By Ernie Gonzalez — Editor
Pulled from their pig tails, fans of Fayetteville were in complete disbelief on Sept. 21.
Trailing 24-7 at halftime, the University of Arkansas hurried back to tie the score at 24 with 2:56 to play in regulation.
But a no-name team from San Jose led by some guy called Josh Love didn’t let down.
“He told me before the drive, ‘You were made for this. You got this. Just go and do it.’” Love said.
Those were the words of San Jose State football’s quarterback coach Ryan Gunderson just before Love jogged back onto the field against 11 red jerseys and 75 yards to the end zone.
But to understand what that moment in Arkansas meant for Love, it helps to know how he was put in that position.
Love’s journey with the Spartans began in 2015 as a player with no scholarship. He earned one after a redshirt season. Love made his first start in 2016 at Iowa State, passing for 155 yards and a touchdown, filling in for former Spartan quarterback Kenny Potter.
Ron Caragher, the Spartans’ former head coach, was fired after the 2016 season. SJSU replaced him with Brent Brennan, an Oregon State assistant who brought Gunderson with him from Corvallis.
“I’ve known Gundy for a long time now,” Brennan said. “He’s definitely a super detailed, super perfectionist guy, and at the time I thought he would bring a lot schematically.”
In Brennan’s first season at the helm, there was a quarterback battle between Love and Montel Aaron.
Love started five games, including the first two against No. 19 South Florida and Cal Poly. Injuries sidelined Love during the season as well, so he was never 100 percent. The Spartans finished that year with a 2-11 record.
From both physical and mental standpoints, Love wasn’t all there. But his relationship with Gunderson was far from lost.
“I tell him often the easiest thing to do is to lay in bed at night, put your head in the pillow and think about how great you want to be,” Gunderson said. “The hardest part about that is waking up the next morning and making sure your actions reflect that.”
Those nights came often that season and still do at times.
But the way Love views it, Gunderson gives his best all the time as his coach. So why shouldn’t Love?
“He for sure gets credit,” Love said. “Even though it’s been hard the last couple years, he comes here every day. Now he has a kid at home, starting a family and nothing’s changed. He’s here even more because he wants it so bad not only for himself but for us.”
To Gunderson however, it’s the other way around.
“[Love] deserves all the credit,” Gunderson said. “I say that because most of his success is due to his maturation process and his understanding of the game … he’s really bloomed.”
In 2018, Love solidified himself as the Spartans’ No. 1 signal caller, beating out Aaron, Michael Carrillo and Chance LaChappell. Love started the team’s first eight games, then suffered an injury and missed the team’s final four.
Love is seemingly on a seesaw. Sometimes there is a beefy lineman on the other side, and sometimes it’s a skinny punt returner. Consistent highs and lows mark his career.
But Gunderson, who turned 35 last month, was an engineering student at Oregon State. He says that football is not about calculus or fluid dynamics but something more straightforward: problem solving.
Gunderson even pointed to Love’s game in Reno against Nevada as an example.
“He started off pretty slow and obviously struggled in the first half,” Gunderson said. “It was one of those things where I said, ‘You’re fine, relax. Take some deep breaths.’ And we’ve gotten to the point where he just looks at me and says ‘Yeah, I know, I’m fine we just got to get it going.’ And he did.”
Gunderson’s job isn’t just to help Love. It’s to make every quarterback on the team be the best he can be.
Just look at true freshman Nick Nash, a completely opposite quarterback.
“The process for Nick and the process for Josh are extremely different,” Brennan said. “I mean, Nick was getting ready for prom a couple months ago. He wasn’t worried about what pressure San Diego State is going to bring.”
In a way, having to mentor both Love and Nash can be challenging. But Gunderson, someone Brennan calls “funny off the field, intense on the field,” gives Love a hard time, especially when he tucks the football.
For instance, in the second quarter of SJSU’s home opener against Northern Colorado.
Love helicoptered into the endzone on a 3-yard rush. It extended the score to a comfortable 20-6 lead for the Spartans, so the sideline was filled with laughter and energy.
But Gunderson wanted to join the party.
“I told him ‘you were running like a big bag of sand,” Gunderson said.
In Love’s eyes, the exchanges are hilarious.
“They call me that and they call me old man,” Love said. “I don’t run a lot. I prefer to stay in the pocket for that reason. But yeah, that joke has stuck.”
Nick Nash, meanwhile, certainly doesn’t run like a “big bag of sand.”
“Nick’s a freaking bag of water,” Love said jokingly. “He’s wet. He can go. He has juice. I’m excited for his future.”
As for the future of Love, who knows? Maybe it was sparked by his performance in Arkansas. Or maybe Gunderson deserves a lot more credit than people think.
But when it was all said and done and when that fat lady sang in Fayetteville after the game, the scoreboard read 31-24 in favor of some shrimpy school from somewhere out in the coast.
Love marched the Spartans down the field in just 1:43, led the Spartans to their biggest win in 13 years and helped beat an SEC team for the first time in school history.
Maybe now, we have realized Love didn’t do it alone.
Follow Ernie on Twitter @superego1012
