Oregon State Football Opponent Preview: San Jose State

With the start of the 2024 season just around the corner, BeaversEdge kicks off the first in an opponent preview series diving into all 12 of Oregon State's opponents in 2024...

Next up on the schedule is a home tilt against the San Jose State Spartans...

THE GAME

Date: Saturday, November 9th

Time: 12:30 or 7:30 PT

Location: Reser Stadium - Corvallis, Ore.

TV: The CW

Oregon State 2023 record: 8-5 (5-4 Pac-12)

San Jose State 2023 record: 7-6 (6-2

SJSU Head Coach: Ken Niumatalolo (1st season, 109-83 at Navy)

SJSU 2023 Recap

Following a 7-5 campaign with a 5-3 mark in Mountain West play, the San Jose State Spartans improved slightly, going 7-6 with a bowl appearance and a 6-2 record in MW play.

SJSU had a brutally tough start to the season despite having a talented roster, as they opened in week zero with a blowout loss to USC and followed that with a big home loss to Oregon State.

They smashed Cal Poly to earn their first win of the season, before suffering a three-game skid at the hands of Toledo, Air Force, and Boise State.

The Spartans then rapidly flipped the script, ending the regular season on a six-game winning streak that saw them defeat New Mexico, Utah State, Hawaii, Fresno State, San Diego State, and UNLV.

On paper, the season went about as expected for the Spartans, perhaps falling short in a few areas but a winning year nonetheless. Take away the USC and OSU losses and SJSU is a nine-win team. They also dropped a close game to Toledo that was very winnable, and fell to Boise State and Coastal Carolina in winnable games as well.

Offensively, the Spartans were an effective group, led by senior quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, who earned all-Mountain West honors after throwing for 2,773 yards and 20 touchdowns against four picks. He also added 272 rushing yards and three scores.

Defensively, the Spartans had a solid campaign, ranking fifth in the MW in points per game allowed at just under 26 per game. They were very effective against the pass, ranking second in passing yards allowed at 118, but were gouged on the ground, ranking 10th at 173 yards per game.

While it was another successful season by SJSU standards, especially considering how bad it was when Brennan arrived, it was a big loss to see Brennan take the Arizona job in the offseason.

He was a culture-builder in San Jose and it'll be tough to replace what he brought to the table as he was always able to do more with less, an essential at a place like SJSU...

Best Win: vs Fresno State 41-18

Worst Loss: vs Boise State 35-27

2023 Schedule

SJSU 2024 Outlook

Following the departure of Brennan, several key staffers, and multiple starting players with experience, the 2024 campaign figures to be a re-tooling, borderline rebuilding season for the Spartans.

Enter former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo...

Niumatalolo was a solid hire considering how late it was in the process, and he was able to retain Brennan's defensive coordinator Derrick Odum, which was a sizable coup with how well that unit played last season.

Starting on offense, the Spartans won't be running Niumatalolo's signature triple-option attack, instead, he hired Texas passing game coordinator Craig Stutzman, to run a high-tempo offense they call the spread-and-shed.

While the potential is there with a good hire, the Spartans will be looking to replace their starting quarterback, running back, and four players on the offensive line.

Former Oregon QB Jay Butterfield is the likely starter after serving as Cordiero's backup a season ago, but there's a handful of guys in the mix.

Whoever is at quarterback will have a top receiver target as Nick Nash returns, who tallied 48 catches for 728 yards and eight touchdowns in 2023.

Defensively, the Spartans likely won't be quite as good as last season, as they lost some key pieces to graduation and the transfer portal. The DL depth is a bit of a question mark, as is the secondary, but the strength is in the linebackers with Jordan Pollard (52 tackles, 1 FF, 2 INT) and Jordan Cobbs.

Defense figures to be a bit more consistent than the offense with the amount of returnees, and the familiarity of not changing over a defensive system. Long term, I think Niumatalolo will be able to make SJSU competitive just like Brennan as he proved capable of double-digit wins at Navy, which is an accomplishment in itself.

It's just going to be an up-and-down year one, with a good amount of growing pains.

Season Projection: 4-8 or 5-7

Key Players: WR Nick Nash, RB Jakob Galloway, DL Soane Toia, DB Michael Dansby, LB Jordan Pollard

Early Prediction

Facing the Spartans following the season's second and last bye week, this seems like it should be a matchup where Oregon State rolls.

Sure, the Beavers aren't quite as good on paper as they were a season ago when they took care of business against SJSU on the road in the season opener, but the Spartans won't be as good.

Look for the Beavers to utilize their home crowd and roll to one of their better performances of the season against a team amid a re-tooling period.

PREDICTION - Oregon State 45, San Jose State 14