We cross the mid-way point of the upcoming season with this edition of the opponent preview series. Utah State will have played half of its games by this stage of the season with quite a bit of its season’s fortunes already decided. Will the Aggies be fighting for mere bowl eligibility or will they be gunning for a spot in the Mountain West title game? These are the kinds of storylines that will be forming by mid-October.
By preseason expectations and projections, this could be another coin flip game, much like USU’s matchups with Air Force and Hawaii in the weeks preceding. That makes it a crucial contest and one the Aggies can hardly afford to lose if bowl game or contenting statuses are going to stick around beyond October.
This is the in-depth preseason preview of Utah State’s seventh opponent of the season, the San Jose State Spartans.
Other Opponent Previews
Game Info
- Game Day: Oct. 17
- Location: Merlin Olsen Field (Logan, UT
- Kickoff Time: 7 p.m.
- TV Broadcast: CBS Sports Network
- Radio Broadcast: KVNU 102.1 FM / 610 AM
Quick-Hit Info on San Jose State
- Head Coach: Ken Niumatalolo (2nd season at SJSU, 7-6 record)
- 2024 Record: 7-6
- 2024 Offense Rank: 63rd (28.4 points per game)
- 2024 Defense Rank: 84th (27.5 points allowed per game)
- Returning Production Rank — 68th
- Returning Starters — (6 offense, 4 defense)
- 2025 Preseason Average Ranking — 85.3
History of Utah State vs this opponent
- All-Time Series: San Jose State leads 21-20-1
- Series During MW Era: Utah State leads 6-1
- First-Ever Meeting: Sept. 30, 1940 (San Jose State won 19-0)
- Most Recent Meeting: Oct. 21, 2023 (San Jose State won 42-21)
Prior to 2023, Utah State had a 10-game winning streak going against San Jose State. It got to the point where the Aggies had tied the series and had the chance to take the series lead for the first time since 1980. The loss in 2023 also marked the only time since joining the Mountain West that Utah State lost to the Spartans.
Opposing Players to Watch
- Walker Eget (QB)
- Lamar Radcliffe (RB)
- Danny Scudero (WR)
- Jackson Canaan (TE)
- Gafa Faga (DL)
- Jordan Pollard (LB)
The Spartans in 2024
Last year marked the third consecutive seven-win season for San Jose State (two 7-6 seasons and one 7-5 campaign). For many programs, that kind of mediocrity can get a coach fired, but Brent Brennan got himself hired at Arizona after going 26-19 from 2020 to 2023 (encompassing two of those seven-win seasons). Ken Niumatalolo came in and got the team to 7-6 once again and hopes for the program are high as a new baseline is being set for the Spartans. Gone (at least hopefully) are years of winning five, or usually fewer, games and too-often being a doormat in the Mountain West.
San Jose State began the season on a very solid trajectory, earning a 5-2 overall record by Oct. 19, with the two losses being by a combined nine points in road games at Washington State and Colorado State (two teams that both went 8-5). In mid-October, the Spartans were just barely on the outside looking in on being a legitimate contender for the Mountain West title game.
Then the rest of the season happened.
The Spartans weathered the first part of the season decently well, but in hindsight, the fact they lost the only two games against teams with winning records was a bit telling (even if the scores were close). SJSU lost four of its next six games and the two wins were both teams that had losing records on the season. The four losses were against Fresno State, Boise State, UNLV and South Florida (in a bowl game) and the Spartans lost those games by an average of two touchdowns.
2025 Season Prospects
This season is the time for San Jose State to take a step forward and 2025 will be a fantastic test to whether the program can become a consistently decent team, or even go beyond that. The Spartans lost some star-level offensive talent, which will force the coaching staff to be able to replace those players, but there’s still plenty of returning experience that there’s no reason to expect SJSU to have to bottom out with a rebuild.
Nick Nash highlights the list of departing players. The winner of the 2024 triple crown (led the NCAA in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns) has moved on to the NFL, but departures also include the second and third-leading receivers, Justin Lockhart (53 receptions, 983 yards, five touchdowns) and Treyshun Hurry (28 rec, 481 yards, two TDs). Two starters on the O-line, Malik Williams and Marist Talavou, are also gone.
Beyond those losses, though, the Spartans bring back just about everything on offense. Quarterback Walker Eget is of particular note. He was inserted into the lineup in place of Emmett Brown during SJSU’s loss to Colorado State on Oct. 12 and Eget started the final seven games of the season after that. He threw for 2,363 yards, 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
“Really excited about him,” Niumatalolo said of Eget in an interview with 106.9The FAN. “This is his second year now (with the offense). He’s way more comfortable and at ease with the terminology, the schemes, the concepts.”
As for the returning players around Eget, there’s leading rusher Floyd Chalk (721 yards, 10 TDs) and tight end Jackson Canaan (28 rec, 314 yards, two TDs) along with five of the top eight offensive linemen in snaps played, including three starters. The offense is in pretty solid shape even without the top two receivers and the Spartans went out and got some players in the transfer portal that should help soften the loss of those players.
Danny Scudero has transferred in from Sacramento State, having caught 53 passes for 667 yards last year, and will be joined by Purdue transfer Leland Smith who brings size at 6-foot-4. Smith has some history of production, having caught 26 passes for 655 yards and nine touchdowns in 2023 while playing for Fullerton College in the junior college ranks.
At running back, Chalk returns but sophomore Lamar Radcliffe may usurp the starting job. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound back appears to have the edge for the job right now and showcased some ability late in 2024. He ran the ball 22 times for 108 yards and a touchdown across the final two games of the season after getting spot carries in a few games earlier in the year.
“They’ll probably be our two backs,” Niumatalolo said of Chalk and Radcliffe. “Those guys will be able to provide us a pretty good one-two punch along with Jabari Bates.”
The defensive side of the ball faces a bit of the opposite situation to the offense. On the good side of things, it means the Spartans kept most of their top talent. Leading tackler and 2024 First Team All-MW linebacker Jordan Pollard is back, joined by two of the other top four leading tacklers for SJSU last year, defensive back Isaiah Revis and Pollards’ fellow LB Taniela Latu. On the other side of that statement is the fact that eight of the top 12 players in snaps on SJSU’s defense last year are gone. Basically, the vast majority of everyone that played more than 440 snaps.
San Jose State’s linebacker unit will remain solid with Pollard and Latu leading the way but the defensive line and secondary have holes that need to be filled. Niumatalolo leaned into the transfer portal to find possible replacements in those two units. On the D-line they brought in Utah transfer Vili Taufatofua and in the secondary, USC transfer Maliki Crawford and Washington transfer Caleb Presley will likely fill in the two starting corner spots.
So long as the defense doesn’t take a step back and the offense isn’t impacted too much by the loss of the top two wide receivers, there’s every expectation that San Jose State can continue its baseline of around seven wins and be a team in the top half of the conference.
Preseason Game Prediction — Close loss
Previous predictions in coin flip games like Hawaii and Air Force have aired on optimistic, ending with the preseason declaration that those games will be wins. This time I’ll lean on the pessimistic side. A lot of that just has to do with the greater stability for the Spartans on both offense and defense than what the Falcons and Warriors have. They’ve also got a solid coach in Ken Niumatalolo that should be able to ensure the team doesn’t buckle under losing a star talent like Nick Nash. Utah State being at home will be a notable benefit and it makes picking an Aggies loss more difficult. But unless Utah State is starting to really roll at this point and are casting off the preseason expectations of being a 4-5 win team, there’s every chance this game ends up as an L.
