Back-to-back honors: White, Letuli named SDSU team captains for 2025 season

The 2025 college football season kicks off with a bang this weekend with games all over the country and splashed across all media platforms.

San Diego State University is scheduled to get the jump on most of the competition by hosting New York’s Stony Brook University on Thursday at Snapdragon Stadium in an intriguing matchup of teams at opposing ends of the NCAA Division I level.

Kick-off is 7 p.m. (KUSI-TV).

SDSU competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) while Stony Brook competes in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The FCS is the second-highest level of college football in the United States after the FBS.

SDSU finished 3-9 last season while Stony Brook finished 8-4 last season.
The Aztecs kick off the 2025 regular season play behind six newly named team captains, including a pair of familiar faces in junior defensive edge Trey White and junior linebacker Tano Letuli, both South County products.

They are joined by senior center Ross Ulugalu-Maseuli (Santa Ana Mater Dei), senior cornerback Chris Johnson (Eastvale), junior quarterback Jayden Denegal (Apple Valley) and senior linebacker D.J. Herman (Las Vegas).

White and Letuli served as co-captains last season and become the first multi-time Aztec captains since J.J. Whittaker in 2014-15.

The task for this year’s team leaders is to help the Aztecs continue improving under second-year head coach Sean Lewis.

“I’m confident in this teram — I’m confident in the work that we’ve done,” Lewis said. “There’s something special that’s brewing in this building that I’m really excited to unleash. We’ve got to do that one step at a time, but we all know what the standards and the expectations are around here.”

Captains courageous
White has racked up a multitude of preseason awards, including the MW preseason defensive player of the year, and watch lists for the Chuck Bednarik Award (most outstanding defensive player), the Bronko Nagurski Trophy (national defensive player of the year) and the Senior Bowl Top 300, after earning first-team all-MW accolades in 2024.

White racked up 60 tackles (40 unassisted) last season to go with 18.5 tackles for loss (No. 1 in MW, tied for No.7 in FBS), 12.5 sacks (No. 1 in MW, tied for No. 5 in FBS), two pass breakups and a forced fumble.

White’s 12.5 sacks were tied for the third most in SDSU single-season history.

Letuli, an alumnus of the Otay Ranch Broncos youth program and graduate of Cathedral Catholic High School, led the Aztecs last season with 70 tackles despite missing two games with a broken hand.

An honorable mention all-conference selection in 2024 and preseason All-MW pick this season, Letuli was a team captain last year along with White to stand out as the first underclassmen captains at SDSU since quarterback Kevin O’Connell in 2005.

Letuli is no stranger to lining up for recognition after being named to the Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Award Watch List.

He is among 81 players on the initial list that is presented annually to the most outstanding college football player of Polynesian ancestry who epitomizes great ability and integrity, according to the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame.

Oregon’s Marcus Mariota was selected as the inaugural recipient of the award in 2014, while other winners include Notre Dame’s Ronnie Stanley (2015), Colorado’s Sefo Liufau (2016), Washington State’s Hercules Mata`afa (2017), Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa (2018 and 2019), Oregon’s Penei Sewell (shared award with Tagovailoa in 2019), USC’s Talanoa Hufanga and Brigham Young’s Zach Wilson in 2020, Ohio State’s Haskell Garrett in 2021, USC’s Tuli Tuipulotu in 2022, UCLA’s Laiatu Latu and Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa in 2023, and most recently Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan in 2024.

The five finalists for the award will be unveiled on Dec. 9 with the winner announced on Dec. 16. The award presentation will be held Jan. 17, 2026, during the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame enshrinement week celebration dinner and will be recognized at halftime of the Polynesian Bowl on Jan. 16.

The 2025 Watch List was compiled based on past performance and potential for the upcoming season.

Ulugalu-Maseuli, who was born in San Diego, entered his fifth year at SDSU as the most experienced offensive lineman on the team with 27 career starts. At 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing 335 pounds, he has to ranks as one of the largest Aztecs to move on the offensive line.

Johnson, who registered 67 tackles, four pass breakups, three forced fumbles and an interception in 2024, was an honorable-mention all-Mountain West performer last season. He entered his final season with 103 tackles, four forced fumbles, five pass breakups and two interceptions, having played 36 of the team’s 37 games since arriving on campus in 2022.

Johnson joins White on the Senior Bowl Watch List.

Denegal, one of five signal callers in SDSU’s fall camp, was recently named the team’s starting quarterback for the Aug. 28 season opener after spending three seasons at Michigan from 2022-24.

