If you are reading this, I assume you have some sort of knowledge on this football team. I’m certain that you’ve watched as many games as you could tolerate. Perhaps you’re more of a dedicated fan who has watched closely since the preseason. Maybe even since the end of last season. Maybe you even read my season preview back in August.
If you are well versed in the expectations this program had for this season, feel free to skip ahead a paragraph or two. If not, let me break it down for you here. We’ll start with those expectations and media predictions before segueing into the season itself and what went wrong (including warning signs we might have missed). To conclude this article, we’ll look at the ramifications and what awaits SJSU football in the near future. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t look good.
The Expectations
When I sat down to write my season preview three months ago, I did so based on my research and what I saw in the previous season. My research consisted of endless YouTube breakdowns and digital articles from local beats. In that research, I found that pretty much everyone agreed that SJSU was destined for greatness this season. Walker Eget would return for one last ride. San Jose State went out and assembled possibly the greatest WR room this program has ever seen. The veterans on the defensive side were coming back as well. Most importantly, the schedule was incredibly favorable. Seven of their eight conference opponents were projected to finish below the Spartans in the standings. Even the coaches in the Mountain West were in agreement; they picked SJSU to finish third in the conference. The ceiling for this team was 11-1 (per various college football pundits). For a moment, joy and whimsy filled the air of CEFCU Stadium. Hope spread around the fanbase like embers carried by a gust of wind from a flame. This was the year, they all said. SJSU had a real shot at the title, a legitimate chance to return to the glories of 2020. The CFP also wasn’t out of the picture either.
The Results
The season opener at the very end of August was not an ideal start. However, most fans didn’t waver in their faith. After all, it was a close game they lost in the final seconds. This Central Michigan team wasn’t bad, either. Danny Scudero looked like the second coming of Nick Nash. Sure, the defense looked a tad bit sketchy. But then again, it was only the first game of the season. This team could, and would, go only up from here.
Then out came the shovels. Against Stanford, Eget threw for a career-high 473 yards, while Scudero, Smith, and Shoels each had over 100 receiving yards. They ended up losing by one point. Two weeks later, Scudero broke the SJSU single-game TD record by grabbing 4, all in the first half. Eget suffers an injury later in the game, and the offense is held scoreless in the second half. Wyoming puts up 21 points in the 4th quarter to top off an unbelievable comeback. Fast forward another two weeks, and the Spartans are sitting at 2-5 on the verge of losing bowl eligibility. SJSU gets it done in a shootout against Hawaii, scoring 45 while Scudero grabs himself 215 receiving yards on the night. For a brief moment, CEFCU Stadium felt a sliver of hope. Alas, it was short-lived, for that would be the last time SJSU would win.
The losses kept piling on. Four straight to end the season, including a 55-10 blowout to a Nevada team who hadn’t won a conference game in over two years. Before we knew it, it was a 3-9 campaign. The worst finish to a season since 2018. Overall, a frustrating season mired by discouraging play. A year to forget, but it begs the question: what went wrong? What happened? How could these preseason darlings fall so far? Hindsight is 20/20, but the reality is that the signs were there.
The Explanation
Let’s start with the offense. This unit was really the lone bright spot for the program. Walker Eget showed flashes of what he could do last season, and he silenced the critics by playing at an elite level. Offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann continued to toy with defenses with the Spread N’ Shred. Many asked what they would do about the loss of Justin Lockhart and triple crown winner Nick Nash. In response, Danny Scudero, Leland Smith, and Kyri Shoels came at secondaries like a three-headed beast. Shoels was dependable all season long. Smith won the jump balls and made some of the craziest catches you’ve ever seen. Scudero stayed atop national leaderboards, landing himself on the Biletnikoff watchlist and AP Midseason 2nd Team. The offensive line performed well too. So what was the issue? It was the depth at the QB position. Last year, SJSU had two starting quarterbacks in Eget and Emmet Brown who battled each other game after game until Eget won the starting job. This season, Eget was backed up by Xavier Ward, who did not possess a great track record in his limited playing career. Behind him were two true freshmen in Tama Amisone and Robert McDaniel. When Eget went down for a drive (or a game), it quickly became apparent that the offense ran through him. Without his arm strength, the offense couldn’t muster any production whatsoever. The vaunted Spread N’ Shred completely stalled. Remember the Wyoming game I mentioned earlier, where the offense was held scoreless in the second half? It wasn’t a coincidence that Eget was hurt for pretty much the entirety of the closing half.
The defense is another story. Last year, Derrick Odum’s unit was middle-of-the-pack. That was fine, because the offense was so good that it didn’t matter how the defense played. They were led by an outstanding secondary featuring Robert Rahimi, Michael Dansby, and DJ Harvey. That group ended up leading the conference with 21 total interceptions. Fast forward to this season, where neither of the aforementioned was with the program; Rahimi went to SMU, Dansby to Arizona, and Harvey to USC. So, the secondary this year ended up consisting of players with minimal experience, if any at all. They were able to nab some guys in the transfer portal, but none of them ended up really seeing the field. You’d think that maybe the front seven returning this year would be the saving grace, right? Veteran leaders returning for another season seemed to make for the perfect formula for a serviceable defense. That’s where most pundits left it. What happened is we didn’t look deeper. If you don’t have a strong secondary, teams will pick you apart in the pass game; if you try to adjust, they’ll pound the rock. No matter how good you are against the run, the pure physicality of that play style will wear any defense down. At that point, it’s over – the offense is free to switch between the air and the ground, keeping the defense in an endless limbo. That’s exactly what happened here. The defense became porous, especially against the run. SJSU gave up 236 rushing yards to Central Michigan in the season opener. At the end of the season, this unit finished as the worst defense in the conference, allowing over 32 points per game. Not exactly what you’d call a winning formula. Oh, and by the way, they only recorded 7 interceptions this year, tied for the least in the Mountain West. Thus, the defense was the core problem this year, and I say that because their poor performance was directly responsible for a number of losses. The top brass seemed to agree, as they ultimately cut ties with long-time defensive coordinator Derrick Odum after nine years.
