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“AZTECS FOOTBALL–A BEGINNING”
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San Diego State football coach Sean Lewis has hit the Aztecs Athletic Center like a tornado.

His roster has been turned upside down.  Transfers coming in.  Transfers going out.  A haul of high school players.

SDSU is bleeding talent, a record 21-players hit the transfer portal, but Lewis has used his recruiting contacts made while at Colorado, to haul in Power 5-players.

2-quarterbacks, a load of defensive backs, a starting WR and a TE, guys with lots of production on this resume.

Sean Lewis met with the media to talk about his first recruiting class and all the other things he has had to deal with since replacing Brady Hoke:
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21-days of great guidance from our academic side to clear these players

25-signings so far, we are closing on other players

14-on offense…11-on defense

11-transfers coming in
3-transfers are coming home to California
11-high school signings…big premium on multi-sport athletes
7-all star recruits so far

We held onto large number of high school commits
It was natural, they are hungry and ready to join us
Social media is a freeway to these recruits-tell our story
We are using the tools of all social media

Assessed the roster-get to know these players
As players made decisions-we had holes to fill
We offer opportunities to fill those holes
Our style of play-make our players fit

Not disappointed in 21-transfers…we adopt or die..
Majority of guys came in and meet to say why they are leaving
Ryan Lindley did a tremendous job-with our connections
He will stay on board as a senior analyst

The local players are winners-very productive
Day 1-Year 1-they will be with us-hit it

Danny O’Neil-deep meaning relationship…I identified him at Kent State
Built relationship at Colorado
His family understood what we were doing
His compteitive nature…wide breath of skills-abilities
He is 1-of the top 11-QBs in the nation

AJ Duffy-from Inland Empire..grew at Florida State
We have 6-quarterbacks in the room-they will compete
McDuffy is dual threat QB as well

Our tight ends have to be transformer…bring a skill set lots roles
Want high IQ-guys at the position…must do alot of things
Gabe Garrettson lots of experience

There will be more OL coming in..
Big bodies are at a premium
We have to be judicious as to who we offer
Think a half dozen guys may show up in spring transfer portal reopens
Players consistent play is a key to who we got

Roster management is huge-we will hold scholarships once signings ends
Everywhere we have gone we have had to do it fast
Learned so much at Kent State
We learned how to adopt-be fluid…
New signing period-learning about new rules, the school etc
Learned how to put recruiting systems in place
Learned how to figure out portal quickly at Colorado
We have limited window of time..not waste it

Combination of Aztecs tradition and how we revamp the offense
We will sell-tell our story-let people know what this will be like

We have as many as 23-mid year spots available for spring ball
Hope to fill all those slots by our first meeting January 21st
I met with every player..inside-out-told them why I chose them
Wanted them to stay..and these players help sell our program

Spring football starts March 12th and we will be ready
My staff’s experience is proof in the pudding of what we do works
My assistants will sell this in the lockerroom to our players
Spring ball..we hope to run 40-snaps in 15-minutes

Door not open for any transfers who went into portal-to come back.

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“CHARGERS LEADER SPEAKS OUT”
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John Spanos, the President of Football Operations, still has his job, thanks to his Dad-Dean Spanos.

He also has quite a resume, 2-playoff wins in 11-years on the job, firing his last 3-head coaching hires.

He ended a nearly 2-year boycott of media, refusing to meet nor answer any questions from the LA and the San Diego media, about the teams he put together.

On Friday he was part of the decision making team that removed GM-Tom Telesco and coach Brandon Staley, in the wake of the horrors of the (63-21) loss to the Raiders, last year’s playoff failure against Jacksonville, and the chronic losing stretch of games.

His Chargers have lost 11-of the last 16-games dating back to last December.
Staley went (24-25).  The prior coach-Anthony Lynn was (33-32).  The first coach he hired, Mike McCoy was (27-37).

There have been hideous losses recently.  Losing the (27-0) playoff lead to the Jaguars was devastating.  Trailing the Raiders (62-7) in the 4th quarter was galling.  McCoy lost to an (0-13) Browns team in his final weeks.  It’s been messy for a long time.

No one could have projected the Chargers would lose all these games (89-95) under his leadership, when their quarterbacks were Philip Rivers and then Justin Herbert.

A quick look at John Spanos QUOTES as he ended his media boycott, and my responses.

EVERYTHING STARTS WITH OWNERSHIP…Truer words never spoken.  They’re the ones that made the coaching hirings and firings.  So what.  The bad decisions made by ownership-there is no accountability for the mis-steps.

WE DIDN’T GET WHERE WE ULTIMATELY WANTED TO…Never have since the 1995 magical trip to the Super Bowl.  It is amazing the continued failures of this team considering the greatness of Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert at the most important position in the game, star quarterbacking.

