Preveiwing 2009 Utah Opponents: San Jose State Spartans

Jeremy Mauss — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:00:11 -0000

San Jose State was very close to dropping footbal all together, but new head coach Dick Tomey helped save the program with near instant success with a 9-4 record with a bowl win in Tomey's second year. Well, since that good 2006 season San Jose State has gone 11-13 in two years, and 2009 does not look to be much better.

The average of the predictors have San Jose State finishing seventh in the WAC, which could be a bit low because the spartans return 53 letterman where 30 are seniors. Experience could help pull out a few extra games for the Spartans, but to be realistic they have four guarantee loses --or as much as a guarantee a writer can provide-- with games at USC, at Stanford, at Boise State, and then Utah at home; Nevada could be mixed in there but is not a sure loss and throw in that the Spartans were 0-5 against teams with winning records.

The Spartans will get a huge bump with the return of wide receiver Keving Jurovich who only played in two games because of mono, but in those two games he had fifteen catches and a score. Another reason for Spartan fans to be excited is that they bring back all five offensive lineman who return 98 career starts that ranks 13th in the nation. Hopefully that experience will help protect the quarterback better since last year they gave up 26 sacks on the year which is just over two sacks per game.

As every astute college football fan knows offensive line is a huge inidicator for succes; so the Spartans have that going for them. Quarterback play does return experience with Senior Kyle Reed, but he was not very good last year. So, the question is with a more seasoned offensive line will that matter for Reed who did not play in two games and had only two games over 200 passing yards are more. With Kelly entrenched as the starter and no one looking over his shoulder like last year he should see more success.

Now on to a running game that has not averaged over 90 yards per game in the past two season needs some major hope. Again, the offensive line should help reach that goal but there is an array of backs vying for playing time with sophomore Brandon Rutley, junior college transfer Lamon Muldrow and now-healthy senior Patrick Perry.

The bright spot for the Spartans and their chance to get to a bowl win is their defense. Last year they were 21st in total defense with their specialty is the pass defense that was 10th in the nation. Now on the flip side of that pass defense is not as good as it seems is because San Jose State was being beat last year so teams ran the ball once they secured the lead, but even if that is considered the Spartan secondary is pretty solid.

The defense will have to replace three players selected in the NFL draft in DT Jarron Gilbert, CB Christopher Owens and CB Coye Francies. The pass defense make take a small hit, but the overall defense will be nearly as good and at worst a top three in the WAC. The star returning on defense is LB Justin Cole who had 8.5 tackles for a loss and three sacks last season.

The defense should be able to keep them in contention in most games in the Spartans attempt to get to their second bowl game since 1990.

Nebraska versus San Jose State Preview

Jon Johnston — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:00:07 -0000

The upcoming game against San Jose State isn’t all that interesting when you look at the two teams, so instead of doing a regular preview, I sat down with our new mascot Cobby to discuss the upcoming game. (I wouldn’t consider this so much as talking to myself as I would another voice in my head. And yes, he answers back, so just go with it, eh?)

Who are we playing this week?

The San Jose State Spartans.

The Spartans!? You mean like in the movie "300"? Will they have swords?
No, they won’t have swords, but it might make it more interesting if they did.
They’re not any good?

No. It’s hard to get excited about this one, everything appears that it should be an old-fashioned Nebraska butt-kicking where the Huskers win 72-3. If we don’t there’s something wrong.

What’s so bad about 72-3?

Well, it’s not much of a challenge is it? Kind of like setting the PS2 to the easy level and squashing the crap out of an already bad team.

And what’s so bad about that?

(Realizing there is no winning this one) Let’s move on, shall we? San Jose State is the third largest city in California, 10th largest in the country. It’s a ways north of Los Angeles, just south of San Francisco. It’s actually not too far from Yosemite National Park. There was an old song - "Do you know the way to San Jose?" - we could look it up in iTunes if you want.

No.

Why not?

You said it’s old. Is there anything interesting about the San Jose State football team?

They run the spread.

What’s that?

It’s the offense of today, the latest fad. Michigan paid millions of dollars to get a coach who knows how it works. Teams that run it automatically have a huge advantage over those that don’t, so everyone worries about defending it and everyone wants to be running it or they appear out of fashion.

What do you think of the spread?

I think it’s just another term for margarine.

You created me so you could torture me with bad jokes? That’s really cruel.

(Thinking maybe I did create him for that purpose....) Let’s continue. San Jose State had to come from behind for their win last week. They had to score a touchdown with eight seconds left to beat UC-Davis.

Who’s UC-Davis?

Exactly. San Jose State has a fairly respectable coach, Dick Tomey. He’s fourth on the active wins category behind Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno, and Mack Brown. I’m not 100% sure if that’s because he’s really good, or just that he’s been around for a long time. Still, if you’re a head coach for a long time, you can’t be all bad.

Do they have any good players? Or what about statistics? People love those.

Well, against UC Davis, the Spartans rushed for 42 net yards, 28 of those coming from their new starting quarterback Kyle Reed, and 20 of that on one play. They threw for 231 yards, Reed after coming in the second half was 14 of 18 for 132 yards and two touchdowns and he finished with a 176 passing rating. Reed was at Cal, but transferred. Then there’s a guy named Kevin Jurovich who caught 11 balls last week, including the game winner.

On defense there’s defensive back Christopher Owens who returns this year whose 12 career interceptions are tied for second most amongst returning players this season. He picked off #13 last week. He’s a projected NFL draft pick, too.

That doesn’t sound too bad.

You can almost always make numbers sound good. The most important statistic about San Jose State is the number 15,465. That was the average attendance at their games last season. Given they have a large number of young players, it’s going to be 14-0 before they stop thinking "Sea of Red" and start thinking about playing football.

Is there anything good about this game?

Two things I can think of. It’s a chance to see a whole bunch of young guys play for Nebraska and how they look on the field. That’s not so bad. The other thing to remember is that the previous regime would have served this plate of poop up and asked us to pretend it’s a steak dinner. At least there’s not the pretense this time around, which is rather refreshing.

It's on pay per view for $29.95, which is a lot for this kind of game.

So, if it costs too much and it’s going to be a bad game then why are you going to watch it anyway?

Because I can’t bare not watching it.

Did you ever stop to think you may have a dependency problem?

…

SB Nation - Christopher Owens

Preveiwing 2009 Utah Opponents: San Jose State Spartans

Nebraska versus San Jose State Preview