San Diego State coach taking on UCLA and ‘all their polos, all their khakis’

San Diego State football coach Sean Lewis isn’t just bringing his team to the Rose Bowl to play a football game Saturday.

He’s also apparently engaging in class warfare.

Asked about going up against a Big Ten opponent in UCLA, Lewis referenced being an underdog both in terms of the betting line and resources.

“I’ve got plenty of experience,” Lewis said earlier this week, “where there’s a galaxy of stars and talents on the other sideline and I’ll take me and mine against theirs – all their polos, all their khakis, all their resources, all that; put the ball down, let’s go play.”

San Diego State Aztecs head coach Sean Lewis reacts during the first half of a game against the New Mexico Lobos at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Nov. 28, 2025. Getty Images

Before the first snap in the teams’ first meeting since 2023, the Aztecs might expect that quote to be plastered onto the Bruins’ bulletin board inside their Rose Bowl locker room.

It’s possible that Lewis was just being a bit salty considering he was believed to be one of the candidates in the running for the Bruins job that went to Bob Chesney. (And Chesney, by the way, was dressed in all black last weekend for his UCLA debut, forgoing the aforementioned khakis.)

Lewis also took a thinly veiled shot at L.A. culture by referencing what his team was not going to do.

“We ain’t going up there to see some Hollywood set and see where ‘Gossip Girl’ was recorded or all these great movies,” said Lewis, whose team is coming off a 53-20 victory over Portland State. “We’re going up there for a purpose.”

Give Lewis this much: He did not sound intimidated by the challenge of facing UCLA – or anyone else – during his team’s first season in the reconstituted Pac-12.

“Put the ball down,” Lewis said. “I’ll play anyone, anytime, anywhere. Our Aztec standard is built for championship behavior and it’s built for these opportunities and it happens to be the Bruins on that sideline. And I’m not – coach Chesney has been a head coach almost as long as I’ve been coaching and done a tremendous job, and we’ll give them all the due respect and all those things, right?

“But at the end of the day, it ain’t got nothing to do with them–it’s got nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with our standard, our process, how we go about it. The Aztecs are responsible for the Aztecs.”

Lewis did go on to give the Bruins ample credit after they pulled away from Cal by scoring the final 21 points in their season-opening victory last weekend.

UCLA Bruins head coach Bob Chesney yells during the second quarter against the California Golden Bears at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California, on Sept. 5, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“Well-coached, a physical outfit, talented, all those things, right?” Lewis said. “Like, you see that and it jumps off the tape. The immediate influx of talent and obviously Nico [Iamaleava] is a talent who was there, but the pieces that they brought in, they’re an experienced crew. I mean, you line up and you count them up – there’s over 13,000 career snaps on their offense between all their starters, there’s over 11,500 career snaps on their defense – hell, they’ve got a backup middle linebacker [Trent Hendrick] who played over 2,500 career snaps in his time, went into an NFL camp, won a lawsuit, came back, is on that roster and he’s so good he got to play 16 snaps – that’s how talented they are.”

But Lewis isn’t backing down. He mentioned having watched the movie “300” with his team during training camp, which might be a fitting metaphor for what the Aztecs are up against.

Lewis described a scene in which an overmatched Spartan warrior, staring at the endless army he’s facing, starts laughing, prompting his battle companion to ask what he finds humorous.

“He’s like, ‘Hopefully there’s someone down there that can give me a worthy death because I’ve been in all these battlefields and not one competitor has given me a worthy fight,’ Lewis said. “Like, the best of the best want to compete against the best. So let’s go put the ball down and play. And I know that they’re going to be prepared because coach Chesney and his staff do a hell of a job. We’ll be prepared as well.”

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