THE LAST 3-HIRES-THEY WERE GOING TO GET HIRED BY SOMEONE…Yes they were hot coordinators and were on everyrone’s radar.
Mc Coy failed because the game, and all part of being a head coach, was too overwhelming for him.  I thought they were hitting a home run with him.  He struck out.  Lynn was so old school-not up to speed with modern day offense.  Staley was too smart, so complicated, and too defiant-inflexible.  Missed on all 3-of those hires.

I WON’T TALK TO WHY WE MADE THIS DECISION…Telesco’s firing seemed like a scapegoat move.  The team did not respond to Staley’s playbook designs.  But why not be specific.  You’re not going to hurt them further by detailing what went wrong-for you hurt them already by firing them.

THE CHARGERS-A DESIRABLE PLACE TO BE…Yes you have the quarterback in place, but you have problems everywhere.  Upwards of 60M over the salary cap.  Enormous injury history.  High salary cap numbers for at least 6-players-and you cannot keep them all.  You start chopping Mike Williams-Joey Bosa and the like, what kind of roster do you have left?

CAST A WIDE NET IN SEARCH…Tell me something I don’t know, because everyone says the same thing.  The Chargers have to define what freedom they will give an incoming coach.  Will the new coach have input in player personnel decisions?  Will he be a veteran coach set in his ways?  Must he come from the offensive side of the ball?  Will he be a defensive smart-guy to fix the team’s woeful defensive history?  In essence, does a Bill Belichick or Dan Quinn bring qualities better than another hot coordinator like Ben Johnson?  Where do you define experience vs retread, as it relates to Jim Schwartz or Raheem Morris.

WE WILL RE-EVALUATE OUR HIERARCHY…I believe that when I see it.  You going to axe your capologist who gave out the contracts?  You going to remove the training staff after all these injuries over the last 3-years?  You’re not going to axe anyone with the last name Spanos are you?

EXPECTATIONS NOT MET TWO YEARS IN A ROW…Alot longer than that.  That’s convenient to dump it on Telesco-Staley.  This problem goes back lots of years.

So John Spanos ended his media silence for years but really didn’t say anything of value at all.  It was like ‘coach-speak’.

Here’s the question that should have been asked.

YOU HAVE PRESIDED OVER ALL THESE YEARS OF LOSING FOOTBALL.  HOW COME YOU STILL HAVE YOUR JOB, WHILE CO-WORKERS LIKE TOM TELESCO-BRANDON STALEY HAVE BEEN FIRED?

Waiting for that response.

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“NFL-QB-BRILLIANT-BRUTAL”
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2023 will go down as the Year of the QB in the NFL.

Brilliant seasons from Lamar Jackson (Baltimore)..Brock Purdy (SF)..Josh Allen (Buffalo)..Jalen Hurts (Eagles)..they are completing torrid-record performance seasons.

But the great seasons have been offset by a horrific siege of injuries virtually everywhere else.

On the out of town scoreboard, this weekend, the Steelers will start Mason Rudolph at quarterback, the third different starter for this year.  It’s worse in other places, Joe Flacco, having success in Cleveland is the Browns fourth different starter.

The bottom line, if you are keeping score at home, as of this weekend, 20 of the 32-starting quarterbacks in the league have suffered major injuries.  And in some cases, backups have gone down.

By Sunday, when Rudolph throws his first pass, there will have been 55-different starting quarterbacks this year in the NFL covering 15-weeks on the schedule for the 32-teams.

A brief look at the fatality rate of QBs, some on big hits, some on fluke plays.

CHARGERS..Justin Herbert fractured both index fingers.
RAIDERS..Jim Garoppolo concussion and bruised back
ARIZONA..Kyler Murray missing half the season rehabbing knee surgery
CHICAGO..Justin Fields thumb ligament damage
CINCINNATI..Joe Burrow torn wrist ligament
HOUSTON..CJ Stroud late season concussion
COLTS..Anthony Richardson 3-different injuries in 4-weeks
JAGUARS..Trevor Lawrence late season concussion and ankle
VIKINGS…Kirk Cousins ruptured achilles
SAINTS..Derek Carr late season concussion
GIANTS..Daniel Jones neck injury
JETS..Aaron Rodgers-achilles and Zach Wilson multiple concussions
STEELERS..Ken Pickett ankle surgery
RAMS..Matt Stafford back injury
SEATTLE..Geno Smith groin
TITANS..Ryan Tannehill multiple injuries

Add in the misery that happens when a team like Cleveland, for example, lost both of its backups including Dorian Thompson-Robinson and XFL refugee PJ Walker with injuries.

It’s gotten so bad  Joe Flacco came off his couch and has led the Browns to come from behind wins over the last 3-weeks, when most thought he was retired, done, shell shocked, injured.

