Ask anyone about San Diego State’s football program, and they will express their discontent about the team’s subpar six-game losing streak that ended last season.
Despite a disappointing start to head coach Sean Lewis’ tenure as the Aztecs’ leader, he opted to retain some coaches, like offensive line coach Mike Schmidt. Furthermore, some players also chose to stay instead of transferring, such as key senior offensive linemen Christian Jones, Ross Ulugalu-Maseuli and Joseph Borjon.
The core of Jones, Ulugalu-Maseuli and Borjon, combined with their pre-existing knowledge of and relationship with coach Schmidt, has SDSU’s offense looking like a new group as it has dominated opposing defensive fronts week in and week out.
“I think we are on the same page a heck of a lot quicker than [we were] a year ago,” Schmidt said. “The guys know what to do. We walk into gameplan meetings, and there is not a whole lot of coaching on what we are doing. From a schematic standpoint, I think we are a little further ahead of where we were a year ago.”
Typically, those outside the offensive line and its coaches tend to focus and praise the skill positions such as quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers; Coach Lewis has not fallen victim to this trend.
“We are going to go as [the offensive line] goes,” Lewis said in a press conference earlier in the season. “Coach Schmidt has done an unbelievable job of helping develop those guys. When they are playing at a high level, the offense is able to operate.”
(Noah Gaxiola)
Coach Lewis also commended the two new starting transfers that he and his staff brought in for the season: Bayo Kannike and Kalan Ellis. The man in the middle, Ulugalu-Maseuli, along with Jones and Borjon, used their familiarity with SDSU’s football program to get Ellis and Kannike on the same page as the rest of the offensive line.
“We know the program, we knew what coach Lewis expected out of us,” Ulugalu-Maseuli explained. “When we brought in Kalan and Bayo, it was not too hard [to get them settled in] when you have three guys that have already been in the program to nail the belief of the system into those guys’ heads.”
In addition to the starting five offensive linemen, running backs and tight ends also play essential roles in the blocking schemes the Aztecs have effectively executed. The running backs and tight ends work alongside the offensive line to pick up blitzes and block second-level defenders. The combination of offensive line and skill position blocking has only allowed nine sacks in eight games, and has enabled SDSU to rush for 1,485 yards.
“Those guys are an extension of us,” coach Schmidt said. “Those guys are in our meetings and we are out here working together daily; that has been a huge difference in the way we are able to control C-gaps. That communication there and the help we are getting from [the skill position players] has been a good reason why we are plugging the ball vertically on defenses.”
Coach Lewis echoed Schmidt’s sentiment, adding the idea that his offense’s blocking prowess gives the team an “identity that you better strap it up when you come play the Aztecs.”
An effective and potent offensive line has opened the playbook for SDSU, allowing the team to refrain from becoming one-dimensional.
(Noah Gaxiola)
In the run game, the Aztecs have utilized five ball carriers who have all made positive impacts on the ground in various games this season. Four of those five ball carriers have reached the end zone for the Scarlet and Black, and starting junior running back Lucky Sutton is on pace for well over 1,000 rushing yards this season.
As for the aerial attack, SDSU brought in a new junior quarterback, Jayden Denegal, from the transfer portal, forcing the offensive line to adjust to a new signal caller. Seemingly, the transition was a smooth one as the Aztecs have been able to hurt defenses through the air — something that was dearly missed last year.
“We have playmakers on the edges, we have running backs that know how to pick up linebackers that are not pointed and we have Jayden [Denegal] being able to sit in the pocket,” Ulugalu-Maseuli said. “We make the pocket, but Denegal and the playmakers on the perimeters are going to make plays.”
With SDSU’s new starting quarterback and two new starting offensive linemen in Ellis and Kannike, the consistent starting presence of the Aztecs’ offensive line and lack of injuries has been an underrated key to the offense’s hot start.
“It is our job as coaches to cultivate different ways that those guys [can] get around each other,” coach Schmidt said. “We have done a good job of that off the field this offseason, making sure those guys are tied together and everyone is working in the same direction.”
The tight-knit bond and culture the offensive line has forged permeate the rest of the offense, bringing everyone together as one cohesive unit. The diverse playbook and the multi-dimensional playcalling that good offensive line play enables have been on full display for SDSU so far this season.
The expertise that coaches Schmidt and Lewis have given to the front five has allowed them to set the tone for the rest of the offense, resulting in the offense’s 231 points through its first eight games.
Understanding that the season is still far from finished has kept the offensive line eager to continue to prove itself. It’s the next opportunity to dominate a defense comes this Saturday as the Aztecs venture to Hawai’i to take on the Rainbow Warriors at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex at 8 p.m.
