FORMER NFL OFFENSIVE LINEMAN GOFF JOINS SDSU STAFF
With two weeks to go before spring practice begins, San Diego State has hired 12-year NFL veteran Mike Goff to replace offensive line coach Mike Schmidt.
Goff, who played for the Chargers from 2004-08, served the past two seasons as offensive line coach at Western Kentucky.
“My family and I are thrilled to be back home!!!” Goff tweeted Monday afternoon. “Looking forward to carrying on the tradition that is San Diego State Aztec football.”
Goff began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at SDSU during the 201011 seasons. Goff ’s coaching résumé includes four seasons at USC, where he was an offensive line assistant coach from 2015-18. He also was an assistant coach at Hilltop High in 2014.
“He was an elite offensive lineman at Iowa and in his 12-year career in the NFL,” SDSU head coach Brady Hoke said in a school release. “He will help the offensive linemen in our program and will maximize their abilities in the future. Mike knows our culture at San Diego State and, coupled with his knowledge and experience, makes him a great fit.”
Schmidt, a Madison High graduate, was hired last month as offensive line coach at Syracuse.
Schmidt, an offensive lineman at SDSU from 200508, was among the longesttenured coaches in the football building, joining the staff in 2009 as a volunteer assistant. He was offensive line coach for the past seven seasons.
Spring football
Hoke said the Aztecs will begin spring football March 15, almost one year to the day from the COVID-19 outbreak that forced everything to be canceled. SDSU got in six of its scheduled 15 spring workouts last year before the pandemic hit.
SDSU will observe a Monday, Wednesday, Friday practice schedule through April 16, with the workouts culminating in a spring scrimmage.
Fans are invited to the scrimmage in normal years, but that isn’t expected to be the case this year.
SDSU has not allowed spectators for spring events at this point, and a school spokesman said that’s not expected to change for the scrimmage.
The biggest areas of interest coming into the 2021 season will be at quarterback, on the offensive line and in the secondary.
SDSU is looking for a starting quarterback. The competition will include senior returners Lucas Johnson and Jordon Brookshire, along with sophomore Jalen Mayden, a transfer from Mississippi State and freshman William Haskell, who will arrive in the summer after graduating from Glendale (Ariz.) Ironwood High.
SDSU needs replacements for two starters on the offensive line following the graduation of left tackle Kyle Spaulding and left guard Jacob Capra. Backup left guard Jalen Booth also has departed.
In the secondary, three starters need to be replaced after junior cornerback Darren Hall and senior safeties Tariq Thompson and Dwayne Johnson Jr. all declared for the 2021 NFL Draft.
2021 schedule
According to a Mountain West spokesman, the conference hopes to release the 2021 football schedule within the next week.
The conference will go back to two divisions following a year in which the truncated 2020 season was played with all 12 teams in one division.
SDSU will play its home games at Carson’s Dignity Health Sports Park for the second straight year (season ticket deposits of $149 are now being accepted).
The Aztecs’ nonconference schedule features home games against New Mexico State (Sept. 4), Utah (Sept. 18) and Towson (Sept. 25), with a road game at Arizona (Sept. 11).
SDSU’s conference opponents are known with some certainty. It includes contests against its five West Division opponents — at Hawaii, vs. Fresno State, vs. Nevada, at San Jose State and at UNLV — and should feature these three Mountain Division opponents — at Air Force, vs. Boise State and vs. New Mexico.
There is still some question about the Mountain opponents because of how the schedule was revised for the 2020 season.
SDSU, for instance, did not play Wyoming, which originally was one of its scheduled opponents.