Preview: San Jose State

San Jose State University Spartans

San Jose, California

Established: 1857

First football team: 1893

Undergraduates: 26,796

Fun fact: Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil played for the Spartans in the 50’s.  That makes SJSU one of only three schools to have multiple Super Bowl winning coaches.

Alums you’ve heard of: former NFL QB Jeff Garcia, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, competitive eater Joey Chestnut, deceased former Astro (and NL MVP) Ken Caminiti, Olympic sprinter and gold medalist Tommie Smith (of gloved Black Power salute fame)

Coach: Mike MacIntyre (6-19, entering 3^rd season)

2011 record: 5-7 (4-4 WAC, tied – 4th)

Rewind: The scheduling gods weren't too friendly to the young Spartans in 2011, opening at BCS-bound Stanford (L, 57-3) and at the Cardinal's Pac-12 mate UCLA (L, 27-17).  Nevada then came to town for their final WAC opener and prevailed (W, 17-14).  SJSU finally shook off the beatings and beat New Mexico State (W, 34-24) and Colorado State in Fort Collins (W, 38-31), their first road win since November 2008.

Then things started getting strange.  BYU overcame three turnovers in their win in Provo (L, 29-16) to put SJSU at 2-4, 1-1 in conference play.  I watched one of the ugliest games I think I've ever seen the following week, a twelve turnover slopfest versus the dearly departed Hawaii Warriors.  Six of those came by the Spartans in the second half, allowing Hawaii to come back from a 20-7 hole to a 21-20 lead by the time the fourth quarter rolled around.  Hawaii scored again to make it 27-20, but then Duke Ihenacho of SJSU ran a blocked PAT back despite a terrible cramp to cut it to 27-22.  Then some more turnovers happened, as expected.  Two missed field goals, a punt, and a fumble later, something magical occurred.

With 36 seconds left on the clock, senior QB Matt Faulkner hit WR Chandler Jones on a 37 yard touchdown (W, 28-27) to complete an 87 yard drive, tying their longest of the season to date.  San Jose State, winners of three games total over the two seasons prior, had won three of their last four.

After giving up 500 yards and 38 points in three quarters, the Spartans lost in Ruston (L,38-28) to the eventual conference champion LA Tech Bulldogs.  SJSU scored the first twenty and last seven points versus Idaho, but are outscored 32-2 in between (L, 32-29).  Kicker Jens Alvernik set a Spartan record with four field goals and San Jose was up over Utah State in Logan 33-21 with five minutes left, and gave up the 13 points necessary to lose, the last on a 21 yard pass with less than a minute remaining (L, 34-33).  At this point, they are assured of a losing record as 3-4 slid to 3-7.

A 465 yard offensive explosion carried SJSU to a win over Navy (W, 27-24) and a ball controlling ground game’s final drive of 2011 ended any chance Fresno State had of a comeback (W, 27-24), sending the hated Bulldogs into the Mountain West with a loss.  This finished the Spartans season at 5-7, their best finish since a 6-6 season in 2008.

Drafted in 2012: 0  (Duke Ihenacho signed a free agent deal with the Broncos.)

Offensive starters lost: 6  (QB Matt Faulkner, RB Brandon Rutley, OL Fred Koloto, OL Moa Ngatuvi)

Defensive starters lost: 7 (DB Duke Ihenacho, CB Peyton Thompson, DE Mohamed Marah, CB Brandon Driver, DT Ja'Rodd Watson, DT Pablo Garcia)

Top returnees: TE Ryan Otten, WR Noel Grigsby, OL David Quessenberry, LB Keith Smith, RB De’Leon Eskridge, OL Nicholas Kaspar, WR Jabari Carr, DT Anthony Larceval, WR Chandler Jones, DT Travis Johnson, CB Ronnie Yell, OL Nicholas Kasper, LB Vince Buhagiar, S James Orth, WR Jabari Carr, RB Tyler Ervin, OG Moa Ngatuvai

2012 outlook:  San Jose has the best tight end in the conference (Otten), a guy who led the Big Ten’s Minnesota Golden Gophers in rushing (Eskridge), and a man who caught 89 balls last year (Grigsby).  Who’s going to get them the ball?

