated relationship.
What we do know, it’s different.
“Sometimes you figure out you have different philosophies about different things,” Wicker said of Lewis’ previous stop. “… You take something from everything you do. I think Sean articulated the great things that he’s going to take from experience at Colorado and make us better.”
San Diego State football coach Sean Lewis follows athletic director John David Wicker into Wednesday’s news conference.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
USC proved that offense alone is not enough to ascend in the modern college game. Be wired to score and keep pace. Be grounded enough to put a few eggs in the defensive basket, as well.
That side of the ball likely will determine the long-term legacy of Lewis, who clearly knows how to move the football and score points.
The Aztecs finished with a losing record for the first time since 2009. They tumbled to the bottom of the Mountain West. How much of a lift will this thing take?
“I don’t think it’s very big at all,” Lewis said. “It’s the very first time in a long time where there’s been a dip. … It points to me that we’re not that far off and we’re going to be able to hit the ground running.”
San Diego State made a statement by hiring Lewis. This will not be business as usual. This will not be established older names built on defense.
The Aztecs chose change. Finally.
