Twenty minutes into his weekly meeting with the media, after talking about San Diego State’s strong start to the season, after discussing this week’s rivalry game at Fresno State and after touching on a dozen other associated topics, SDSU coach Sean Lewis was asked about the state of his occupation.

Division I job openings have reached double digits already this year, with two coming in the spring and nine others — at Alabama-Birmington, Arkansas State, Colorado State, Florida, Penn State, Oregon State, Oklahoma State, UCLA and Virginia Tech — since the season began.

Some of the dismissals were more shocking than others. The most stunning was Penn State’s firing of James Franklin. He guided the Nittany Lions to a playoff berth last season. He had them within an overtime victory this year against Oregon of being ranked No. 1 in the nation, only to be out of a job two weeks later after three straight losses.

At least Franklin could console himself with a $49 million buyout.

The question posed to Lewis: “What’s your reaction to what’s going on in your industry? Nine head coaches tossed in seven weeks.”

“That’s happened?” Lewis deadpanned. “I haven’t noticed. I just pay attention to my team. Head down. Go to work.“

Are you shocked?

“Yes. No. … are you surprised by it?” Lewis asked rhetorically. “There’s always been pressure to win. There’s pressure to win here. … A month ago some of our fans were calling for my head. OK. All right. Now there’s all kinds of praise. OK. All right.”

Lewis and the Aztecs (5-1, 2-0 Mountain West) are riding a four-game winning streak, putting a disappointing 36-13 loss at Washington State well back in the rearview mirror.

The website coacheshotseat.com tracks how safe each coach’s job is, from the “hottest seat in America” to “ice cold.”

After the Washington State loss, Lewis was listed at No. 17 “and climbing.” He is now ranked No. 27, just behind USC’s Lincoln Riley and just ahead of Michigan’s Sherrone Moore.

That’s substantially safer than Florida State’s Mike Norvell, who is currently No. 1 on the hot seat. Norvell is followed by Auburn’s Hugh Freeze, North Carolina’s Bill Belichick, Nevada’s Jeff Choate, Akron’s Joe Moorhead and Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell.

“There’s always been an urgency to win,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t matter if it was Don Coryell here before, or myself. We know that we have to win.

“How people go about the business of winning is different to who they are, what they believe and where they’re at. The level of patience that people have in this industry is different relative to where you’re at, the investment that the program’s making and all the other factors that now go into this.”

Back in the day, as they say, a new coach would come in and speak about a five-year plan for success. Coaches barely get five games now before the whispers begin.

“We know what it is,” Lewis said. “We know that time is sped up. We know that your window of opportunity is small. And so you better be willing to say, forget balance, be obsessed about being great and building this thing up in a hurry because otherwise it ain’t going to work. It ain’t going to last. …

“That’s what we signed up for. That’s the competitive arena that you’re stepping into. And all of us believe that we can be successful at it because we’re the crazy ones who raised our hands and said, ‘Yeah, hey, let’s go lead 18- to 22-year-old men in this crazy environment. This will be fun.’ ”

Control the controllables

Rather than be distracted with everything else going on across the college football landscape, Lewis chooses to focus his time and energy on that which he can control.

“People are going to make decisions in their own shops for their own reasons,” Lewis said. “And only they know those reasons. Good on them. That’s fine. I’m going to keep my head down here. I’m going to pour into my guys. We’ve talked a ton about this, and as much as everything has changed, I still believe you invest and you pour into your people.”

He works to build bonds, relationships and connections, he said, with his staff and players, in the belief that it will lead to winning. The thinking is this generates, Lewis said, “trust, so that when you have moments of adversity you weather that storm together. When there’s moments of greatness, ok, cool, you know and you understand that you’re still so early in the journey together and what you’re capable of achieving that. You can detach from the joy or the misery, however you want to label it, and just get better together and constantly figure it out together.”

“Like, I’m trying to figure out how to parent my kids right now,” Lewis said. “That’s different now that they keep growing on me. I keep asking them to stop, but they don’t stop and Father Time ain’t lisetening. As soon as I think I’ve got it figured out, something changes.

“Our industry is no different, but at the end of the day I think what makes college football and collegiate athletics special … it’s about helping these young men grow as people and pouring into them so that they truly know that you love and care about them. That doesn’t mean that you’re soft and that doesn’t mean that you don’t hold them accountable. By doing that the right way, they truly know that you care. They know that you truly have their best interests at heart.

“Whatever happens, happens. But I want to be able to put my head on the pillow and know that I’ve invested literally everything that I have in my staff and these players to move this thing forward each and every single day. I believe that will be enough.”

Notable

• Like the Aztecs, Fresno State (5-2, 2-1 MW) also comes into the game following a week off. It is SDSU’s first regular-season game with both teams coming off idle weeks since 2014 at Oregon State.

• SDSU has been at least 5-1 to start the season six times in the past 10 years, including 6-0 starts in 2017 and 2021. Four of the other five seasons resulted in double-digit victories, including a school-record 12-2 mark in 2021.

• The Aztecs and Fresno State did not play last season, marking the first time since 2010 that they didn’t share the field. SDSU defeated the Bulldogs 33-18 when they met in 2023 at Snapdragon Stadium.

• The winner of the game takes possession of The Old Oil Can trophy. It represents a rivalry that dates back 102 years. The trophy debuted in 2011, when Fresno State joined the Mountain West. SDSU beat the Bulldogs 35-28 at Qualcomm Stadium that year, though Fresno State holds a 7-5 edge between the teams during the Oil Can era. SDSU leads the all-time series 31-27-4.

Originally Published: October 20, 2025 at 7:03 PM PDT