{"id":428500,"date":"2026-08-10T02:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T02:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/428500\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T02:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T02:18:19","slug":"aztecs-position-preview-sdsu-needs-to-identify-five-new-starters-in-secondary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/428500\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztecs position preview: SDSU needs to identify five new starters in secondary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demetrius Sumler is new to the role of San Diego State defensive coordinator, although he is the longest-tenured member of the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Sumler was hired by former SDSU coach Rocky Long as a graduate assistant in 2016 and became cornerbacks coach two years later. The San Diego native was retained three years ago when Sean Lewis was hired as a head coach and promoted to DC in December after Rob Aurich was hired at Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Sumler said at times he still hears Long\u2019s voice in the back of his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never not hear Coach Long,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And what does he hear?<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be soft. Get to the ball,\u201d Sumler said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Those words resonate even more this season with so many new players bidding to start on the defense in general and across the secondary in particular.<\/p>\n

SDSU has only three returning starters on defense. None of them is in the secondary.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego State sophomore cornerback Mike Lindsay has impressed in practice ever since transferring from Idaho State. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happens when you enjoy one nation\u2019s most experienced secondaries in the nation the previous season. Players graduate, transfer or, in the case of cornerback Chris Johnson, move on to the NFL as a first-round draft choice.<\/p>\n

The Aztecs do have one returning starter on the roster, senior safety Dalesean Staley, but Staley tore his ACL during the spring and is out for the season.<\/p>\n

The SDSU depth chart coming into preseason practice listed a pair of sophomore transfers, Jamison Starks (Foothill CC) and Mike Lindsay<\/a> (Idaho State), as the first-string cornerbacks. Both players were impressive during spring camp. The first-string safeties listed were senior Josiah Cox, a Lincoln High School alum who transferred last year from New Mexico State, junior Jelani McLaughlin and sophomore Isaiah Green, a transfer from Portland State.<\/p>\n

Sumler says don\u2019t pay too much attention to that, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a very premature depth chart,\u201d he said. \u201cGuys are going to compete all the way until we get to the (start) of the season \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t say anybody\u2019s got a starting job locked down yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returners like senior cornerback Jelani Whitmore, senior safeties Josh Hunter and Max Garrison and sophomore safety Prince Williams could have a leg up because of their experience in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Sumler said, \u201cbecause they know the practice expectation, they know the scheme, they know when the picture starts moving the adjustments we need to make, so that gives them a little bit of an advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitmore is back on the field after missing last season with torn knee ligaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s working his way back,\u201d Sumler said.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego State safety Jelani Whitmore is back on the field after tearing knee ligmants a year ago. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Whitmore was third on the depth chart at left cornerback, but that was before senior transfer Jason Oliver (Sacramento State) suffered an injury to his left foot. Oliver is currently on crutches, probably a week or two away from being an active participant.<\/p>\n

Starks also was a practice observer last week with an undisclosed injury.<\/p>\n

And so it goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got time,\u201d Sumler said. \u201cNot too much, but we\u2019ve got time for guys to compete for who\u2019s walking out there first. A lot of depth. A lot of talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brought some pretty talented guys in here that we\u2019re excited about, and we brought those guys here for a reason. We\u2019re all about competition here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demetrius Sumler is new to the role of San Diego State defensive coordinator, although he is the longest-tenured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127],"class_list":["post-428500","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\/428500","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=428500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}