Denegal was the backup quarterback to J.J. McCarthy for the Wolverines’ national championship season in 2023. He appeared in seven games at Michigan, completing four of five passes for 50 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing four times for 10 yards. The Aug. 28 opener was to be his first career start.

Herman entered the season having played in 36 career games, starting twice last year at linebacker. He has been one of the top special teams players in the country and could play on all five units this season — kickoff, kick return, punt, punt return and PAT/field goal.
The Bednarik Award has been given to the College Defensive Player of the Year since 1995.

It is named in honor of Chuck Bednarik, an NFL Hall of Fame linebacker and center who played his entire career with the Philadelphia Eagles. Known as one of the last “60-minute men” for playing both offense and defense, Bednarik exemplified toughness, excellence and leadership on the field — values that the award bearing his name seeks to recognize in today’s top defensive players.

The Senior Bowl scouting department, comprised entirely of former NFL scouts, evaluated more than 2,000 prospects from all levels of college football, narrowing the list down to the top 300 from that extensive and competitive process.

According to a Senior Bowl Top 300 release the list represents “more than just a preseason acknowledgment, but a reflection of the highest standards in college football. Being named to the Senior Bowl Top 300 list is a meaningful honor and signals that the prospects on this list are viewed among the very best in the country. Only draft eligible players are featured on this list.”
The list of SDSU preseason honorees keeps getting longer after senior receiver Myles Kitt-Denton was named to the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Watch List and Aztec sophomore Jordan Napier was recently named to the Paul Hornung Award Watch List.

The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award recognizes the top offensive player in Division I football who also exhibits the enduring characteristics that define Earl Campbell: integrity, performance, teamwork, sportsmanship, drive, community, and tenacity; specifically, tenacity to persist and determination to overcome adversity and injury in pursuit of reaching goals.

Nominees must either have played football and graduated from a Texas high school or are playing at a Division I Texas college.

Kitt-Denton, from Pearland, Texas, is in his first season with the Aztecs after two seasons at Northwestern State (2023-14) and three seasons at Central Arkansas (2020-22). He has totaled 33 career catches for 596 yards and six touchdowns, while returning 25 kicks for 546 yards (21.8 average). Last season, Kitt-Denton hauled in 26 receptions for 453 yards (17.4 avg.) with five scores.

The semifinalists for the award will be announced in November with the finalists announced in December.

Napier caught 43 passes for 440 yards and four touchdowns last year to go with 130 kick-return yards while tacking on a 27-yard touchdown pass.

The Paul Horning Award honors Hornung, a native of lifelong resident of Louisville, Ky., and member of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

Hornung is considered by many to be the most versatile player in the history of college and professional football. He won the 1956 Heisman Trophy at quarterback for Notre Dame and was the No. 1 pick in the 1957 NFL draft by the Green Bay Packers. He played every position in the backfield during his career with the Irish, where he also punted, kicked, returned kicks and played defensive back.

While in the NFL, Hornung was a multi-threat offensive back and prolific kicker. He was a member of four NFL championship teams as an all-pro halfback for the Packers. He led the NFL is scoring in 1959, 1960 and 1961, setting the single season scoring record in 1960 with 176 points, and was named the league’s MVP following the 1961 season.

Homegrown
There are six South County prep alumni on the SDSU fall camp roster. Besides White and Letuli, other locals include Mater Dei Catholic grads Isaiah Buxton (redshirt freshman cornerback), Jerry McClure (sophomore wide receiver) and De’yhare Overstreet-Glover (junior wide receiver) and Eastlake alum Jayden Kendricks (junior linebacker).

Buxton, McClure and Overstreet-Glover are all members of Mater Dei Catholic’s back-to-back state champions in 2021-22.

McClure appeared in two games for UCLA during the 2023 season. Overstreet-Glover accumulated 112 receiving yards and two touchdowns for Snow College in 2024.

East County locals include freshman defensive lineman Marlon Ames (El Capitan), freshman cornerback Braylon Cardwell (Mt. Miguel) and junior running back Christian Washington (Helix).

Lincoln has three alumni on the team: junior wide receiver Nathan Acevedo, junior safety Josiah Cox and senior cornerback Xavier Hamlett, who subsequently played at Grossmont College.

Hamlett was offered a scholarship after the third practice in fall camp.

Next up
SDSU’s home schedule also includes matchups against California (Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. PT), Colorado State (Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. PT), Wyoming (Nov. 1 at 4 p.m. PT), Boise State (Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. PT) and San Jose State (Nov. 22, time TBA).

The game against Wyoming will serve as the Aztecs’ homecoming contest.