And then there was the catastrophe in Minnesota, where they traded for Josh Dobbs, who led them to a wild win without even practicing.  But 3-weeks later he was benched in the wake of a 4-turnover game and 5-sack game on back to back weeks.

It’s not so much heavy hits, but it is incidents on plays.  Herbert hit his hand on a shoulder pad-end of the Chargers season.  Joe Burrough hit a player’s hand, wrecking his Bengals season.  Rodgers pivoted on a roll out, blew out his ankle on the turf, and the Jets mess began.  Richardson got crushed running the ball as a Colts rookie.

The Flacco comeback is surpassed by Jake Browning, a refugee who bounced around without much success, and then had to play and how well he’s played in Cincinnati.

The NFL has done so much to protect quarterbacks, but little has worked to make the job better and safer for the most important and highest paid player on any football field on Sundays.

NFL quarterbacks, some brilliant, some brutal ends to the season.  A record setting season at the QB spot, for many of the wrong reasons.

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“PADRES-CHARGERS–ON TROUBLE STREET”
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Disarray….yes that word describes the Padres and the Chargers at this hour.  Lots of issues and lots of opinions.
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CHARGERS…A franchise with so much anticipation is now going back to square one, with the housecleaning-firing of its Coach-GM…and the impending firing of the coaching staff once they get to the finish line of another non-playoff season.

SPANOS FAMILY…Nice track record, a composite record of (314-343) since they bought the club in 1984.  They have gone thru 13-head coaches in 39-years and that does not include the interim coaches they brought in.  And you are going to trust Dean and John Spanos to hire the right guy after their last three hires.  Remember, they fired a Super Bowl coach (Ross) and a 200-win coach Schottenheimer, and a Hall of Fame coach (Coryell).  Some 1st Family of Football.

TELESCO-STALEY…Fired for different reasons.  Telesco’s teams were (89-95) and won just 2-playoff games in his tenure.  He built a roster of young athletes, but ignored vested veteran free agents that could have made a difference as stabilizers as short term rentals.  Anybody remember what Stan Brock, Reuben Davis-Sean Lee-Dennis Gibson meant to the Chargers in their Super Bowl season.  Drafted well but was too conservative to make bold acquisitions. Staley (24-25), might be a bright light XO guy, but it appears his playbook was too complicated for the young group of athletes he sent out there on Sundays.  And he was too inflexible to change his ways, defiant if you will.  Add on a 3-year siege of injuries and they never had a full team on the field around QB-Justin Herbert (30-32) in his career.

GM OPENING…Sources tell me Adam Peters-the 49ers Assistant GM, is a hot candidate for the Bolts GM job. There are key assistants in Kansas City and Baltimore who deserve consideration too, but Peters has a world of experience.

COACHING HOT LIST…Is Bill Belichick leaving New England at the end of the season?  If so, a strong candidate, but I am not giving him control of football operations.  Belichick, the GM, failed Belichick the coach in the post Tom Brady era in New England.  Jim Harbaugh-Michigan sure sounds right, but the price tag will be steep and so will the intangible on his resume, he wears out his welcome a couple of years after he gets to any of the jobs he has had.  Veteran assistant Raheem Morris, former head coach Dan Quinn-doing a brilliant job in Dallas, Miami Off Coor-Frank Smith and Rams Off Coor-Mike LaFelur top my list.

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PADRES..The longer free agency goes, without AJ Preller making a deal, leads me to believe the financial issues are much more severe than they let on.

LUXURY TAX…MLB sources say the Padres owe MLB (39.8M) as a luxury tax penalty for going over the tax limit 3-years in a row, because of the Preller spending spree.  Add in the 10-slot penalty in the draft and the loss of international pool dollars, that is quite a credit card bill the GM has run up.

PAYROLL..The Athletic is reporting the Padres payroll is not just going from (253M) to (200M)…it may go as low as (180M) because of all the bills that have come due. And the fact they will not get anywhere near the (60M) TV money this year because of the Diamond Sports Group collapse, that’s alot of lost revenue.

ROSTER…10-pitchers have now vacated the Padres roster since the last game they played.  Of course Blake Snell and Josh Hader highlite that list, but so does the trio of Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo plus Nick Martinez.  All 3-wound up signing for 15-16M each with the Royals and Reds.  The Padres did not have the money to do those deals.

FREE AGENCY…The Padres were outbid by the Giants for OF-Jung Hoo-Lee and are not in the running for Yosh Yamamoto.  And now 41-pitchers in all have come off the free agent board in two weeks, some guys you’d thought the Padres could be in on.  The Friars might have an outside chance on P-Shoto Imanaga, but the price on pitching just keeps going up.  Money again becomes part of the conversation.

