By Aaron Johnson (@voz_aaron1) – Spear Reporter | sophomore running back Jabari Bates take the ball through three Kennesaw State defenders during SJSU’s 31-10 victory on 9/14 (photo by Nick Orozco – Co-Executive Editor of The Spear)
After a tough 54-52 double-overtime loss to Washington State (4-1) San Jose State (3-1) got the chance to freshen up with a bye week ahead of their matchup with Nevada (2-3).
“The beginning of last week was tough because our kids put everything into that game,” head coach Ken Niumatalolo said.
The Spartans fought to the end but couldn’t come out on top. But they have to put that behind them as they gear up to host Nevada.
Wolfpack junior quarterback Brendon Lewis is another dual-threat player that the Spartans will have to deal with. Lewis has thrown for 868 yards with seven touchdowns while rushing for 272 yards and a score.
In their previous game, Washington State sophomore quarterback John Mateer rushed for 111 yards and threw for 390 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions.
“The defense was playing really good until last week,” Niumatalolo said. “Some guys were just not doing their jobs and that’s the first time that showed up.”
Junior running back Savion Red is another name the Spartans will have to stop as he has the third most rushing yards in the Mountain West with 394.
“They do a lot of eye candy,” Niumatalolo said. “They stretch you a lot of different ways in the run game.”
The disguising of looks also spreads to the defensive side of the ball as Nevada’s head coach Jeff Choate served as the co-defensive coordinator at Texas for the 2021-2023 seasons.
“They are going to throw a bunch of different three safety looks,” sophomore quarterback Emmett Brown said. “They are going to move coverages, change it up to make it hard for us to do what we want to do.”
Brown is having a great start to his season as he is third in the Mountain West in passing yards with 1,290 passing yards and he pairs that with 13 touchdowns.
Junior linebacker Jordan Pollard currently leads the Mountain West with 47 total tackles. Pollard felt the bye week came at an opportune time.
“We got a week of early preparation on Nevada,” Pollard said. “We also got recovery for our team because a lot of guys are kind of down and we were missing some guys.”
Senior linebacker Jordan Cobbs suffered an injury against Washington State but has a chance to play against Nevada.
“He’s getting better at this point, probably questionable to probable,” Niumatalolo said.
Senior linebacker Taniela Latu is expected to play after missing the Washington State game with an injury.
One thing that the Spartans are bracing for is the heat. San Jose is currently experiencing a heat wave with temperatures projected to peak at 99 degrees during the week with an expected 95 degree kickoff temperature for Saturday’s game.
“We can’t let the heat get to us,” Pollard said. “We got to be ready to compete in any weather, whether it’s heat or snow.”
Niumatalolo is happy with the high temperatures early in the week as he feels it gives his guys an advantage going into the weekend.
“We don’t have an alternative, we don’t have an indoor facility with air conditioning,” Niumatalolo said. “We needed this early heat to get ready for this weekend because we took some days off last week.”
After playing Nevada, San Jose State will face off against Colorado State (2-2) on the road and then back home against Wyoming (1-4).The Spartans are favored in all of these games.
Winning these games and improving to 6-1 and become bowl eligible before a tough slate of games against ranked teams such as No. 21 Boise State (3-1) and No. 23 UNLV (4-0) would be extremely advantageous for the Spartans.
