El Capitan High School alumnus Ryan Lindley, SDSU’s alltime passing leader, joined the Aztecs staff as an assistant coach on Oct. 3. Lindley, who served as a graduate assistant coach with the Aztecs for part of the 2018 season, will coach the SDSU quarterbacks.
Lindley was a four-year starter at San Diego State from 2008-11, where he set program passing records in yards (12,690), touchdowns (90), completions (961), attempts (1,732), starts (49), consecutive starts (44) and victories (23, which has been broken).
Lindley was a second-team all-MW selection in 2010, a three time MW Offensive Player of the Week and a four-time Byron H. Chase Memorial Trophy honoree (SDSU’s outstanding offensive player).
Lindley was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft. For his NFL career, he played in nine games at Arizona and started six times, and later played in one game for Indianapolis during the 2015 season. Lindley finished his professional career with the Ottawa Red Blacks of the Canadian Football League in 2017, throwing for 391 yards and a touchdown, and scoring five touchdowns on the ground.
Following his first stint at San Diego State as a graduate assistant in 2018, Lindley worked in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns as the running backs coach for the rest of the 2018 campaign and the quarterbacks coach in 2019. He then returned to the college ranks, becoming an offensive analyst at Utah for 2020, working with former Aztec offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig, before spending the past two seasons at Mississippi State as a defensive analyst with former SDSU defensive coordinator Zach Arnett.
After graduating in 2011, Lindley helped coach numerous players leading up to the NFL Draft, including quarterbacks Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, Mitch Trubisky, C.J. Beathard and Luke Falk.
Lindley and his wife, Lindsay, have a son, Caden.
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The quarterbacks coaching position opened up after the Aztecs parted ways with offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jeff Hecklinski in the wake of SDSU’s 35-13 loss at Boise State in the team’s Mountain West opener on Sept. 30.
The Aztecs took a 13-0 lead in the game on field goals of 21 and 25 yards from junior Jack Browning and a 36-yard blocked punt return by Tyrell Shavers.
The Broncos did the rest of the scoring — all in the fourth quarter.
The three SDSU quarterbacks in the game combined for two completions in 16 attempts with one interception.
Starter Braxton Burmeister was two-for-eight for 33 yards with one pick while backup Lui Aumavae failed to complete a pass in seven attempts. Kyle Crum was 0-for-1.
