San Diego State extends offer to Air Force transfer

Irons has experience at defensive end and tight end

San Diego State Aztecs football helmet. | Troy Babbitt-Imagn Images

San Diego State’s football team concluded its annual spring practice on Saturday afternoon, hosting a showcase at Snapdragon Stadium that differed from a traditional spring game.

Earlier in the week, the college football spring transfer window opened. The window goes through this Friday, giving players a little more than a week to submit their names based on how spring practice goes. For San Diego State, eight players have put their names into the mix during this window, choosing to play their college football careers elsewhere in the upcoming fall season.

For San Diego State, that number included six redshirt freshmen and two seniors-to-be. Defensive backs Tayvion Beasley and Taten Beyer, defensive lineman Ryan Gaea, linebacker Danny Niu, wide receiver Jason Mitchell and offensive lineman Kai Holec make up the group of young Aztecs departing the program. Defensive lineman Darrion Dalton and edge rusher Malik Gucake are the two seniors who have entered the transfer portal in recent days. The two players combined to play in 20 games last season but appeared to have been passed up by others during the spring.

The reverse end of the portal means San Diego State can be aggressive in pursuing players that they see fit, who have departed other programs. During the most recent winter transfer window, San Diego State lost 22 players to the portal while it brought in 19.

Connor Irons is a player whom San Diego State has targeted in the early going of the portal being open, receiving an offer from the Aztecs. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Irons is capable of playing defensive end and tight end and is leaving Air Force with four years of eligibility remaining. Irons played his high school football at Sunny Hills in Fullerton, also receiving offers from Army, Penn, Georgetown, Brown and Columbia.

Irons has reported offers from Prairie View A&M, San Diego and Claremont McKenna in addition to the Aztecs in the days since he’s been available. Washington State defensive back Hunter Haines and Charlotte defensive lineman Kainoa Davis, a native of Temecula, are two other players in the portal who have reported offers from San Diego State so far this week.