By Nick Austin – Spear Reporter | Quarterbacks Walker Eget (left) and Emmett Brown (right) warming up during practice on Aug. 27 (Photo by Nick Orozco – Co-Executive Editor of The Spear)
Barring injury, no one was expecting to see junior Walker Eget step in at quarterback at any point this season.
He and sophomore Emmett Brown battled it out for the starting quarterback job over the spring and into the fall.
However, Brown was named the starter just before the Spartans’ first game of the season against Sacramento State.
During the Spartans’ game against Nevada, the once-dead quarterback controversy arose once again.
In the middle of the third quarter, offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann replaced Brown with Eget.
To that point, Brown had completed 12 of 26 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns.
“I remember the moment too,” SJSU head coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “[Stutzmann] was getting a little bit bogged down offensively, and he just said ‘Walker get in there.’”
Niumatalolo pointed out that it’s important to trust Stutzmann’s judgment on his decision to bench Brown and that it’s a testament to both quarterbacks and their coaches on their abilities to always be ready.
Immediately after Eget was put into the game he went 5-5 for 54 yards on his first drive and put the team in position for a five-yard touchdown run by junior running back Floyd Chalk IV to tie the game up at 28-28.
“I was just locked in and that’s how it has to be,” Eget said. “However the flow of the game is going you just have to be ready at all times.”
Brown was inserted under center to start the eventual game winning drive. However, after two straight incompletions, Brown was subbed out for Eget once more.
Visibly frustrated, Brown slammed his helmet into the ground once returning to the bench.
Eget’s longest pass of the game, a 51-yard pass to senior wide receiver Sebastian Macaluso happened on the key fourth-quarter drive. It inevitably led to a 16-yard trick play with senior wide receiver Nick Nash throwing the ball to sophomore running back Jabari Bates for the touchdown.
“I saw quarters, so I knew that with that concept we would have a good matchup,” Eget said. “He was moving and it just felt like a good time to put a little deep-ball action into it.”
While Eget did replace Brown this game, he made sure to point out the comradery that all the quarterbacks have with each other.
“Emmett is a fantastic quarterback and there are things that I wish I could do that he does,” Eget said. “I think us together is a really good room. All three of us are always doing extra and all working together.”
Eget has barely gotten significant playing time since being at San Jose State. The game against Nevada was the first game he had ever completed more than one pass in a game.
The last time Eget got any significant playing time he completed one out of eight passes for eights yards and a 12.5% completion percentage against Western Michigan in the 2021-2022 season.
“It’s been a long journey and it was really really fun,” Eget said. “There are so many moments like this that you have to cherish for the rest of your life.”
Eget finished the game completing 10 of his 13 passes for 141 yards and helped the Spartans pull out the 35-31 victory over the Wolf Pack.
It is currently unknown who will be the starting quarterback next week when SJSU faces Colorado State.
When asked if both Eget and Brown will split first-team offensive reps, Niumatalolo said he imagines that that will be the case.
“I trust Craig, whatever he decides on that, we’ll just roll with it,” Niumatalolo said. “But Walker’s been getting a lot of reps anyways, that’s kinda how Craig’s prepared.”
Thanks Nick for sharing the amazing last second come back victory, as the fellas came battled back “twice” in the stirring win over Nevada!
Those exciting drives in the 3rd & 4th quarter by the Spartans had the Stadium Rockin’! For those of us that have been following Walker Eget these past 4 years at SJSU, it was so great to see him get the chance to shine and lead the comeback win!
And Nick Nash…Well let’s just say that he just plays the game on a completely different level!
It was special for sure!
Nick, I just happened to be in attendance in Michigan at that Western Michigan game you spoke about several years ago.
Our Spartans were trailing 20-10 late in the 4th quarter & now had the ball on offense inside our own 5 yard line.
San Jose State was losing to a WMU team that had just nearly upset the Number #2 Nationally Ranked Michigan Wolverines at the Big House, before welcoming the Spartans to play at their home field. Walker Eget was then an 18 year old back-up QB to the fantastic, and now professional football player, former Spartan Star Chev Cordeiro!
Walker was thrown in the lion’s den, as Chev took a huge hit and got injured on a play against this fierce, highly touted nationally ranked defense. A Tough scenario for sure, as you very clearly highlighted in his forgettable debut, a 1-8 performance in the loss that you went into complete detail for the readers to know.
Most Spartan fans reading this noticed the headlines, the very strong one sided opinions that Walker’s stats or lack of, were clearly being highlighted.
Walker getting onto the field in the year 2024 would be a complete football miracle, blessed from the football gods from the heavens above. The oceans would have to part.
It would never, ever, ever happen.
Not unless Emmett suffered some really huge big injury.
Nick, I didn’t read a single thing though about Emmett’s college football career before you crowned him as the New Tom Brady. I don’t believe, and you can double check me, that he ever played in a regular season scheduled collegiate game in his years as a walk on player at WSU.
Never took a collegiate snap of a football in a game at WSU, where he played under Cougar QB Coach & Dual OC Stutzmann.
But not one stat line of Emmett was mentioned by you above?
No talk of not one completed pass in a game while at WSU?
No playing time ever? Hmmm. Crickets.
Ok, so it’s just yours, and presumably all other football experts forgone conclusion that now that the G.O.A.T. has recently just arrived to San Jose State, along with his former QB coach & Co-OC Coordinator from Wazoo, this case is now closed, MYSTERY SOLVED. (Your Headline Stuff?)
So what about that other guy, now playing in his 4th year as a back up San Jose QB?
Our Fantastic New Head Coach Ken Niumatalolo, who we are so lucky to have hired, so glaringly talked about Walker actually being an ever so slight leader in numerous television interviews about the once heated QB battle happening over the Spring,.
A Walker Eget, who for last two seasons has backed up a
Now Professional QB, who also happens to also be the All-Time Leading Passer in Mountain West Conference History.
He deserves absolutely no chance to even dare get into a game this year? Not even a thought? No way.
Wait, what?
I believe that your article comes off a little one sided to those of us that were once scholarship collegiate athletes ourselves.
Nick, I do believe that there has actually been a few thousand SJSU fans that were very excited to possibly see the 4th year Spartan back-up QB finally get an opportunity to compete for the starting QB spot this year!
Coach Stutzmann, The former Washington State Cougars
Co-Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach brought his former reserve/walk-on QB with him to SJSU to enroll in February, just before Spring Practice got underway for the Spartans. That definitely creates a situation.
On a personal level, I happen to also be the Dad to
Walker’s two older brothers, who both were also former Division 1 college quarterbacks over the past six plus years.
Nick, I will just end by saying that this is not our first go around, our first rodeo, in the Div.1 college football quarterback business. And it is a business, trust me.
To say the least, this newly arrived coach/player scenario can sometimes muddy the waters.
Thanks for your time Nick and best of luck!
Sincerely,
Barrie Eget
(Just a Spartan Football Dad trying to keep it real.)
P.S.
It is beyond great to see our Spartans once again atop the Conference standings, & here’s to winning another Mountain West Conference Championship!
Spartan Up!!!
Glad you wrote on this, I was wondering what was going on