By Austin Turner — Staff Writer
It’s rivalry week in college football, and there’s no opponent that San Jose State (1-10, 1-6 MWC) would rather upset to end the season. The Spartans are traveling down south in an attempt to take back the Valley Trophy from rival Fresno State Bulldogs (9-2, 6-1 MWC).
It will be the final game of a disappointing season for the Spartans. They’ve only managed to win one game: a home contest against UNLV.
The rest of the schedule has seen several heartbreaking finishes. Strangely, many of the team’s closest losses has been against heavily-favored competition.
The Spartans have played tight games against Oregon, Hawaii and San Diego State. With the Bulldogs being favored in the game by 31 points, expect SJSU to come out swinging.
In a fitting way to end the year, the Spartans’ quarterback situation is cloudy once again.
It’s unclear if junior Josh Love will participate or if senior Michael Carrillo will make his second career start in his final game in a San Jose State uniform.
Last week against Nevada, Carrillo set career highs in nearly every major passing stat. He had a solid performance in the loss, throwing for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Chance LaChappelle, the true freshman who is currently redshirting, also threw his hat into the quarterback mix against Nevada.
He only played a few snaps, but he’s an interesting prospect who will likely be competing with Love for the starting job next spring. He probably won’t start, but he could be receiving some playing time if there’s an injury or if the score isn’t close late in the game.
It will also be the final game in the college career of tight end Josh Oliver.
He has been the bright spot of a struggling offense this season, and has received national attention for his efforts.
Oliver ranks first in the nation for receptions by a tight end with 51, and is third in receiving yards with 667. He’s expected to receive an invite to the Senior Bowl, and has a chance to be the only Spartan to have his name called at this year’s NFL Draft.
The tight end and whichever quarterback that gets the start has their work cut-out for them in the season finale.
Not only does Fresno State have the best scoring defense in the Mountain West, but it’s defense is fourth in all of college football, allowing only 13.5 points per game.
The Bulldogs are elite at taking the ball away from the offense. They have 22 turnovers on the year, with 16 interceptions and only 12 passing touchdowns allowed.
They are a team that gets after the quarterback and forces him to make mistakes.
FSU senior cornerback Anthoula “Tank” Kelly is among the players making a case for being the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year honors.
He’s a punishing, hard-hitting corner with excellent man-to-man defense skills. He is a matchup nightmare and is a player that SJSU will need to avoid in the passing game.
On the other side of the ball, a new-and-improved Spartan defense will be in a dogfight in the trenches against FSU.
The Bulldogs sport a deep offensive line that simply does their job. They allow less than a sack per game, and some of that can be attributed to their star quarterback.
Marcus McMaryion will be getting some NFL Draft hype in the offseason and for good reason.
He gets the ball out quickly, and he’s deadly accurate, completing 70 percent of his passes this season with only three interceptions. McMaryion has been one of the best passers in the nation this season, and is likely the best quarterback SJSU has faced since its early season matchup with Justin Herbert.
The Spartans forced Herbert to have possibly his worst performance of the year.
How? Pressure.
The SJSU defense will be looking to hit the quarterback. If it can do that consistently and effectively, McMaryion will be off of his game.
The 82nd edition of the Battle for the Valley Trophy should prove to be an exciting one.
FSU, who will play in the MW conference title game a week from Saturday, might be looking ahead to that matchup.
There’s nothing the Spartans would rather do than help demote the Bulldogs to a less-than-desirable bowl game in December.
SJSU will take on the Bulldogs in Fresno on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Follow Austin on Twitter @AustinTurnt