They also let go of special teams coordinator Joe Palcic. Palcic’s group was a superficial issue, but not the main problem. I say this because the special teams cost SJSU a few wins. In all fairness though, much of the time they should have never even been in those positions. Regardless of what-ifs, the kicking was horrendous. I mean, nobody in their right mind would have seen this coming. USC transfer Denis Lynch missed two potential game-winning FGs in the opener (though he did redeem himself with a winner against Idaho). He ended the season converting just 50% of his field goal attempts. It was such a disaster that they had kickoff specialist Matthias Brown try his luck for several attempts. Down the final stretch, they settled on having Lynch kick from the right hash and Brown from the left. Trent Carrizosa was the sole bright spot, as the punter held it down, even earning some recognition midseason.
TL;DR? The offensive hype was so large for this team that it effectively masked some red flags (i.e. lack of depth). The special teams fell off a cliff, while the defense regressed heavily, particularly against the run. Thus, the ability to win completely rested on the ability of the offense to run at full speed. However, when the captain of the ship goes down, you can’t expect to stay afloat for long.
The Future
What awaits this team? That my friends is the million-dollar question. Likely, we’ll see an exodus of talent. After all, it is the norm in the modern era of college football. I don’t imagine Scudero or Smith will be coming back. That front seven I mentioned earlier? They’re pretty much all gone too. Eget is also out of eligibility, which poses a bigger problem. How on Earth are they going to replace him? Will they rely on one of their two freshmen? Will they address it in the portal? What of the holes in the defense? Special teams? SJSU will have to hit the transfer portal even harder than they did last season. They will also have to answer a lot of tough questions. I do not envy the position Ken Niumatalolo is in right now. He’s going to have to oversee a complete overhaul, with immense pressure to turn things around after a disastrous season. He’s done well with SJSU’s limited resources, but after a 3-9 season that seat is beginning to warm up.
Overall, it was a massively disappointing season. The stars were aligned for SJSU to make magic happen. They had a chance to build on the momentum from last season and generate some noise in a competitive sports market in the Bay Area. However, what ensued was nothing close. Now, the program finds themselves in a hole so deep they’re halfway to the Earth’s core. What will they do to get themselves out? Only time will tell.
Let us know down in the comments what you think is going to happen this offseason!
It appears the biggest weaknesses with the Spartan Football Team this year consisted of stopping the run, special teams, and quarterback depth. Hopefully, Ken Niumatalolo will be able to handle the nearly complete overhaul and build this roster back up for the future.
An upset this season, with the team like this I thought we’d be more successful. Although the team wasn’t what we expected I know there were a few notable players on the team making some buzz online. Hopefully next season is better for our team.
I myself am not the biggest football or even sports fan in general but this blog post had me invested and curious about our football team. It’s a shame that this season was far from ideal despite the high expectations and hopes we had going into it. We can only hope things turn out better next time around.
This season has definitely been one for the books. Scudero coming from Sacramento and joining this seasons receiver core has elevated the offense overall.
This was a very insightful look at the football season. After reading, I’m very interested in how the football team will develop going forward. Seeing that the biggest strengths of the team are gone/out of eligibility leave me anxious as well as a little excited for what coach Niumatalolo has planned.
For A Descent into Madness: This was interesting learning more about football and their preseason and all their training for those big games that are coming up. It is interesting hearing peoples expectations for the team and I feel like it helps the team have that winning mindset for the rest of their games for that season.
I like this analysis and talk about the football game, especially with the “when the captain of the ship goes down, you can’t expect to stay afloat for long.”, because In a way, this is true for many things. The hype for the team did cover up some red flags that they had, quite almost overlooking them. It’s because of this that they may not of had realized some bad aspects they needed to work on for the games.
Well, it definitely hasn’t been a great year for the football team, has it! I don’t think anyone could have predicted this and certainly no one can predict what comes next either. Let’s hope that they are able to build something special in the off season.
Man, I didn’t expect this season to go down the way it did. I thought we would do decent, considering last season. We’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board as we are expected to lose a lot of pieces of the offense.
Two things that really stood out were how high the expectations were going into the season with a “greatest-WR room ever,” a favorable schedule, and a quarterback returning for one more ride, and how starkly the results diverged from that optimism. Also, I was struck by how the offense still produced moments of brilliance (thanks to the receivers and play-calling), but how fragile everything became once the depth issues, defensive lapses, and special-teams breakdowns piled up. What’s the plan for rebuilding – especially at quarterback, defense, and special teams? And what kind of core do you think will return? Will it be a full rebuild or a partial retool?
One thing that stood out to me is that San Jose will have to make some big moves in the portal. As the author said, replacing Eget and the front seven will be extremely difficult. I also think it’s awesome that through all the difficulty of kicking this season, the punter shined through and had a great year.
wow! I missed the entire football season, but now I feel like I was there. This was highly informative and also a touch heartbreaking. I am intrigued to find out what we’ll do next season.
I’m really hoping to see a revival of SJSU!! This season was pretty disappointing, and I’m a bit apprehensive to say what exactly the future holds, but I know there are more great players out there that could pick up the slack, and I’m gonna keep rooting for SJSU no matter what.
Great job Pio. I like the way you structured this overview of the season. I think it’s fair to say that perhaps analysts bought in on the offense hype a bit too much. Hopefully, you can write a bit more about where SJSU goes from here with people like Danny Scudero and Kyri Shoels hitting the transfer portal.