San Diego State’s football team is bowl eligible for the first time since 2022, and the Aztecs credit second-year coach Sean Lewis with the big turnaround. 

“I’d like to give a huge credit to my head coach, man,” linebacker Tano Letuli said after the Aztecs won 23-0 at longtime rival Fresno State to improve to 6-1 overall and 3-0 in the Mountain West. 

The Aztecs have now won three more games than they did last year, when they lost their last six games and finished 3-9.

“He’s one of the most courageous men I’ve been around,” Letuli said about Lewis. “One of the best leaders that I’ve been around, even during my time at West Point, the world’s premier leadership academy, and he’s up there with those people, man.  And his courage and his ability to rally us around and get things done the right way and doubling down and not panicking and jumping ship. I love my coach and huge credit to him.”

Letuli had a 31-yard interception return for a touchdown as the Aztecs had their third shutout of the season. Lucky Sutton rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown, and Gabe Plascencia kicked three field goals to extend his MW record to 25 straight. 

Here are the highlights of the players’ news conference:

“It’s good. It’s  obviously cool to celebrate and everything, but we just want to keep our heads down and keep going.”

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“Coach Lew really turned this place around, especially coming back in December. Really set the um set the standard for this season and just kept on motivating us every single day, day in and day out. And I’m just really appreciative of coach Lew.”

“Credit to our coaches, man. They spend so much time up there in their offices and game planning and and they do a good job with us throughout the week and it’s just up to us to go out there and execute. We’re just doing our jobs out there. There’s nothing extra that we’re doing. There are no superman plays that we’re trying to do. Just trying to do what our coach has taught us and if everyone does their job, it’s hard to beat us.”

“It’s good, man. It was a struggle being out. Just trying to lead in any way I could on the sidelines, but definitely good to be out there and make plays for my brothers.”

Tano Letuli pick-6 alert 🚨

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“Just my technique, playing a certain wall carry and then kind of felt some space between me and the receiver and took a chance and it worked out. … Yeah, I got to get in for sure.”

“I think we just continue to keep on doing our jobs as a whole unit. I feel like today we came out flat, but near the end of the game, our O-line, everybody was together and that’s how we came out with this win. I feel like today was an overall great show for our O-line. O-linemen had a day today.”

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