Ask the Coach: Sean Lewis discusses D-line, challenge at Washington State … and altering helmets?

Editor’s note: The Union-Tribune this season invites readers to submit questions for San Diego State coach Sean Lewis to answer. Today, the coach answers questions following SDSU’s season-opening win over Stony Brook and looks ahead to Saturday night’s game at Washington State:.

How did the extra attention on edge Trey White allow for other defensive linemen to make big plays? — Matt Ross, Miami 

A: It allowed those guys to get after it, right? When we got to obvious pass situations, those third-and-longs, for us to be able to get into our rush package, that’s a (down and distance) where everyone knows Trey’s going to be active. It allowed August (Salvati) to get home. It allowed Jared (Badie) to get home.

It allowed Hendo (Ryan Henderson) to have a day. I was really pleased with Hendo’s effort. He’s been showing up on third downs, and he’s been doing that ever since last year. But I thought Hendo really had a physical, fundamental game. That was great to see on first and second down. I’m looking forward to see his continued growth and improvement.

As attention gets paid to Trey, those other guys have to take advantage of that. Trey knows what it is now to be the marked man.

Last week, Washington State released a depth chart for their game against Idaho that was very ambiguous with “or” for many positions. How would you prepare for that since you can’t be sure who will start? — Paul Pham, Dallas-Fort Worth

A: We’re well-versed in who all their personnel is. We’ve done quite a bit of offseason prep on this one and feel good about whoever is out there and, again, have a plan in place defensively regardless who the quarterback is (Jaxon Potter or Julian Dugger), but they all do present a different, unique challenge. …

Going into that, there was a ton of “ors” — then you turn on the tape and the guys who played, played the bulk of it. You can list and you can do the smoke and mirrors in your depth (chart). Well, now as we start moving into this the ghosts kind of fade to the back and what the tape shows is your resume and it is who you are. We can hone in a little bit.

There are a couple of guys who were listed as starters on that deal who weren’t dressed. I’m kind of intrigued by, they’ve got a good body type, No. 3 (Mike Sandjo), the defensive tackle from SMU who was not dressed. He’s 6-3, 290. Couldn’t find anything out there on the interwebs in terms (was he out for) discipline, injury, is he going to be back? So it’s still early on in the season here chasing what’s what and what it’s going to be, but you lean heavily on the tape.

(New WSU coach Jimmy Rogers has) been doing this as a head coach for a long time. He’s had tremendous success with it. So you can go back and from a philosophical standpoint get a good understanding of how he wants to do it and what his philosophy is for winning that he’s implementing and building in this new program.”

What is the mentality and preparation for the team’s first road game and specifically Jayden Denegal’s first road start? — Braedin, San Diego

A: Making sure that we’re aware of the environment. Educating the guys on where we’re going. Fortunately, we have two staff members who were on staff at Wazzu for a long time, so Coach (David) Lose and Coach (Roy) Manning have done a great job educating our guys about the hostile environment and the composure that we need to have.

And then, obviously, JD controlling what he needs to control and all those around him playing to their standard, playing to our level. It’s not just going to be him doing it by himself.

Ep.6 of #TheClimb: Ready for Battle#AztecFAST x #BeTheA1pha pic.twitter.com/DAliGKYyUf

— San Diego State Football (@AztecFB) August 27, 2025

I really enjoyed watching ‘The Climb’ video episodes during the team training in the offseason. I noticed in the video that you have a picture of a skull in your presentation to the team. That skull image looks really cool! Since so many college teams have alternate helmets, would you ever consider using alternative helmets with this skull image? — Paul Pham, Dallas-Fort Worth

A: I think our helmet, in particular, is one of the best in college football, so I don’t know how much I’m going to do to manipulate the helmet in the future. But there’s quite a few things in the works to be able to do some different things with the jerseys as we progress and we move forward into the Pac-12.

Hint, hint, wink, wink. Some stuff to Aztec lore coming in the future.

Readers are invited to submit questions after each weekend’s game through Monday to kirk.kenney@sduniontribune.com or on X to @sdutkirKDKenney.