What San Diego State head coach Sean Lewis said about offensive personnel, transfer portal, recruiting class
San Diego State head coach Sean Lewis held a press conference on Wednesday following National Signing Day.
Topics included the 2025 recruiting class, transfers in and out of the program and the ever-changing landscape of college football.
Here are the highlights from Lewis’ press conference.
ON OFFENSE
“I think that each and every single year that what we get to do, it’s a brand-new team. It’s year two at the helm for myself but for this team in 2025 it's year one for them. There’s gonna be new guys in new roles and even though guys have some continuity about okaying together, there’s gonna be schematic adjustments that happen every year. Having familiar faces and relationships that are in the building allows us to do our work at a higher level.
ON OFFENSIVE PERSONNEL
“We’ve taken a lot of time to refine the process of how we do it. In the past it’s been that year and a half mark that’s been consistent to where we’ve been able to operate it and roll. There’s some things I think where we teach a little bit cleaner and a little bit better that can expedite that process and guys having a greater understanding of how we need to maximize the time that we do have to expedite that learning and make that process happen sooner rather than later but it’s still gonna be a process that we have to work through.”
ON ADDING VETERAN QUARTERBACKS BERT EMANUEL JR. AND JAYDEN DENEGAL FROM THE PORTAL
“It’s good to have those game experiences and that maturity and have gone through the college lifestyle. It’s fun for us to pour into them and believe in them and for them to reignite their careers in a way that’s uniquely different from the places that they’ve been. It’s a fun challenge; it’s a great opportunity to pour into those guys and instill belief into them and showcase their physical skills. As we continue to learn more about what we believe to be true off the tape that we saw, as we saw in Bert (Emanuel Jr.) live and in person last year, to build out a plan of attack that highlights and accentuates their skills and able to use that to best utilize the offense.”
“They’re both big kids, both dual-threat kids that have the ability to stress the defense in a lot of ways. They both have arm talent and they both have the ability to run, they’re both very cerebral kids in the time we’ve spent on Zoom meetings with them and having them here on campus for their official visits. They really think about the game in a mature way, they have a great foundational understanding of just football 101 that is a good, solid foundation to be able to build upon. Be able to download, implement, install our concepts for how we want to do it and how we get to spend more time with them we have a good idea of what we think they’re gonna be best suited to do.”
ADDING LOCAL TRANSFERS JOSIAH COX AND CHRISTIAN WASHINGTON
“It’s started since day one with us here in our hometown. Those are two hometown heroes that got away that we were able to bring back. For both of them, they have experience, they have playing time, and they’ve gained wisdom from their time away. Looking forward to them coming in and competing. Both of them have infectious personalities that when they come into the building, they’re active participants in creating a really positive environment and positive culture. Looking forward to both of them doing that consistently, day in and day out and being really dynamic players for us in all the ways we can use them. (Josiah) is a physical kid, he’s got a nose for the football and he’s pretty instinctual and he’s able to make some really good plays. There’s quite a bit of production that left the building from the running back room with (Marquez Cooper) and all that he did for our program and so we need someone to step up and carry that load and we’ll have Christian be a part of that mix along with Cam (Davis) with Lucky (Sutton) and Sincere (Rhaney) coming off the injury. He’s moving around as good as he has since he’s been here and looking forward to that competition and how they push each other going forward.
ON THE 2025 RECRUITING CLASS
“A lot is made about where you get your talent from. I think the biggest piece for us is that the consistent heartbeat that is gonna drive this program forward is elite high school recruiting. I think we’re more balanced than what a lot of people are doing around the country in terms of how things have gotten skewed by going portal heavy. Having the time to facilitate the relationships and have this first full year of getting to know this freshman signee class is always gonna be at a premium. We still need to be smart and be efficient in where there are holes. We constantly want to view high school recruiting as the draft. These two teams are gonna play this Sunday, the Eagles and the Chiefs. They’ve built their organizations and franchises through the draft and then they supplement through NFL free agency, and we very much want that to be the same way here for the makeup of our roster over the long haul. It’s built consistently year after year by the relationships in our backyard here in California and in the Phoenix area and in Vegas where we’ve made some hay and continue to make relationships but use the portal to fill the holes and supplement our roster. The size, length along the trenches is a premium, we’re still working to get some things done. There may be some late-day signees we’ll be able to brag about in that regard to bolster the fronts.”
ON THE TRANSFER OF QUARTERBACK DANNY O’NEIL
“At the end of the day I want what’s best for these kids. I want what is best for these kids. If Danny and his family felt that getting back to the Midwest was best for himself, his career and his family then I support that 100 percent. Wish him nothing but the best.”
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Bodie DeSilva has been covering sports in San Diego for more than a decade. He previously covered San Diego State athletics for Scout/Fox Sports.