San Diego State football brings back a deep crop of talent from the 2025 season as the Aztecs make the jump to the Pac-12 later this year.
After a 2025 season that saw San Diego State football have a massive turnaround, going from a 3-9 record in 2024 to 9-4 in 2025, including the program’s first bowl game appearance since 2022, SDSU now shifts toward retaining its key 2025 contributors. Head coach Sean Lewis said he and his staff identified 25 key players that the program would like to retain in 2026. The Aztecs brought back 21 of those guys.
The new era of collegiate athletics forces teams not only to constantly look outside the building for roster upgrades through the transfer portal, but now teams have to fight to keep their own guys and retain the talent they have.
“There’s a couple different metrics in terms of retention rate. We were top 10 in the country with that,” Lewis said in a press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 4. “Over 11,000 reps returning from the 2025 season, that’s roughly 50% of the total reps taken from all of our players. Right around 75% of all eligible players that we could return are returning back.”
The Return of QB 1
Quarterback Jayden Denegal returns to The Mesa for his second and likely final season at SDSU. The former Michigan backup started in all 12 regular-season games last season for the Aztecs, throwing for 1,807 yards, nine touchdowns, eight interceptions and completing 58.8% of his passes.
In the first half of last season, Denegal was exceptional, recording four games with over 180 passing yards and scoring a touchdown in five of the six games. Denegal got beaten up midway through the season as he was battling a shoulder injury that he eventually got surgery on at the end of the season.
“Pending any setbacks in his rehab, he should be good to go,” Lewis said. “This is the first time for me since the 2020-21 season where there’s not a new quarterback that I’m bringing in … now there’s some continuity with the trigger man and the operator that’s going to make it go that I’m really excited for.”
Wide Receiver Weapons
The Aztecs managed to bring back four wide receivers from last season, totaling 1,494 yards and seven touchdowns’ worth of production on the outside. Jordan Napier, Donovan Brown, Nathan Acevedo and Jacob Bostick all return as weapons for Jayden Denegal in 2026.
“I’m excited about the production that we have coming back in Donovan, Napier, Bostick, what those guys have shown and what we want to get done,” Lewis said. “I think going into year three, this is probably the deepest and most talented room that we’ve had on paper.”
Napier was named a 2025 Biletnikof Award Watchlist in October of last season and finished as the Aztecs’ leading receiver in yards with 629 yards. Napier’s season ended early after he suffered a knee injury against Boise State on Nov. 15. Napier underwent knee surgery and should be ready to go for the start of the 2026 season.
Brown played in 12 of the Aztecs’ 13 games last season and finished second on the team in receiving yards with 518 yards on 33 catches with two touchdown receptions. In SDSU’s final regular-season game on the road against New Mexico, Brown had five catches for 91 yards and a touchdown catch in the loss, his best personal game of the season.
Acevedo played in nine games for SDSU last season, only having 16 catches for 190 yards.
Bostick was productive in his limited action for the Aztecs last season, having 11 receptions for 157 yards and three touchdowns in four games played before his season ended early due to a knee injury.
Defense Defining Depth
Dalesean Staley transferred to SDSU from the University of Northern Iowa after the 2023 season and has been with the Aztecs ever since. Last season, he was a crucial part of the elite Aztecs’ defense, which ranked among the top units in the country.
Staley finished second on the team in total tackles with 76. He also posted one interception, one forced fumble and 10 pass deflections for the Aztecs last season.
“Getting Dalesean back, he’s another really, really good all-conference player. Goes into the portal and sees what else is out there, the maturity of him and his family and his circle of influence to realize, ‘hey, I’m not going to trust the last year of my journey to anyone else,’” Lewis said.
Tano Letuli played in five games last season for SDSU before suffering a season-ending knee injury, sidelining him for the remainder of the season. Letuli is a twitchy player who is great at getting to the ball and making plays.
San Diego State also brought back seniors Brady Nassar and Malachi Finau to strengthen the defensive line in 2026.
Big name losses like Trey White, Dwayne McDougle and Owen Chambliss, who were massive contributors to the Aztecs’ success in 2025, are big blows to the 2026 roster, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Coach Lewis feels that, despite these losses, his team remains one of the top programs heading into the Pac-12 in 2026.
“There were 21 guys out of 25 that were significant contributors that played over 200 snaps and are still Aztecs,” Lewis said. “I know there’s some marquee players that are no longer here. That’s the cost of doing business in this era.”
