SAN JOSE — It is a short week for the San Jose State football team. But Friday night can’t come soon enough for the Spartans.
Six days after watching a 12-point fourth quarter lead evaporate in a heartbreaking 30-29 loss at Stanford, their second setback of the season decided in the final seconds, the Spartans finally open Mountain West play against New Mexico at CEFCU Stadium (7 p.m. on FS1).
The Spartans (1-3) had three of their four non-conference games decided by a field goal or less.
“We recognize that our record isn’t indicative of where we could be,” head coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “We’re a couple plays away (from being 3-1) and we recognize that. It would be different if we were getting blown out every week.”
Two of SJSU’s losses were within a field goal (16-14 loss to Central Michigan and the 30-29 loss to Stanford) and the third loss was 38-7 to then No.7-ranked and preseason ranked No.1 Texas.
Friday is the first chance for the Spartans to move past a rough start and possibly contend for the Mountain West Championship. SJSU was picked third in the preseason media poll, behind Boise State and UNLV.
With eight games remaining, the Spartans have little margin for error to get the six wins required to be eligible for a bowl game for the fourth straight season.
SJSU not only has a clean slate, but a chance to knock down a New Mexico team (3-1, 0-0 MW) who have won three straight games including a 35-10 win over UCLA.
It will also be a clean slate for the Spartans’ kicking game. Niumatalolo announced Mathias Brown as the starting kicker this week. Brown replaces USC transfer Denis Lynch, who has missed six of his 10 field goal attempts, including a potential game winning 33-yard attempt against Central Michigan in the season opener. He also missed two kicks of under 30 yards in the one-point loss at Stanford.
Brown has been SJSU’s kickoff specialist for the past two seasons and has not attempted a field goal.
“Mathias is still polishing up his field goals and we feel like he’s gotten better,” Niumatalolo said. “But under the circumstances we are going to give him a shot.”
Brown played soccer and football at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, and was named the football team’s MVP in 2022 as a kicker. Despite that, he was not recruited coming out of high school.
“We had open tryouts when I first got here and he was the one who made the team. It’s a cool story,” Niumatalolo said.
— The Spartans passing game had not been as consistent as the coaching staff expected through the first three games of the season. Offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann felt the offense was “close” heading into last week, and Stutzmann’s “Spread and Shred” finally got to click for a full game against Stanford. Quarterback Walker Eget threw for a career-high 473 yards and three touchdowns.
But Stutzmann still feels like there were some things left on the table.
“There were too many drops. If that’s not the case I think we run away with that game” Stutzmann said. “It was still heartbreaking, but looking at the stats when I got home it was like ‘wow we threw for nearly 500 yards.’ But it probably should have been 600 or 700.”
SJSU’s offense featured three wide receivers who went for over 100 yards in the game, Kyri Shoels (147), Danny Scudero (135) and Leland Smith (101).
“I got to give credit to the (wide receivers), there were a lot of yards after the catch,” Eget said. “That’s something we’ve emphasized this year and they have done a great job with that.”
The “Spread and Shred” offense has a lot of option routes and requires the wide receivers and quarterback to make decisions on the fly. Stutzmann said it typically takes two years for players to adapt and become productive. But in the age of NIL and the transfer portal, roster turnover is steady. Smith (Purdue transfer), Scudero (Sacramento State transfer) and Shoels (redshirted 2024) are seeing game action in the offense for the first time, but Stutzmann the trio is starting to gel with Eget.
“It’s easy when you just run dig routes, or run nine routes and tell them you just got to curl here,” Stutzmann said. “The things we ask these guys to do require a lot of time and hard work. It doesn’t happen overnight and it certainly doesn’t happen in six to nine months.”
SJSU’s offense had 58 passing attempts compared to 14 rushing attempts during the Stanford game. Excluding an Eget kneel down, SJSU had one rushing attempt for zero yards in the first half.
The Spartans with just 51 rushing yards. Eget was the team’s leading rusher with 19 yards.
“There were a lot of things the defense was doing to take away the run and give us the ability to throw the football,” Stutzmann said. “We saw red and were ready to attack those guys.”
— SJSU’s defense will have to deal with a very balanced New Mexico offense.
In New Mexico’s win over UCLA, the teams rushed for 298 yards. The next week in New Mexico’s 38-20 win over New Mexico State, the team had 344 yards through the air.
In his first year with the program, Lobos head coach Jason Eck has gotten them off to a better start than most imagined given they were polled to finish eleventh in the Mountain West Conference in the 2025 preseason poll.
On the other hand, the Spartans were projected to finish third in the Mountain West preseason poll but are sitting with an opposite record of the Lobos at 1-3.
Both teams will have a lot to prove in their first conference game.
“We’re looking forward to this game. The first conference game has us feeling rejuvenated,” Niumatalolo said. “We’re ready to press forward.”