By Ernie Gonzalez (@superego1012):
There’s no such thing as “mid-season” when a schedule consists of 13 games. So with San Jose State’s bye this weekend, why not sum up the season so far?
The orange ticker is hovering over the F for the Spartans right now and with a bye week now in orbit following six straight losses, there’s no better time to rest up.
“I hope it gives us a chance to get physically and emotionally healthy,” said head coach Brent Brennan on Monday. “Obviously the season hasn’t gone the way any of us wanted it to.”
With a 1-7 start, no other Division I team in the nation has played more games than the Spartans.
The only victory so far this year comes against the FCS Cal Poly Mustangs, which took place back on Sept. 2.
Four of their seven losses come against conference opponents, games that matter, and the Spartans have played just about as bad as a team can play in such contests.
It’s no secret what’s putting the wins on hold for this young team. In fact, the answer was just said in the previous sentence. They are a young team without an on-field leader.
San Jose State ranks dead last in the Mountain West in completion percentage (54.1) and pass efficiency (111.5) and have converted on third downs at an awful rate of three out of 10 times.
Taking care of the football has also plagued the young squad, as the Spartans have turned the ball over a whopping 26 times through eight games (second worst in FBS). It has generated a -16 turnover margin on the stat sheet (last in MW). For perspective, Air Force is second-to-last in the conference with a -5 turnover margin.
Giving the ball to the other team means it’s the defense’s job to stop the opponent from moving the football, and the Spartans are the worst in the nation at doing that.
Eight games has something to do with it, but the SJSU has allowed an upsetting 197 first downs this season. Entering the season, all the talk on defense was how it will stop the run. There are no signs of Einstein anywhere, as 111 first downs given up have been on the ground, also the nation’s worst.
Digging deeper, 45 percent of the nearly 200 first downs allowed have come on third down. What’s even more fascinating is that when opponents elect to go for it on fourth down against SJSU, they are 12/13 in doing so, also an FBS worst. It must be demoralizing for a team to allow the chains to move so many times on defense and then be clueless when it attempts to do the same on offense.
That’s the type of season it’s been for San Jose State. When you dig up all the whys from the dreadful 212-39 score from Sept. 9-30 for the Spartans, their inability to execute on offense at half the level their opponent takes up a chunk of that.
If there was a pie chart titled “What’s wrong with the Spartans?” the aforementioned information would take up half of it, followed by youth and turnovers which is what would color 25 percent, combined, of the chart. As for the remaining 25 percent, penalties would take up 15 percent and injuries 10.
The Spartans are young. There’s no way around it. A crazy 46 of the 103 players on the Spartan roster are enlisted as freshmen.
Time again, their youth has been visible on the field starting with the quarterback position. Josh Love has the most starts under center with five, and if it weren’t for Montel Aaron’s week four injury against Utah, Love might only have two.
With only three starts under his belt, Aaron has proven he’ll lead charge for this offense, although the up-tempo scheme hasn’t gone as planned for Brennan or offensive coordinator Andrew Sowder.
“A lot of it is self inflicted,” Brennan said. “We get something going … then we break down in protection and the quarterback gets sacked and fumbles.”
Brennan continued by saying it comes back to playing sound, fundamental football.
“Some of that to me is lack of experience with our quarterback,” he said. “I’m trying to get our team to settle down and execute the scheme.”
Each week, Brennan has touched on the importance of protecting the football, something his team still hasn’t managed to learn.
“Any time you turn the ball over at the rate we have, you’re going to have a hard time winning football games,” Brennan said for what seems like the 375th time this season.
The other small chunks of the pie chart happens to be penalties, which, by the way, can be argued cost the Spartans a victory last week in Hawaii.
After Rahshead Johnson returned a fourth-quarter kickoff 96 yards to the house, which cut the deficit to two, second-year player David Williams was called for excessive celebration, scratching Brennan’s planned decision to go try and tie the game. Instead, Bryce Crawford’s extra-point attempt was blocked and returned and all SJSU momentum was erased.
Two days after the Hawaii loss, Brennan didn’t hesitate to speak on it, calling it an “embarrassment” to the Spartan community.
“We will not have anything like that going forward,” Brennan said. “If we do, whoever’s involved can go play at another school.”
On defense, it’s been Frank Ginda leading the 11, who is on pace to have one of the greatest seasons ever for a Spartan linebacker.
Ginda has already added to his 2016 total tackles (99) as he enters the week-nine bye with 115 (65 solo).
With just one win in two months and five games remaining, Brennan’s offense needs to dig itself out of this treacherous hole.
Coughing up the football, red zone interceptions, injuries, penalties and an unfound offensive leader is what is holding the Spartans back.
If half of those can be corrected at some point throughout the next couple weeks, maybe the Spartans will understand the value of a victory.
Next up on the schedule for the Spartans a very similarly struggling BYU team which enters Saturday on a six-game skid.