Hey, team. Tessa Nakagawa-Ruiz here, product manager by day, Spartan superfan by every other hour, writing from a standing desk in downtown San Jose with a whiteboard of sprint tickets behind me. I treat every SJSU season like a product launch. Every game is a release. Every release gets a retro. And when something works, we ship it to prod.
This week's sprint review looks at Saturday's 24-11 win at UTEP, which shipped clean, and the next release: a trip to Reno to play a Nevada team that, per its own program history, was founded on Oct. 24, 1896. Happy birthday, Wolf Pack. We brought you a present. It's a loss. (Respectfully. One hundred thirty years is a great run, and that's per Nevada's own program history: it started as the Sagebrushers.)
Part 1: Release Notes, San José State 24, UTEP 11
On Oct. 17 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Viliami Teu ran for 156 yards and two touchdowns, and SJSU beat UTEP 24-11.
The first feature shipped early. Daniel Rolovich capped a nine-play, 80-yard drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Carson Clark with 7:59 left in the first quarter. Then the second half opened with a five-play, 75-yard drive, and Teu scored from 2 yards. About eight minutes later, Teu broke a 67-yard touchdown run, and SJSU led 21-0. Trajan Sinatra added a 26-yard field goal early in the fourth.
Release notes. Teu: 20 carries, 156 yards, 7.8 per carry, two touchdowns. Rolovich: 12 of 23 for 193 yards and a touchdown, no interceptions, plus 39 rushing yards. Clark: five catches for 104 yards. SJSU ran for 233 yards at 6.7 per carry and had zero turnovers. Dylan Lee made 12 tackles with two sacks. Brian Dukes Jr. and Naseri Danielson each made 10 tackles.
Now the bug report, because a retro that only lists wins isn't a retro. UTEP outgained SJSU 462 to 426 and held the ball for 35:17. The Miners piled up 27 first downs to our 17 and completed 25 of 34 passes. UTEP missed two field goals and went 5-for-16 on third down, which helped us a lot. The defense bent hard. It didn't break, which is the definition of a passing build, but not a clean one.
SJSU is 4-3 and 2-1 in the Mountain West. The release log: a 42-26 loss at USC, a 27-21 win at Eastern Michigan, a 30-20 win over Cal Poly, a 26-10 loss to Fresno State, a 20-16 win at Hawai'i, a 16-13 loss to Wyoming and the UTEP win.
Part 2: San José State at Nevada
Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern, which is 2 p.m. Pacific for both towns, at Mackay Stadium in Reno, streaming on MW+. San José State (4-3, 2-1) at Nevada (2-4, 1-2).
Our Feature Set
Luke Weaver has thrown for 1,529 yards, 11 touchdowns and six interceptions this season. Jabari Bates leads the run game with 556 yards. Clark leads the receivers with 42 catches for 509 yards and five touchdowns. SJSU throws for 246 yards per game, 53rd, and averages 47.3 penalty yards per game, 31st. And SJSU's turnover margin is even, 68th, which beats Nevada's by a lot.
Their Known Issues
Nevada's turnover margin is minus-8, 134th in FBS. Nevada's red zone defense ranks 127th, allowing opponents to score on 94.4 percent of trips. Ninety-four point four! That's not a firewall. That's an open port. Its run defense allows 184.3 yards per game, 116th, and Teu just ran for 156.
And last week at North Dakota State, Nevada led 11-0 in the second quarter and then gave up a touchdown pass with 21 seconds left in the half and, on the final play of the half, a 100-yard return of a missed field goal. Nevada's offense threw two interceptions and held the ball for just 21:51. Its passing game ranks 122nd at 171.8 yards per game.
Their Strengths, Honestly
Nevada's pass defense is legitimately good, allowing just 155.3 yards per game, seventh in FBS. And opponents convert only 32.6 percent of their third downs against it, 29th. Dominic Kelley is a real runner, with 500 yards on 87 carries, and Nevada runs for 192.8 per game, 37th.
Our honest bug: SJSU converts only 34.4 percent of its third downs, 111th, and scores 21.4 points per game, 111th. Our pass defense allows 240.9 per game, 111th. Both teams rank near the bottom in time of possession: Nevada is 133rd at 26:55, and SJSU is 135th at 26:41. Expect a fast build.
Version History
CollegeFootballData.com lists Nevada ahead 21-8. SJSU won 35-31 in 2024. Nevada won 55-10 last season, which I have filed as a critical bug and assigned to this Saturday for a fix.
Town Report: San Jose vs. Reno
San Jose. San Jose was founded on Nov. 29, 1777, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first city founded in the Californias. After statehood, San Jose served as California's first state capital. The 1990 census showed San Jose had passed San Francisco in population, and in 2020 the city counted 1,013,240 people. In 1988, Mayor Tom McEnery adopted the motto "Capital of Silicon Valley." We have the Tech Interactive, the Children's Discovery Museum and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.
And SJSU football has sent 139 players to the NFL, including Pro Football Hall of Famers Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil. Our home field, CEFCU Stadium, opened in 1933 as Spartan Stadium.
Reno. Reno had 264,165 people at the 2020 census, sits about 23 miles northeast of Lake Tahoe and is named for Union Gen. Jesse L. Reno. I respect all of that. But here's the bug I found in the code. Reno's famous slogan, "The Biggest Little City in the World," came from a city contest after the first Reno Arch went up in 1926. And per Wikipedia, the winner was G. A. Burns of Sacramento. Sacramento, California! Reno's whole brand was written by a Californian. Team, that's outsourcing.
And "Biggest Little City" is a contradiction in terms. If my engineers shipped a spec that said "biggest little," I'd send it back for clarification. Then again, Reno is also home to the National Bowling Stadium. A national stadium. For bowling. San Jose has the Capital of Silicon Valley. Reno has lanes.
Ship Notes
The plan for Saturday's release: Run Teu and Bates at a run defense that ranks 116th, because Nevada's pass defense is the toughest code in the repo. Finish drives, because Nevada's red zone defense lets opponents score 94 percent of the time. Protect the football against a team that's been giving it away. And the defense has to get off the field on third down, which it didn't do enough of in El Paso.
Clean build. Zero turnovers. Let's go.
One more product note. SJSU has played four of its seven games on the road and won three of them, at Eastern Michigan, at Hawai'i and at UTEP. The only road loss came at USC. This team knows how to travel, and Saturday makes back-to-back road trips. Pack the laptop, pack the charger, and pack a jacket, because Reno sits at about 4,400 feet.
Ship it to prod.
My call: Nevada Wolf Pack 26, San José State Spartans 20.