SAN JOSE — San Jose State will become bowl eligible with a win on Saturday against San Diego State. But the Spartans are shooting for more than that.
Entering the week, 58 teams had already won six games to become eligible for the 82 spots in bowl games this season. SJSU (5-5, 4-2 Mountain West) is one of 24 teams with five wins. There are 36 more four-win teams that have two games remaining.
SJSU learned the hard way that six wins does not guarantee a trip to the postseason.
In 2013 the Spartans finished 6-6 but were not invited to a bowl game. Out of the seven bowl-eligible teams in the Mountain West that season, SJSU was the only team left out.
There already are four Mountain West teams that are bowl eligible: Air Force (8-2), UNLV (8-2), Fresno State (8-2) and Wyoming (6-4). Joining SJSU with five wins is Boise State (5-5) and Utah State (5-5).
After Saturday’s home finale, the Spartans end the regular season at UNLV. That game could be for a spot in the MW title game.
“It’s a tremendous credit to the players,” SJSU head coach Brent Brennan said of the Spartans, who have won four in a row after a challenging opening schedule that left them at 1-5 in early October. “It is a collective effort and everybody is all in on it.”
Things need to break their way, but the easiest path to the conference title game for the Spartans is to win out and hope Air Force wins out as well.
First, however, the Spartans must get past the Aztecs, which might be more difficult that it appears by looking at the Mountain West standings.
The Aztecs (3-7, 1-5 MW) haven’t won a game in over a month and are tied for the worst record in the Mountain West with New Mexico.
But with bowl game eligibility and a chance at getting to the conference championship on the line, this is not a game the Spartans are taking lightly.
“This is obviously a huge game for our football team,” said Brennan. “We have not had success against (SDSU) in the past. They’ve been the top program, the entire time I’ve been in this conference. They’ve done an incredible job.”
The Spartans are 14.5-point favorites going into Saturday’s game and are currently on a four-game winning streak after beating Fresno State on Saturday.
But San Diego State has given Brennan problems since he became SJSU’s head coach in 2017. The Spartans have lost nine of the last 10 against the Aztecs and have just one win in the Brennan era — a 28-17 victory in 2020 in which the game was played in Carson, California as Snapdragon Stadium was still being built.
The Aztecs might also have more motivation to win Saturday’s game after San Diego State coach Brady Hoke announced Monday he plans to step down after season’s end.
“It’s something that my wife Laura and I are looking forward to,” Hoke said about his retirement Tuesday. “We’ve done this a long time. I’m proud of what we’ve done at each and every stop and here at San Diego State.”
Hoke had two stints as head coach of the Aztecs. The first came in 2009, but it was short-lived as he took a job as Michigan’s head coach after just two seasons. The second came when he returned to San Diego State in 2020 and led the Aztecs to a Mountain West title game berth in 2021.
Brennan said he expects nothing less than an extra motivated San Diego State team on Saturday.
“I would absolutely expect that,” Brennan said. “They love their coach. The other part of it is that every time we play these guys, it’s a hard-fought game. The truth is they’ve won them all except one, so they’ve been better than us.”
Running back Kairee Robinson added, “If I was in that situation, I’d want to go out there and put my coach out the right way.”
Looking down at the stat sheet, San Diego State doesn’t do much better than the Spartans, but quarterback Jaylen Mayden is someone that the Spartans have been focused on this week.
The dual-threat quarterback leads the Aztecs in both passing and rushing yards. In a game in 2022, Mayden threw for 268 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 61 yards in a 43-27 win in San Diego.
