Sept. 12, 2016
Upcoming game (Game #3): San José State vs. Utah
Saturday, September 17, 2016,
CEFCU Stadium, - Home of the Spartans
San José, Calif., 7:30 p.m. (PT) CBS Sports Network
San José State record: 1-1. The Spartans earned their first win of the season defeating Portland State, 66-35, on September 10.
Utah record: 2-0. The Utes stayed unbeaten defeating BYU, 20-19, on September 10. Utah has a four-game winning streak dating back to the end of the 2015 season with wins over Colorado and in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl over BYU. The Utes opened 2016 with a 24-0 triumph over Southern Utah. Utah received votes in the September 11 Associated Press and in the coaches' polls.
Series history: Utah leads the series, 6-1. The teams are meeting for the first time since the 2010 season when the Utes defeated the Spartans, 56-3, at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Utah comes in winning the last three games against San Jose State. The Spartans' only win in the series was a 24-6 victory in Salt Lake City. Saturday's game will be the first time San Jose State takes on Utah as a Pac-12 Conference member. The teams played the first five games of the series with Utah as a Western Athletic Conference member. The 1998 contest was a WAC game in the conference standings since San Jose State joined the WAC in 1996. Utah was a Mountain West member while the Spartans remained in the WAC in the last two meetings between these teams.
Going for 2-1: The last time San Jose State had a 2-1 win-loss record after three games was in the 2012 season. That year, the Spartans lost its season opener, a road game at #21-Stanford, and won at home over UC Davis and Colorado State. Since then, San Jose State opened the next three seasons with a home win followed by two road losses.
Television: The CBS Sports Network will televise the San Jose State-Utah game. Jason Horowitz calls the play-by-play. Aaron Taylor serves as the analyst. Jenny Dell is the sideline reporter. The CBS Sports Network telecast begins at 7:30 p.m. (PT).
The CBS Sports Network is available on:
| AT&T Uverse Channels 643, 1643 HD |
| Comcast/XFinity Channels 418, 732 HD |
| DirecTV Channel 221 |
| DISH Network Channels 158, 158 HD |
Play-by-Play Radio Coverage: KLIV (1590 AM, San José) originates San José State football broadcasts. Justin Allegri calls the play-by-play. Kevin Richardson provides commentary. Air time for the KLIV broadcast is 7:00 p.m. (PT).
San José State has four network affiliates.
| KION (1460 AM/101.1 FM, Salinas) |
| KFIV (1360 AM, Modesto) |
| KWSX (1280 AM, Stockton) |
| ESPN Desportes (910 AM, San Francisco) |
They were at Utah and they were at San Jose State or vice versa: The ties between these schools include several well-known and interesting football characters. Running back Bob Ladouceur transferred from Utah to San Jose State in 1974. He did not play in San Jose State's win over Utah due to the NCAA's transfer rule for Division I football players. Switched to a defensive back role, he didn't play much for the Spartans. After graduating, he became best known as the high school football coach with the best winning percentage in the country (.934) after compiling a record of 399-25-3 from 1979 through 2012 at De La Salle High in Concord, Calif. Ladouceur received an honorary doctorate from San Jose State at the University's 2015 commencement.
Offensive lineman Ron McBride lettered at San Jose State in the 1960, 1961 and 1962 seasons. He never wore the same number in any of his three varsity seasons. McBride would become Utah's head coach for 13 seasons (1990 through 2002). He ranks third on the school's career list for coaching victories with his 88-63 win-loss record.
Like Ladouceur, all-purpose player Mervyn Fernandez transferred to San Jose State. Fernandez played the 1981 season catching 35 passes for 697 yards and seven touchdowns, rushing once for a 35-yard touchdown in a 28-6 win at Stanford and played enough as a safety to intercept two passes. As a professional, he played for the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League (1982-86, 1994) and six seasons for the Los Angeles Raiders (1987-92).
Fernandez was part of the explosive 1981 San Jose State offense with Jack Elway as the head coach and current University of Utah assistant head coach and running backs coach Dennis Erickson as the team's offensive coordinator. The Spartans won the Pacific Coast Athletic Association championship, finished with a 9-3 win-loss record after beating Stanford and California in the same season for the first time in school history, but lost to Toledo, 27-25, in the California Bowl despite three second-half touchdown receptions by Fernandez.
Turnaround starts with opponent turnovers: San José State powered its way to its first win of the season with six turnovers gained on three interceptions and three fumble recoveries against Portland State. The Spartans' six takeaways match the most in a game since the October 20, 2012 win over UTSA in San Antonio's Alamodome. The Portland State win also marked the first time since September 27, 2008 at Hawai'i that San Jose State completed a game with a +6 turnover margin. In the 20-17 win at Hawai'i, the Spartans came away with four interceptions and two fumble recoveries. After starting the season with a minus-3.0 in turnover margin, San Jose State heads into the Utah contest at +1.5 and ranks 14th nationally. The Spartans also are tied for sixth in the Football Bowl Subdivision with six turnovers gained.
66 points for the Spartans: San José State's 66 points in the Portland State win rank as the fifth highest scoring game in school history since 1946. The Spartans now have 11 games in which it scored or more points in a game. The two highest are the back-to-back games against the University of Mexico to end 1948 (71) and open the 1949 (103) seasons.
A 400-plus yard ground game: San Jose State's 409 yards rushing in the Portland State win are the most by a Spartan team since a 476-yard performance on October 28, 2006 when San Jose State rushed for 476 yards in a win over Louisiana Tech. The 409 figure is the eighth time a San Jose State team rushed for at least 400 yards in a game and ranks eighth on the school's single game rushing list. The 409 rushing yards rank as the ninth best single-game total in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in games played through September 10.
Two 100-yard rushers & nearly a third: For the first time in 15 years, two San Jose State players rushed for at least 100 yards in the same game in the Portland State victory. Graduate student Deontae Cooper with 126 yards and one touchdown on 18 carries and redshirt freshman Zamore Zigler with 15 carries for 111 yards and two scores reached the 100-yard plateau. Sophomore Malik Roberson nearly became a third 100-yard rusher for the Spartans. Roberson finished with 92 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. He had as many as 97 rushing yards in the Portland State game.
Long runs leave marks: Two of San Jose State's nine touchdowns in the Portland State game came on runs of 87 yards by Malik Roberson and 74 yards by Zamore Zigler. Roberson's touchdown burst matches UCF's Adrian Killins for the longest run in 2016 and ties the sixth longest rushing play in school history. Zigler's touchdown dash ties him for the tenth longest run in 2016 in games played through September 10. The two long touchdown runs for Roberson and Zigler mark the first time San Jose State rushed for two touchdowns in one game of 70 or more yards.
Crawford 10-for-10: Bryce Crawford joined an exclusive group of San Jose State kick scorers with 10 kick-scoring attempts in a game. He was 9-for-9 on PAT attempts and converted a 22-yard field goal against Portland State. The single-game school record for PATs in a modern-era San Jose State game since 1950 is 10 by Jeff Carr against Rice on October 2, 2004. Another Spartan with at least 10 kick-scoring attempts in a game is former San Francisco 49ers kicker Joe Nedney who was 7-for-8 in PATs and kicked three field goals in a 64-45 win over Pacific in 1991.