Another alum of the Big Ten Conference was supposed to play quarterback for the 2012 Spartans: Tate Forcier, formerly of the Michigan Wolverines. Apparently he’d rather hold a clipboard and get paid in Hamilton, Ontario. Coach Mac has some options, the best looking like transfer QB David Fales of Monterey Peninsula College.  The former Nevada signee will have a daunting task ahead of him.  MacIntyre is known for being a demanding coach and there’s three other non-incumbents hell bent on taking this job.  Fales should hold on, however.

Both lines are thin, and the Spartans did not take the juco route, opting to try and bulk up some glaringly light high school players.  One lineman signee, Fernando Villanueva, chose to stay home over offers from Pac 12 schools.  He’s probably the best bet to help out immediately.  The 6-foot-6, 280-pound three-star prospect’s size is only rivaled on the enrolled offensive line by David Quessenberry.

The loss of Duke Ihenacho in the secondary will be felt immediately.  He was the first San Jose State football player to earn first-team All-Western Athletic Conference honors three times (2008, 2009, and 2011).  The Spartans have to replace three starters in the defensive backfield.  From what I can see, the talent is there to do so but the void in leadership on defense has to be made up somewhere.  My money is on LB Vince Buhagiar, whom I believe will play on Sundays in a couple of years. 

This is a good year for them to be their last in the WAC as the league has never been this week, with the Spartans having to rebuild under center and both lines.  I think they’ll struggle with Stanford, Utah State and Louisiana Tech.  They should be able to beat UC-Davis, UTSA, Texas State, Idaho, and New Mexico State.  I’m of the opinion that they might catch Brigham Young off their game a bit at Spartan Stadium, but I don’t think SJSU’s quite there yet.

One last thought.  If MacIntyre leads this team to an 8 win season in 2012, he’s gone.  He played for his dad at Vanderbilt and then Georgia Tech in the 80’s, Mac’s recruiting prowess is well known from his days in the SEC and ACC, and this is his first job west of Dallas.  I believe he’ll return to Duke as head coach after they fire David Cutcliffe.  Coach Mac‘s a Southern boy that turned around his first program he’s been the head coach at in a 20-plus year career.  He’s part of the Parcells coaching tree and has position experience on both sides of the ball. 

Best Case Scenario?  Fales steps in and does a better job than Faulkner ever dreamed of doing.  Duct tape and some tough love in the weight room by Strength & Conditioning Coach Dave Forman fix these lines well enough to handle the depleted WAC.  After losing by ten in the opener to Stanford, they catch fire and scorch Davis and Colorado State.  A physical game at San Diego State results in a grind-it-out win, and the defense bottles up the option in Annapolis.  Suddenly, the white-hot Spartans surprise Utah State and tear through four teams picked at the bottom of the league.  They take revenge from the BYU game of a season ago to get to 10-1 before a gigantic mid-major showdown with Louisiana Tech to end each school’s final WAC football season.  They bow out after a much closer than expected game with the Bulldogs in front of 32,000 fans at Spartan Stadium.  The rebirth of Spartan Fever leads to a berth in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco after the ACC declines to send an opponent cross country.

Other side of the coin?  MacIntyre never settles on a quarterback after Fales shows inconsistency, injuries cause him to burn redshirts on woefully unprepared freshmen, and San Jose regresses back to their time when they won three games in two years.  They would be 2-5 after narrowly winning in the Alamodome versus the Baby Birds, and then finish the string with five straight losses. Students go back to wearing Cal and Stanford gear, and watch the Niners and the Raiders on Sundays. 

2012 Schedule
Sept. 1 @ Stanford (L)
Sept. 8 UC-Davis (W)
Sept. 15 Colorado State (W)
Sept. 22 @ San Diego State (L)
Sept. 29 @ Navy (W)
Oct. 13 Utah State (L)
Oct. 20 @ UTSA (W)
Oct. 27 Texas State (W)
Nov. 3 @ Idaho (W)
Nov. 10 @ New Mexico State (W)
Nov. 17 BYU (L)
Nov. 24 LA Tech (L)

My pick: 7-5, 4-2 WAC (3^rd)