The San Diego State football team’s offense faced its defense in the Aztec FAST showcase at SnapDragon Stadium on Saturday. This year’s spring scrimmage was the first under coach Sean Lewis who will begin his opening season with the team this fall.
The offense shined against the defense with a high-paced and effective offensive attack. They scored five touchdowns in the scrimmage, with four passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown.
After the game, junior and safety Dalesean Staley spoke about the high-paced offense from a defensive standpoint.
“From the beginning, we had to push it a little bit faster,” Staley said. “But we started to break it up towards the end.”
Despite the offensive attack, the defense was able to force a turnover with cornerback Jakson Berman getting an interception off of freshman quarterback Danny O’Neil late in the scrimmage.
Quarterback AJ Duffy led the first offensive series for the Aztec offense. After starting on their own 30-yard line, he ended the first drive with a 36-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Louis Brown IV.
On the second series, Javance Tupou’ata-Johnson took over at quarterback but was stopped by the defense on his first drive. On his second possession, he completed the drive with an eight-yard touchdown pass to tight end Gabe Garretson.
O’Neil came in on the four series of the first half but wasn’t able to move the ball down the field and was replaced by Kyle Crum on the next series.
During Crum’s possession, running back Lucky Sutton took control of the offense by marching the ball down the field. The offense got the ball inside the five-yard line but was stopped by the defense and forced to kick a field goal.
The first half of the scrimmage ended after five drives. For those five drives, the offense continued to establish their high-paced attack. Brown IV spoke after the game about how the offense can go even faster.
“I definitely think we could go faster as an offense,” Brown IV said. “We’re a spread simple offense and we want to get the defense tired and off track so we can score points.”
At the start of the second half, Tupou’ata-Johnson led the offensive onto the field, but couldn’t muster up a score during his possession.
Duffy returned on the second drive of the half and got into some trouble late in the series. He was facing a 4th & 12 on the defense’s 36-yard line. He then threw his second 36-yard touchdown of the scrimmage with a strike to newly acquired tight end Jude Wolfe from USC.
Crum came out for the next series and scored the fourth touchdown of the day for the Aztec offense on a nine-yard TD pass to wide receiver Jordan Napier.
The defense finally made a play on the next possession by forcing their first turnover, which was the Berman interception off of O’Neil.
However, two possessions later O’Neil came back out at quarterback and led a scoring drive that ended with a one-yard rushing touchdown by Sutton, their fifth and final touchdown of the day.
The offense was able to kick two more field goals before the scrimmage came to an end. Lewis spoke about the defense’s performance against a stellar offensive showing.
“They started a little bit slow but the way they bowed up in the end especially there in the sudden change period and in the redzone period to be able to respond,” Lewis said. “I think on both sides of the ball, we could continue to do a good job within the line of scrimmage.”
Duffy led the SDSU offense in passing 112 yards through the air and two passing touchdowns. Brown IV led in receiving with five catches for 79 yards and one receiving touchdown.
Sutton was the leading rusher in the game with 11 carries for 36 yards and one rushing touchdown. Other running back Kenan Christon also got some touches with seven carries for 21 yards.
For the other quarterbacks, Johnson had 69 passing yards with one passing touchdown, Crum had 36 passing yards and one passing touchdown, while O’Neil only had 15 passing yards and one interception.
The 2024 SDSU football season kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 31 at Snapdragon Stadium against Texas A&M-Commerce.