San Jose State Spartans look to keep rolling at Toledo before kicking off Mountain West play
SAN JOSE – Waiting for San Jose State on Saturday at the Glass Bowl in Toledo, Ohio, is a program that has won 15 conference titles, played in 20 bowl games and has been a mid-major powerhouse for almost a century.
San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan envisions similar success at SJSU.
“In my memory (Toledo) has always been good and that’s something that speaks to the tradition and history of the program,” Brennan said.
Brennan, 50, is in his seventh season as the head coach at SJSU. He’s guided the Spartans to two bowl games and won the Mountain West championship in 2020. His success has, not surprisingly, led to interest from other schools: In 2020, he was reportedly a finalist at Arizona, and was a candidate for the Stanford job last winter.
But Brennan is still here, and he’s indicated he’d like to keep it that way. Toledo is a pretty good blueprint for what can be done at a mid-major program.
“That kind of that high-level sustainability, that kind of consistency is something we’re chasing here,” Brennan said.
SJSU (1-2) is coming off a 59-3 home rout of Cal Poly, and Saturday’s 4 p.m. game against the Rockets, the defending Mid-American Conference champions, is their final tuneup before their Mountain West opener next Friday night against Air Force.
Toledo’s football program has not only built a winning culture, but has also produced players and coaches who are widely known in the football world today. Jason Candle is in his 14th season as head coach at Toledo.
“A coaching staff with that type of experience are unicorns in this profession,” Brennan said about coaching against Toledo’s coaching staff. “One thing that you know for sure is that they’re going to know exactly how it works there, and what they need to do to be competitive. They’ve been outstanding, in (Jason Candle’s) time there.”
Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus served in numerous coordinator roles at Toledo. Alabama head coach Nick Saban was the Rockets’ head coach for one season in 1990 and even said leaving was one of the hardest decisions of his career.
Running back Kareem Hunt, Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson, and 49ers cornerback Samuel Womack are just some of the recent names who have been drafted out of Toledo.
Continuing the rush attack
San Jose State (1-2) got a big boost from the run game during last week’s win against Cal Poly. Kairee Robinson and Quali Conley combined to rush for 184 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Toledo (1-1) has shown difficulties stopping the run in its first two games of the season. Opposing rushers averaged 4.1 yards per carry and 154.5 yards per game against the Rockets this season.
“I feel like I could go as far as our team goes,” Robinson said. “I know I had an alright game last week, but it wouldn’t be possible without the O-line. I’m just trying to keep everyone’s energy up.”
Make a quarterback play quarterback
Quarterback Dequan Finn is the engine of the Toledo offense. The 6-foot-2, 207-pound quarterback is second all-time in rushing yards among Toledo quarterbacks.
In Toledo’s season-opening 30-28 loss to Illinois, Finn rushed for 75 yards and a touchdown on 20 attempts.
The Spartans have some experience playing a mobile quarterback this season that could help them stop Finn. SJSU sparred with Caleb Williams a few weeks ago, and though they failed to stop him, there are some similarities in play style between Finn and the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner.
“(Finn) is awesome,” Brennan said. “He reminds me a lot of the guy we played Week 1, probably not with the same fanfare and accolades that the quarterback at USC gets, but (Finn) is an awesome player.”
Linebackers coach and special teams coordinator Scott White said the focus for SJSU’s defense will be to force Finn to throw the ball.
“I think the key thing this week is trying to make him play quarterback from the pocket,” White said. “We have to make sure he’s in front of us. We have to make sure we take away the rush lanes and not let him escape. He’s the head of the snake and we got all eyes on him.”
- Redshirt freshman wide receiver Matthew Coleman was awarded Mountain West Freshman of the Week after he returned his first career punt for a 75-yard touchdown against Cal Poly. Coleman received reps at both special teams and wide receiver spots this week which could mean a bigger role for the second-year man from Carson.
- Preseason all-conference wide receiver Justin Lockhart did not practice this week and is most likely not going to play against Toledo.
- This will be SJSU’s first trip to the Glass Bowl. The only other time the two teams played each other was in 1981 when they met in the California Bowl. Toledo won, 27-25.