It’s good to keep your head on a swivel during a Sean Lewis news conference because you never know what’s going to come at you, or from which direction.

The San Diego State coach answered questions Monday about last week’s loss at UCLA and this week’s home game against James Madison. He touched on the state of college football. And he offered a couple of life lessons, to boot.

A sampling:

Losses, like the 28-10 loss at UCLA, how do you move on from that? 

A: Instead of getting emotional and being frustrated by the end result, you detach, you remove the emotion, you evaluate the process. What went good? What went bad? What can be replicated? What was not repeatable? And how do we do it at a greater level and accept that this game, just like life, sometimes you’re going to come up short.

But if you can learn from those experiences, learn those hard lessons and then have the courage to dust yourself off, pick yourself up, go back forward, knowing that you are good. This program is good. We have a good quarterback. We have a good team. We have great support. We have good leadership. We’re good.

We went against a worthy opponent. What did we learn? There’s a lot that we learned. We’ve got to do better. All right? So let’s go do that work better. That’s the second step in this climb. There’s a lot of football to be played. There’s a lot of life to be lived.

SDSU quarterback Jayden Denegal’s accuracy against UCLA was questioned, with long passes off target and short passes into the ground, a week after making some on-the-mark long throws against Portland State. How do you get better accuracy out of Denegal?

A: Repetition is the mother of all teachers, right? We’ve got to continue to do it. We’ve got to continue to do it at full speed. A lot gets thrown on the quarterback. … So you’re going to get a lot of criticism when things aren’t going well, and rightfully so, and you probably get far too much praise when things are going well. …

We know what he’s capable of, and it’s our job collectively as an organization and as a program to continue to put him into positions where he can be successful, whether that’s down-the-field accuracy shots or short throws that we know he’s comfortable with that the receivers are going to be where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there.

What’s the difference in athleticism and depth among an FCS opponent (Week 1 vs. Portland), a Big Ten opponent (Week 2 at UCLA) and a non-power team (Week 3 vs. James Madison), and how much different is it than when you got into college coaching 16 years ago?

A: It’s all relative to the size of your bank account. FCS has a little bank. They’ve got a little bit of talent. Big Ten school’s got a big bank. They’ve got a lot of talent and a lot of experience they can afford.

This school (JMU) is pretty similar to our bank account. Now they were also a team that played in the CFP. That tells you a little bit of where their bank account was relative to where our bank account is. …

The Big Ten’s got big banks. What was their records the first two weeks relative to their opponents? FCS, how have they been? When was the last time you guys saw the past couple years, an FCS opponent, like when Appalachian State walked into Michigan and pulled off an upset?

You guys got any answers? Like, the talent is getting Hoovered and sucked up at all the different levels as you go.

Aztecs great La’Roi Glover spoke to the team a few weeks ago during training camp. How did that go?

A: La’Roi asked the boys, “How many times do you have to get hit in the face with a skunk to know that it smells?” What’s the answer? It’s a skunk. You already know this. You don’t need to get hit in the face by it. The answer’s zero. It’s a skunk. Told you it’s a skunk. You don’t need to get hit in the face. It stinks.

So sometimes you have to learn the hard way?

A: Like, both of my children. I love them to death. Both of them have scars on their hands because they like to help me cook. And when they were younger, I said, “Hey, don’t touch the stove. Don’t touch the stove. It’s hot. You’re going get burned.”

After you tell them so many times, like, I love them, but because I love them, I let them feel a little bit of pain, too. Guess how many times they touched the stove since then? (He forms a zero with his index finger and thumb). Too often we’re afraid of people getting hurt. It’s not our job to clear the path. Our job is to educate. It’s our job to move them forward. It’s our job to equip. It’s our job to inspire. And so it’s their job to receive the wisdom as we go.

So how many times do we have to get hit in the face by a skunk to know it stinks? Apparently, one. Hopefully, we can learn a lesson for how we prepare better and how I lead better, so we can be better.

Toledo kick time set

Breakfast with the Aztecs?

SDSU’s kickoff time for its Sept. 26 game at Toledo has been announced. The teams will play at 9 a.m. PDT. The game will be broadcast by CBS Sports Network.