SAN José STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL FACT SHEET (Game #1)
San José State vs. Air Force
CEFCU Stadium, San Jose, Calif.
Saturday, October 24, 2020, 7:30 p.m. (PT)
FS1
San José State record: 0-0, 0-0 Mountain West. In 2019, the Spartans finished with a 5-7 overall record and 2-6 in conference action.
Air Force record: 1-0, 0-0 Mountain West. The Falcons opened the season with a 40-7 win over Navy in a non-conference contest on October 3.
Television: FS1 will provide broadcast coverage beginning at 7:30 p.m. (PT). From the FOX studios in Los Angeles, Alex Faust will call the play-by-play and Petros Papadakis will provide commentary. The FS1 telecast begins at 7:30 p.m. (PT).
Play-by-Play Radio Coverage: KDOW (1220 AM, Palo Alto; 95.3 FM, San Francisco), is the 2020 flagship radio station for San Jose State University football. Justin Allegri calls the play-by-play. Kevin Richardson provides commentary. The Air Force broadcast begins at 7:00 p.m. (PT) with a pregame show.
KSJS (90.5FM, San Jose) also will carry a play-by-play broadcast of the San Jose State-Air Force football game. Air time is 7:15 p.m. (PT) with a pregame show.
Weekly Press Conference: The weekly San José State football Zoom press conference is on Mondays at 1:00 p.m. (PT). The Zoom press conference will be archived at sjsuspartans.com.
Brent Brennan Show On Facebook Live: The Brent Brennan Show will be shared weekly on Twitter and Facebook. All shows will be available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Google podcast.
Series history: Air Force leads the series, 4-1. The Falcons have wins in the last three games including a 41-24 decision in Colorado Springs in 2019. San Jose State's first win in the series was a 25-22 triumph in CEFCU Stadium on October 25, 1997. That night, Air Force committed five turnovers fumbling three times and quarterback Beau Morgan was intercepted twice.
The 2020 San Jose State-Air Force game marks the second time the Spartans open a season against the Falcons. In San José State's 1996 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) debut, Air Force hosted San Jose State and won, 45-0.
Season openers: The 2019 season marked the first time since 2015 San Jose State won its season-opening game. The Spartans defeated Northern Colorado, 35-18.
The last time San Jose State opened a season at home against a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponent was in 1995 with Stanford emerging with a 47-33 victory.
The last time San Jose State won a home season opener against a FBS team was a 14-0 victory over New Mexico State in 1984.
Since 1965, the Spartans opened a season at home eight times against a current FBS team and have a record of 3-3-2.
Latest start to a season: The October 24 starting date for the 2020 San Jose State football team is the latest on the calendar in school history. The last time the Spartans began a season in October was in 1936 when the University of San Francisco posted a 13-0 victory in Spartan Stadium. The 1936 Spartans would go on to finish with a 5-4 win-loss record.
Previously, the latest starting date to a San Jose State football season was on October 21, 1921 when the opening game was against San Jose High School. That game was San Jose State's first contest after going 17 years without sponsoring a college football program.
In a select group: With its 34-29 win over Army in 2019, San Jose State became the 20th school to record a victory over each of the three Football Bowl Subdivision United States service academies - Air Force, Army West Point, and Navy. The Spartans have one win over each service academy winning on the road at Navy (2012) and Army West Point (2019) and at home versus Air Force (1997).
Aiming for two in a row at home: San José State closed out the 2019 season with a 17-16 victory over Mountain West rival Fresno State. The Spartans have their next opportunity to win back-to-back games for the first time since defeating UNLV at home and winning at Wyoming in the 2014 season. The last time San José State won consecutive home games was in 2016 with victories over Nevada and UNLV.
Coordinator continuity: For the first time since the 1987 through 1989 seasons, San Jose State has the same head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator in three consecutive seasons. Brent Brennan and Derrick Odum enter their fourth season as head coach and defensive coordinator, respectively. Kevin McGiven joined the staff in 2018 as the offensive coordinator.
Potential first-time starters: Based on the October 17 depth chart, four Spartans have a chance to make their first San José State in the Air Force game.
Though quarterback Nick Starkel made 10 starts combined at his previous schools, Texas A&M and Arkansas, the October 24 opener vs. Air Force could be his first in a Spartan uniform. The same would be true if Nick Nash started the game at quarterback for the Spartans.
Defensively, community college transfer Jay Kakiva is listed as the #1 nose tackle. Freshmen Charlie Bostic tops one cornerback position and Elijah Fischer is listed as the punter.
Click on the link for the complete San Jose State University football weekly release.
