By Lucas Quick (@quick_lucas12) – Executive Editor | SJSU head coach Ken Niumatalolo looks ahead in its match against New Mexico on Oct. 3 (Photo by Alexis Corona-Aguilar – Spear photographer)
It’s been a rough and disappointing season for San Jose State football, but a 55-10 loss to Nevada made it the cherry on top.
This continues an 11-game drought since the Spartans won in Reno, along with being Nevada’s first conference win in two seasons.
It also snaps a streak of three years of being bowl game eligible.
Normally, there are positives to highlight in recent SJSU losses all season, but this was a game where every aspect of the ball went miserably.
“We hadn’t had that happen to us before; it was the first time,” SJSU head coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “And holy smokes, they steamrolled on us. It was hard to stop them.”
On the second drive of the game, the Spartans faced a fourth and short situation. Being in opposing territory, redshirt senior quarterback Walker Eget was picked off and returned 66 yards for a touchdown.
From that point forward, the offense was dull. There wasn’t a single drive that reached the red zone, and the Wolfpack secondary blanked any opportunity for Eget to take a shot down the field.
Turnovers continue to be a problem. Counting all seven of their losses, SJSU’s turnover differential sits at -13.
“They just wanted it more than us,” Eget said. “Can’t win a game turning the ball over three times. Something that I have to fix and I have to be able to prepare better.”
This is the second straight week where an offense that was putting up numbers on a scoreboard has been shut down. It’s too early to call, but teams might be beginning to learn how to shut down offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann’s “spread ‘n’ shred” scheme.
With the offense struggling, it makes it harder for the Spartans to win games considering the struggles defensively, mainly the secondary, have had for the majority of the season.
24 points did come off of turnovers, but SJSU still let the Wolf Pack do whatever they want, having their best performance of the season, running for 218 yards and scoring 50 points for the first time since 2021. Nevada averaged 14 points per game before this game, they matched that number in the first quarter alone.
“You can’t give up 31 points in the first half and expect to win,” redshirt senior defensive back Jalen Apalit-Williams said. “That’s already an uphill battle. Even when our offense gives up turnovers, we need to get turnovers too.”
Everything about this game was derailing for SJSU. Coming in as a 10-point favorite on the road, this came off as a shock.
Suffering the biggest loss of the season against the worst team in the Mountain West is a new low for this team and an emergency call for possible changes in the offseason and even potentially immediately.
There’s not one specific side of the ball that needs to be fixed; an entire cleanse might need to happen in order for SJSU to break out of this recurring drought of making an appearance in the Mountain West championship, as well as getting a bowl game win.
There was a reason surrounding the hype of this Spartans’ football team heading into Sept. The talent is there, but the discipline isn’t in way too many sequences. The puzzle was never able to be pieced together.
This season has been nothing but disappointing for SJSU and suffering its biggest blowout loss of the season against a struggling Nevada team could cap off as one of the most embarrassing losses in recent memory for this team.
With two more games remaining, SJSU looks to reconvene as it continues its road trip against San Diego State, 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 22 at Snapdragon Stadium.
