Oct. 16, 2016
Upcoming game: San José State at San Diego State
Friday, October 21, 2016,
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, Calif., 7:30 p.m. (PT)
ESPN2
San José State record: 2-5, 1-2 Mountain West. The Spartans ended a four-game losing streak with a 14-10 victory over Nevada on October 15.
San Diego State record: 5-1, 2-0 Mountain West. The Aztecs won their second consecutive game in a 17-3 triumph at Fresno State on October 14.
Series history: San José State leads the series dating back to 1935, 19-18-2. The Aztecs have wins in the last three meetings between these teams including last year's 30-7 win in San José.
San José State's last win in the series was a 38-34 victory on September 22, 2012, in Qualcomm Stadium. The win in San Diego ended a nine-game, 60-year drought of Spartan road wins in the series. San José State was 0-8-1 in games played in San Diego between 1952 and 2012.
The upcoming game between these teams is the second time they are playing on an October 21 in San Diego. In 1996, San Diego State handled San José State, 49-20.
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).
Ron Caragher & Rocky Long, once together, on opposite sides again: Ron Caragher and Rocky Long will be opposite sides of the field for the sixth time as coaches in this year's San José State-San Diego State game.
Long's teams have a 4-1 advantage. In 1994, Caragher was in his first year as a graduate assistant at UCLA and Long was the defensive coordinator at Oregon State whose team emerged with a 23-14 victory.
Caragher's one win as a coach over Long came in the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl when he was a UCLA assistant coach and Long was the head coach at New Mexico. The Bruins beat the Lobos, 27-13.
The Aztecs have wins of 34-30 in 2013, 38-7 in 2014, and 30-7 in 2015.
The two head coaches were on the Bob Toledo-led Bruin staffs of 1996 and 1997. UCLA was the Pac-10 co-champion in 1997 and went to play in the Cotton Bowl. Long was the defensive coordinator and Caragher was the wide receivers coach.
A chance for a two-game win streak: Following San José State's 14-10 conference win over Nevada, the Spartans can have their first two-game winning streak since the 2014 season with a victory at San Diego State. In 2014, the Spartans defeated UNLV and won in overtime at Wyoming for the most recent two-game winning streak.
Four common threads: San José State's two wins this season shared these traits.
1.) The offense did not lose the football via fumble or interception.
2.) The offense had at least 50 rushing plays.
3.) San José State had a positive turnover ratio.
4.) The Spartans led at halftime.
Against Nevada, the Spartans were +2 in turnover margin and rushed 54 times. In the September 10 Portland State win, San José State was +6 in turnover margin and had 57 rushing attempts.
Facing nation's best: San Diego State's Donnel Pumphrey will be the fourth running back the San José State defense is facing since the 2000 season that is either the national rushing leader at the time of the game or finished a season as the national rushing leader.
Season-best 257: San José State yielded 257 yards of total offense to Nevada, its best total defensive yardage in a game this season by 174 yards. In each of the last two games, neither Hawai'i (31 for 144 yards) nor Nevada (34 for 113 yards gained 200 rushing yards against San José State.
A rushing first since 2001: For the first time since 2001, three San José State players had a 100-plus yard rushing game in the same season. Deontae Cooper and Zamore Zigler did it in the Portland State game and Malik Roberson hit the mark against Nevada. In 2001 running backs jarmar Julien, Deoncé Whitaker and Lamar Ferguson each had at least one 100-plus yard rushing game.
Spartans match 2015 regular season sack total: San José State has 13 quarterback sacks after seven games - the same number the Spartans had a year ago at the end of the regular season. The Spartans added a season-high four sacks in their AutoNation Cure Bowl win to finish 2015 with 17.