TRADES…Yes there are still pitchers out there on the trade block, but Preller cannot revisit stripping this next wave of young players from the minor league system to get access to Shane Bieber , Dylan Cease and others.  Jake Cronenworth could be dealt, but Preller might have to throw money in the deal to get someone to take on the 7-years owed to a (.229) hitter, even if it brings back a pitcher

THE YANKEES DEAL…Yes, strength in numbers, getting four pitchers in the Juan Soto trade, but did they get the right arms?  Clarke Schmidt was not in the deal, neither was Gleyber Torres nor Jason Dominguez. Michael King was, and hot Class A-pitcher Drew Thorpe was,, but the Yankees gave up back of the rotation guys who were part of a non playoff team.  Not sure Preller got the right pitchers in a trade for an MVP type talent in Soto.

MINOR LEAGUERS…The Padres have added 9-minor league players as free agents or via trades, but the only one with any major league experience is relief pitcher Enyel DeLos Santos, and he surely is not a Josh Hader or a Robert Suarez.

GONE…There are now 18-players gone from last year’s roster, amounting to some (68M) cut from the payroll.  There are holes everywhere, LF-CF-1B-a front line starter, a couple of relievers.   I keep thinking there might be one big acquisition coming, but how, for who, and how do you pay for all this.

NL WEST…The Dodgers sign Ohtani, trade for Glasnow, and are pursuing Yomamoto too.  Arizona has added Eduardo Rodriguez to a young World Series pitching staff.  The Giants are starting back with Hoo-Lee.  The Padres have the core of their batting order, but have a deficient pitching staff plus other holes to fill

The Chargers have problems of leadership.
The Padres have problems within that roster and I fear money problems.

Not an easy time for fans in San Diego.  Disarray seems to be part of both conversations.

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“MEMO to CHARGERS”
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I will expect your resignation on my desk by 9am-Friday

Out-of-Town Scoreboard: Raiders destroy Chargers (63-21)

So who would like to bear the responsibility of the Thursday night coast-to-cost blowout loss at the hand of the Raiders.

The Chargers, run by the ‘1st Family of Football’ as the Spanos family call themselves, became a national embarrassment on Thursday Night football TV.

Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit mocked the team thru a disgraceful first half.  The halftime panel called for a complete house-clearning  of the front office and coaching staff.

It was as awful a performance, a record setting performance of good and bad,  as the Raiders or Chargers have ever participated in.

So again I ask, who wants to take the responsibility for this.

Coach Brandon Staley mumbled at halftime, ‘this is not who we are’.  Sure it is, you are (5-9), you are (24-25) as coach of this mess.  You axed all your coordinators at the end of last season, and this is worse than that.

GM-Tom Telesco’s once promising roster has been shredded by injuries, and the players who were left on the field, looked as if they quit.

President of Football Operations John Spanos was watching the third straight coaching hire he’s made, burn to the ground.  Staley followed Anthony Lynn who followed Mike McCoy.  Nice track record of hiring.

Owner Dean Spanos tried to hide in the shadows of the owners box during the telecast but was seen downtrodden, sitting next to his two sons, who make all the football-business decisions of the team that left San Diego in the middle of the night.  Under this front office that Dean put in place, the team is now (83-95) since 2014.

Oh what a night in Sin City.

3-Chargers fumbles in the first half.
Derrious Davis horrific fumbled punt return and dropped passes
The Chargers at one point (1-for-25) on 3rd down conversions over 2-games
The Bolts offense scoring 3TDs in a 14-quarter span
An Easton Stick fumbled turned into a 43Y-TD run
A 21-yard Pick Six score by Jack Jones-running untouched into the end zone
A TD run off a Wildcat formation by a 3rd string running back
2-TD passes off a wide receiver option play
Michael Davis getting burned for 2-TD bombs
Alois Gilman getting suckered giving up 2TD passes on the WR option play
A (42-0) deficit at halftime, the biggest lead in Raiders history.
The 63-point outburst, the most ever in Raiders history of great teams
The 63-points allowed the worst of all time by any Chargers team
Raiders TDs of 13-21-23-25-30-43 yards
8-different Raiders scored TDs-breaking an NFL record set in 1950
At 1-point in the 3rd quarter the Raiders outgained the Bolts (323-89) yards
A 79-yard TD pass to Josh Palmer
An 83-yard punt return TD negated by a blindside block

A night of ignamy, for a once proud, once promising franchise.
Bolt Up became Dead-Bolt.  Put that on your social media account.

I could ask for it, but I probably won’t get it.  You know, mass resignations, not just from the football side of the operation, but the owner and his sons.

But that’s too much to ask from the 1st Family of Football.  Nothing wrong with Nepotism, if you are on the receiving end of it.

But the fact the whole nation got to observe this is a pretty good payback price for what Dean, AG and John Spanos did to 55-years of loyalty of San Diego Chargers fans..  If Alex Spanos could step up out of the grave, he’d probably ask for Dean’s resignation too.

Way to stain the Spanos family name.

I expect your resignation on my desk by 9am-Friday

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