coacheshotseat.com<\/a> tracks how safe each coach\u2019s job is, from the \u201chottest seat in America\u201d to \u201cice cold.\u201d<\/p>\nAfter the Washington State loss, Lewis was listed at No. 17 \u201cand climbing.\u201d He is now ranked No. 27, just behind USC\u2019s Lincoln Riley and just ahead of Michigan\u2019s Sherrone Moore.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s substantially safer than Florida State\u2019s Mike Norvell, who is currently No. 1 on the hot seat. Norvell is followed by Auburn\u2019s Hugh Freeze, North Carolina\u2019s Bill Belichick, Nevada\u2019s Jeff Choate, Akron\u2019s Joe Moorhead and Wisconsin\u2019s Luke Fickell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always been an urgency to win,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if it was Don Coryell here before, or myself. We know that we have to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow people go about the business of winning is different to who they are, what they believe and where they\u2019re at. The level of patience that people have in this industry is different relative to where you\u2019re at, the investment that the program\u2019s making and all the other factors that now go into this.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what it is,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cWe 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\u2019t going to work. It ain\u2019t going to last. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we signed up for. That\u2019s the competitive arena that you\u2019re stepping into. And all of us believe that we can be successful at it because we\u2019re the crazy ones who raised our hands and said, \u2018Yeah, hey, let\u2019s go lead 18- to 22-year-old men in this crazy environment. This will be fun.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Control the controllables<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are going to make decisions in their own shops for their own reasons,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cAnd only they know those reasons. Good on them. That\u2019s fine. I\u2019m going to keep my head down here. I\u2019m going to pour into my guys. We\u2019ve talked a ton about this, and as much as everything has changed, I still believe you invest and you pour into your people.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, \u201ctrust, so that when you have moments of adversity you weather that storm together. When there\u2019s moments of greatness, ok, cool, you know and you understand that you\u2019re still so early in the journey together and what you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, I\u2019m trying to figure out how to parent my kids right now,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cThat\u2019s different now that they keep growing on me. I keep asking them to stop, but they don\u2019t stop and Father Time ain\u2019t lisetening. As soon as I think I\u2019ve got it figured out, something changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur industry is no different, but at the end of the day I think what makes college football and collegiate athletics special \u2026 it\u2019s 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\u2019t mean that you\u2019re soft and that doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever happens, happens. But I want to be able to put my head on the pillow and know that I\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
\u2022 Like the Aztecs, Fresno State (5-2, 2-1 MW) also comes into the game following a week off. It is SDSU\u2019s first regular-season game with both teams coming off idle weeks since 2014 at Oregon State.<\/p>\n
\u2022 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.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Aztecs and Fresno State did not play last season, marking the first time since 2010 that they didn\u2019t share the field. SDSU defeated the Bulldogs 33-18 when they met in 2023 at Snapdragon Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The winner of the game takes possession of The Old Oil Can trophy<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\nOriginally Published: October 20, 2025 at 7:03 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty minutes into his weekly meeting with the media, after talking about San Diego State\u2019s strong start to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-15256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}