{"id":425928,"date":"2026-08-07T00:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425928\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T00:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T00:50:10","slug":"aztecs-position-preview-jayden-denegal-leads-the-way-at-qb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425928\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztecs position preview: Jayden Denegal leads the way at QB"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego State has opened each of the past eight seasons with a different starting quarterback.<\/p>\n

That changes this season when senior Jayden Denegal returns behind center. SDSU\u2019s quarterbacks room also includes redshirt freshmen Stone Saunders and Draiden Trudeau and true freshman Brady Campbell.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time for me, personally, in four years I have a returning quarterback,\u201d SDSU\u2019s offensive coordinator\/quarterbacks coachMatt Johnson said with a smile after Thursday morning\u2019s practice. \u201cThat is naturally different. You\u2019re naturally having a higher level of conversations with me and Jayden.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with Stone, with him being able to early enroll to be here in the spring, through the portal, he\u2019s gotten countless reps through the spring that we\u2019re able to add onto, so it\u2019s not like we\u2019re starting at a base ground level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said conversations among QBs room are much more in depth, at least for the veterans. Campbell\u2019s head may be about to explode with all the information thrown at him since coming to campus over the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him, it\u2019s like drinking out of a firehose,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe\u2019s doing a good job of attacking what he can. All his reps right now are 100% mental in the classroom. He\u2019s doing what he can, but there\u2019s no way around it, it\u2019s going to be fast. It\u2019s going to be spinning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our summer series previewing SDSU\u2019s position groups begins with a look at the QBs:<\/p>\n

\"JaydenJayden Denegal started all 12 regular season games in 2025. (Hayne Palmour IV \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nJayden Denegal, 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, Sr., Apple Valley<\/p>\n

Notable: Transferred to SDSU last year after three years at Michigan, where he was a backup on the Wolverines\u2019 2023 national championship team. He started all 12 regular-season games for the Aztecs, passing for 1,807 yards and 9 touchdowns with 8 interceptions.<\/p>\n

Denegal missed the New Mexico Bowl following surgery to repair his left (non-throwing) shoulder, which was injured in the season opener.<\/p>\n

Johnson on Denegal: \u201cJD brings back a ton of leadership for the offense. Obviously, he brings back the experience, which is really good. But the biggest thing is he\u2019s bringing back that level of maturity in the offense of a guy who has gone through this system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StoneStone Saunders was a four-star high school recruit out of Pennsylvania. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nStone Saunders, 6-1, 222, R-Fr., Harrisburg, Penn.<\/p>\n

Notable: Transferred to SDSU from Kentucky, where he first attended as a four-star recruit out of Pennsylvania\u2019s Bishop McDevitt High School.<\/p>\n

He set state records for passing yards (13,719), touchdowns (204) and completions (781) over his four-year varsity career. He guided Bishop McDevitt to two state championships (2024 and 2022) as well as state runner-up (2021) and state semifinals (2023).<\/p>\n

Johnson on Saunders: \u201cStone is a guy who has the arm to be able to touch the entire field, something that we need to have in the quarterback room. He does a really good job of attacking his work off the field so that his feet are matching what he\u2019s seeing with his eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DraidenDraiden Trudeau prepped just up the road at Mission Viejo High School. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nDraiden Trudeau: 6-0, 190, R-Fr., Mission Viejo<\/p>\n

Notable: Walk-on from Mission Viejo High School who returns after redshirting last season. Passed for nearly 3,000 yards and 34 touchdowns during his prep career, highlighted by a 13-3 junior season.<\/p>\n

Johnson on Trudeau: \u201cVery good athlete. He\u2019s more the athlete of the group. I said that just for JD, just to piss him off. No, he does a great job with energy, juice. He\u2019s pretty much the glue in that (QB) room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BradyBrady Campbell is the newest member of the SDSU quarterbacks room. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nBrady Campbell, 6-3, 190, Fr., Bakersfield<\/p>\n

Notable: Comes from Bakersfield Frontier High School, where he passed for nearly 4,000 yards and 38 touchdowns during his prep career.<\/p>\n

Johnson on Campbell: \u201cIt\u2019s really early for him. Right now his job is to sit there and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

While SDSU coach Sean Lewis has become accustomed to having a competition at the position before naming a starter, Denegal is the unquestioned QB1.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur staff does a really good job at finding guys that are intrinsically motivated,\u201d said Lewis, dismissing the notion an open position breeds competition. \u201cAs we sit here today, yeah, \u2018Dene\u2019 is our starting quarterback. Dene knows that he needs to continue to be the guy who positions our team in the best spot to stack wins.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego State has opened each of the past eight seasons with a different starting quarterback. That changes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127],"class_list":["post-425928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-college-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sdsu-aztecs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425928","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=425928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}