![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SUT-L-azfoot-080227.jpg\")
San Diego State defensive coordinator Rob Aurich views Owen Chambliss (12) and Tano Letui (21) as all-conference caliber linebackers. (Hayne Palmour IV \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nSan Diego State starting linebackers Tano Letuli and Owen Chambliss are seemingly inseparable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re best friends,\u201d Chambliss said. \u201cWe do everything together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWake up, practice, walk together to class, sit in class together, watch film together.\u201d<\/p>\n
And on and on.<\/p>\n
What Letuli and Chambliss would really like is to spend more time together on the field.<\/p>\n
The pair immediately hit it off last year upon transferring to SDSU, Chambliss from Utah and Letuli from Army. It was a homecoming for Letuli, a Cathedral Catholic High School graduate.<\/p>\n
They started side by side the first four games the season before both players suffered injuries that limited them to only one game together the second half of the season. They would have played even fewer games had both linebackers not remained in the lineup with their right hands heavily taped into what is commonly referred to as a \u201cclub\u201d after injuries.<\/p>\n
San Diego State defensive coordinator Rob Aurich views Owen Chambliss (12) and Tano Letui (21) as all-conference caliber linebackers. (Hayne Palmour IV \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Letuli missed two midseason games after surgery to repair a broken right thumb.<\/p>\n
Chambliss had surgery to fix a broken right hand. That was just the start of it. He also suffered a concussion, a broken right fibula, a hyperextended left elbow during the season. The injuries added up to sideline him nearly the entire second half of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe broken bones was just bad luck,\u201d\u00a0 Chambliss said. \u201cYou can\u2019t prevent broken bones. The concussion, got to keep my head out of it. \u2026 It sidetracked me a lot. It\u2019s hard to have the season I was having and then fall off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chambliss, who had 31 tackles for the year, said it was important to stay engaged even when he was sidelined.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to take a lot of mental reps,\u201d Chamblis said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to talk to the guys that are playing, like, \u2018What did you see? How did you see it? How fast?\u2019 You\u2019ve just got to ask questions and be intuitive. You can\u2019t ever stop learning mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chambliss is determined to stay healthy this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIce bath everyday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Improving his pass-rushing skills is a point of focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you watch NFL linebackers,\u201d Chambliss said, \u201cthey can get after the quarterback, and that\u2019s still the name of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SUT-L-azfoot-0806-010.jpg\")
San Diego State\u2019s Tano Letuli works out during a practice on Aug. 5, 2025 in San Diego, California. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Letuli led the team with 70 tackles a year. It\u2019s probably not surprising to his teammates. They voted him one of three team captains last year. It was the first time in 19 years a sophomore was so honored (edge Trey White also was a sophomore team captain last year).<\/p>\n
This year, Letuli said one of his primary goals is to \u201cjust keep striving to be a better leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing the (middle) linebacker, I\u2019ve kind of got to drive the show,\u201d said Letuli, named a first-team all-Mountain West selection in the conference\u2019s preseason media poll. \u201cI want the whole defense to feel me and feel confident about the call that we\u2019re in and make sure everybody knows their job.\u201d<\/p>\n
SDSU defensive coordinator Rob Aurich has high regard for Letuli and Chambliss \u2014 and high expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re both all-conference players in this conference,\u201d Aurich said. \u201cI expect them to carry themselves that way. \u2026 Those two have shown kind of a responsibility to be great players.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aztecs\u2019 base defense is a 4-2-5. Senior Mister Williams, a transfer from Incarnate Word, joins Letuli and Chambliss when they go to a three-linebacker package. There is significant depth behind them with graduate senior returners Brady Anderson and DJ Herman and redshirt freshman Tanner Williams, a Utah State transfer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose guys have an aptitude for the scheme and a willingness to play the way we want them to play,\u201d Aurich said. \u201cI expect all of them to play significantly for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
The Aztecs had their first significant scrimmage of fall camp during the second half of Thursday morning\u2019s practice, which was closed except for season ticket holders who signed up to attend practice.<\/p>\n
SDSU coach Sean Lewis<\/strong> said the defense had a really good showing, stopping the run and winning early downs. The offense made fundamental mistakes, notably some false starts and poor snaps, that stalled drives or prevented the unit from getting started.<\/p>\n Special teams executed well, though Lewis noted that too many balls hit the ground in the return game and they will need to clean that up.<\/p>\n The Aztecs came out of the scrimmage with no significant injuries.<\/p>\n Originally Published: August 7, 2025 at 3:55 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego State starting linebackers Tano Letuli and Owen Chambliss are seemingly inseparable. \u201cWe\u2019re best friends,\u201d Chambliss said.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1369,1370,3549,7264,18257,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-127653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114990251008264199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}