San Jose State football hasn’t been this busy around the holidays in over 36 years. That was the last time the program played in bowl games in back-to-back seasons.
These Spartans not only have matched that feat, but Saturday’s Hawaii Bowl is SJSU’s third bowl game in four years — a first in the history of the program.
But Brent Brennan’s squad has more than history on its mind as it prepares to face Coastal Carolina. (The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Pacific and will be broadcast on ESPN and 860 AM.)
The Spartans have won six straight after a 1-5 start, a run that vaulted them into a three-way tie for first place in the Mountain West. But the Spartans were the odd-team out when a computer picked Boise State and UNLV to play in the conference championship.
A trip to the islands isn’t a bad consolation prize for the Spartans, but they have their sights on making one more statement about how far this team has come this season.
“We’re going into this game and we want to win,” senior safety Tre Jenkins said. “Not even win close. We want to dominate. Especially because we just got a bad taste in our mouth not going to the (Mountain West Championship). We just want to go out there and prove that we were definitely worth it to go out there and compete with Boise.”
Overall, SJSU is 7-5 in bowl games in its history. The Spartans’ last win was in 2015 when they beat Georgia State in the Cure Bowl.
In his seven seasons as SJSU’s head coach, Brennan has yet to win a bowl game in two tries. He is the first coach in Spartan history to make it to three bowl games.
In 2020, Brennan lost his first bowl game appearance against Ball State in the Arizona Bowl, though many of the team’s players and coaches didn’t travel after contracting COVID-19. In the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in 2022, Brennan and the Spartans fell to Eastern Michigan after going up 13 in the first quarter.
Brennan hopes that the momentum the Spartans built over their six-game winning streak will carry over into Saturday.
“I think what these young men did the last half of the season was really, really special,” Brennan said. “I think them being rewarded with going to a bowl game is just awesome.”
Trying to achieve a bowl win this weekend won’t be easy. The Chanticleers, who also went 7-5 during the regular season, have quietly been one of the top mid-major teams in the country for the last ten years.
Coastal Carolina has only been an FBS school for six years and a college football program for 20. From 2004-2015, the Chanticleers won six conference titles in the Big South Conference before leaving for the Sun Belt Conference in 2017.
While some teams go through an adjusting period after moving conferences, Coastal Carolina’s dominance only continued. Just three seasons after entering the Sun Belt, the Chanticleers won the conference in 2020 as they finished 11-1 and were ranked No. 14 in the AP poll to end the season under then-head coach Jamey Chadwell.
After Chadwell took the head coaching job at Liberty, Coastal Carolina hired North Carolina State quarterbacks coach Tim Beck who led the Chanticleers to seven wins in his first year this season.
In the last four seasons, Coastal Carolina has finished with at least seven wins or more and have made a bowl game in each.
“Coastal Carolina has been an awesome football team for a while now,” Brennan said. “They’ve done a really good job. They’ve got great personnel and they play extremely hard.”
Opponents shorthanded
This year, Coastal Carolina looked poised to be a conference title contender as it was picked to finish third in the Sun Belt Conference East Division. The Chanticleers were returning fifth-year quarterback Grayson McCall and the team went on a five-game winning streak in the middle of the season that helped them get to the bowl eligibility.
But after McCall got injured in the seventh game of the season, the Chanticleers struggled to find consistency towards the end of the year. McCall’s back up, Jarrett Guest, played just one game before he ended up on the injury list which forced redshirt freshman Ethan Vasko into action.
“It’s been a next-man-up mentality for our guys, whoever’s been in there,” Beck said.
The Chanticleers finished the regular season with back-to-back losses at Army and to James Madison at home.
The end of the regular season only got worse for Coastal Carolina as 19 players entered the transfer portal including McCall and Guest.
Despite the losses to the portal, SJSU defensive coordinator Derrick Odum still believes the offense will not look much different than what they were earlier in the season.
“They put up a lot of numbers,” Odum said. “I know they’ve gone through a couple of quarterbacks, but even the guys who come in, they feel that they bring their own special ingredient to their offense.”
Playmakers on defense
The Chanticleers boast an aggressive defensive front that produced the second-most sacks (16) in the conference this season. Coastal Carolina’s secondary also forced 14 interceptions which was second in the Sun Belt.
“They got athletes,” said SJSU quarterback Chevan Cordeiro who’s playing his final game in his home state. “Their D-line loves to hustle and run to the ball. Their secondary is fast and they have speed.”
The Chanticleers will have to face an SJSU offense who has averaged 242 rushing yards per game behind All Mountain West First Team selection Kairee Robinson. Cordeiro played a big role in the offense as well, ending his 2023 regular season third on the Mountain West career passing yards list (11,976) and fourth in passing touchdowns (87)
The Spartans ended the year with the third-highest scoring offense in the country, averaging over 33 points per game.
Filling in the holes
SJSU lost two starters this week to the transfer portal in left tackle Fernando Carmona Jr. (Arkansas) and tight end Dominick Mazott (Umass).
Redshirt sophomore Malik Williams (6-foot-5, 307 pounds) took first team reps in practice the last two weeks and should get the nod on Saturday.
With Mazotti’s departure, SJSU has turned to senior tight end Skylar Loving-Black to take over the second tight end spot in the offense. This won’t be the first time Loving-Black has been called upon this season as he did start three games at tight end #2 when Mazotti was elevated as a starter following Sam Olson’s injury earlier this season.
