BROOKINGS – South Dakota State is going to have a new play caller on the offensive side of the ball this season, but he is a familiar face in Zach Lujan.

Lujan, who played quarterback for SDSU from 2014-16, took over as the offensive coordinator in the offseason after Jason Eck took the head coaching job at Idaho. Lujan has worked his way up the coaching ladder at SDSU as he began as the offensive quality control coordinator in 2017 before becoming the running backs coach in 2018. He then became the quarterback’s coach in 2019 and was at that position for the past three seasons before the promotion.

Lujan said once Eck left for Idaho, the offer for the promotion didn’t come as too big of a surprise.

“I thought [there was a chance for a promotion]. Then I talked to [head] coach [John Stiegelmeier] and we went from there. I’m fortunate for an opportunity at my alma mater and it worked out and it’s been good so far. It’s been a lot of fun,” Lujan said. 

Having been out of college for only six years, Lujan is one of the youngest offensive coordinators in the FCS. Stiegelmeier said he choose to promote Lujan because he’s been around him for so long and believes that he’s mature for his age.

“I’ve been around [Lujan] a lot. He’s highly intelligent, he’s very mature. He’s very analytical, so decisions aren’t throwing darts. It’s a planned out mathematical approach. I agree that he’s young, but I think he’s well down the road to being a great football coach,” Stiegelmeier said.

SDSU starting quarterback Mark Gronowski said that having Lujan be so close to him in age and the fact that he played the same position has helped their relationship so far.

“I think it’s a huge thing that we can relate to [Lujan]. We joke around in our meetings. We don’t feel like he’s like an old guy that we’re not going to be able to relate to and being able to talk to him about anything [is great]. We can talk to him about anything, even if it’s outside of football, and that’s just awesome to have that kind of relationship with him as an offensive coordinator,” Gronowski said.

Lujan takes over the play calling duties for an offense that has a lot of fire power. Gronowski will return behind center after missing last fall with a knee injury. He had 2,142 total yards and 23 touchdowns in 10 games as freshman in the spring of 2021. 

Gronowski said fall camp has gone pretty well so far with Lujan as the offensive coordinator and he’s excited to see what is to come in the 2022 season.

“I love [having Lujan as offensive coordinator] personally. He’s great. I’m super relatable with him. He’s a quarterback, so he loves slinging the ball around and stuff like that. He’s going to love pushing the ball deep this year, which I like and the receivers like. Everyone really enjoys making the big plays and Zach is really all about that and focusing on that, “Gronowski said.

The SDSU offense was ranked 14th overall in the FCS last season, averaging 441.3 yards per game and Lujan hopes to keep that going this year. Senior wide receiver Jaxon Janke, who led the team in receiving last season with 1,165 yards and five touchdowns, said that he’s excited to see how Lujan develops as a play caller this season and how the offense changes as well.

“Zach Lujan is a guy that has had to become very mature in a very short amount of time. He’s not very old, probably only five years older than we are, but you wouldn’t even know it by the way the practice and meetings go. He’s very mature already and has a gifted football mind. He really cares about what he’s doing here and I’m very excited to see the progress he’s going to make this year and the new tricks he’s putting in the offense,” Janke said.

SDSU opens up the 2022 season on Sept. 3 at Iowa. Lujan said the offense will be similar to Eck’s, but there will be some new wrinkles to the offense like Janke said. However, he did not disclose as to what those wrinkles would be.

“… Obviously we’ve been pretty successful offensively. Our system is our system, we’re not going to change it. That being said, there’s some tweaks and spins that we can put on it that I think will allow us to attack defenses a little better. You’ll find out in Iowa,” he said.

As far as the goal for the season, well Lujan echoed his head coach with what that was.

“[I want to see us go] 1-0 each week. That’s the most important thing, across the board. We have goals that we talk about, 100% ball security, 60% efficiency on first down, our red zone efficiency stats, third down efficiency stats, all of that. But the biggest thing I want to see is the guys having fun and playing with the confidence and energy that we should have,” Lujan said.