San Jose State Spartans 2009 Football Betting Preview

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San Jose State 2008 Record: (6-6, 4-4)
San Jose State 2008 Bowl: none
San Jose State Coach: Dick Tomey (23-25 at San Jose State, 181-135-7 overall)
San Jose State Offensive Coordinator: Steve Morton
San Jose State Defensive Coordinator: Keith Burns
San Jose State Returning Stats Leaders:

• Rushing: Brandon Rutley, RB, 356 yards
• Passing: Kyle Reed, QB, 1,563 yards
• Receiving: Terrance Williams, WR, 288 yards
• Tackles: Travis Jones, LB, 72
• Sacks: Carl Ihenacho, DE, 7.0
• Interceptions: Duke Ihenacho, LB, 5

Notable San Jose State Returning Players: C Ronnie Castillo, LB Justin Cole, DT Adonis Davis, G Ailao Eliapo, OT John Konye, G Isaac Leatiota, DE Mohamed Marah, OT Jon Moreno, S Devin Newsome

San Jose State Key Losses: TE Jeff Clark, S Kyle Flynn, CB Coye Francies, DT Jarron Gilbert, RB Yonus Davis, CB Christopher Owens, WR David Richmond, K Jared Strubeck

The Spartans were my pick to finish last in the entire conference last fall. Well, they proved me wrong by finishing with a 4-4 conference mark and a 6-6 record overall. In fact, only a 3 game losing streak to close the year prevented the Spartans from their 2 nd bowl appearance in three seasons. With fifteen starters back, they’ll be looking to improve upon last year’s strong showing.

On offense, the Spartans will try to improve a very poor unit which scored less than 19 points per game! Luckily, there are eight starters back and the offense should see some improvement with another year’s experience. At quarterback, Cal transfer Kyle Reed will look to improve upon his 1,500+ yards and 9 touchdowns from last season, his first as the starter. Reed’s receivers are an interesting bunch as no one was super productive in 2009 but five players return with double digit catches. I would expect to see some solid improvement from this group and Reed should definitely find some playmakers. At tailback, there is a hodgepodge group competing for the starting job, with the favorite being junior college transfer Lamon Muldrow, who ran for nearly 3,000 yards in two years before arriving in the spring. I expect the Spartans’ pathetic running attack from the last two years, during which they’ve averaged 85 rush yards per game, to be much improved this year. The return of the entire offensive line should also help. While this is the same cast of characters which blocked for such rushing ineptitude the last two years, there is a lot to be said for experience and the Spartans should find a solid group quickly. I cannot imagine San Jose State struggling so badly on the ground again this fall and I think that the Spartans’ offense will be the conference’s most improved. Then again, that isn’t saying much considering that they were among the country’s worst in 2008.

Defensively, it was a much brighter picture last year. The Spartans only allowed 21.5 points per game and were excellent against the pass. Head Coach Dick Tomey should once more field a solid group with six of the front seven back. The Ihenacho brothers (senior Carl at DE was a 2 nd team All-WAC choice while junior Duke was a 1 st team All-WAC choice) should once more be a force as they combined for 130 tackles, 7 sacks and 17 tackles for a loss last year. Senior linebackers Travis Jones and Justin Cole should join them as the heart of the unit and I expect a much improved run defense this fall as the Spartans might be the best team in the conference up front. The secondary is much more of a concern as they lose two All-WAC choices at cornerback, both of whom were NFL draft choices in April. The lone holdover is junior safety Devin Newsome, who did account for 59 tackles and 2 picks last year. However, it is tough to imagine the Spartans fielding such an excellent pass defense once more with the losses of two All-Conference NFL caliber corners. Despite the losses in the secondary, San Jose State still should be one of the conference’s better defenses.

The schedule is perhaps the biggest impediment to success for SJSU this year. The conference schedule is tough, with back to back road games at Fresno State and Boise State coming immediately before hosting Nevada, a stretch that will decide their season. Furthermore, they have to travel to Louisiana Tech to close out the year. In short, the Spartans have all but one of their toughest conference tests on the road. The non-conference schedule is also very tough as they must travel to Pac-10 foes USC and Stanford and host last year’s BCS darling Utah in the season’s first three weeks. While I like the Spartans to have a much improved offense and another solid defense, it seems very unlikely that they’ll manage to make a run at the conference title. Furthermore, they will need to exceed my expectations to even qualify for a bowl game as their non-conference schedule is particularly difficult. Despite the apparent improvement overall, if San Jose State matches last year’s 6-6 mark then I will have to call 2009 a successful year.

San Jose State Big Games: Sept. 5th @ USC, Oct. 17th @ Fresno State, Oct. 31st @ Boist State, Nov. 8th vs. Nevada, Dec. 5th @ Louisiana Tech

San Jose State ‘s Strength:

The Spartans sported one of the best defenses in the Western Athletic Conference in 2008 and that should not change in 2009. The talented group in the middle of the field returns all three starters, led by do-it-all Duke Ihenacho. The 6-1 junior tallied 66 tackles, five tackles-for-loss and five interceptions last season. Now that he is an upperclassman, Ihenacho will be the leader of the unit. Yet, Travis Jones was the team’s leading tackler last year and Justin Cole is a fine tackler and does a great job getting into the opponents backfield. Those three by themselves are good, but together they are great. Ihenacho helps out in pass coverage, Cole gets pressure on the quarterback and Jones is a tackling machine. The front four returns three starters and Carl Ihenacho is a superb end, but this team will probably not rank 11 th in the nation again in sacks without Jarron Gilbert. The secondary has similar losses with Coye Francies and fellow corner Christopher Owens and safety Kyle Flynn, but there are talented, albeit less experienced, players ready to fill the void.

San Jose State ‘s Weakness:

If the offense was a little better, SJSU would have won seven or eight games last year. However, there is some hope for improvement. Quarterback Kyle Reed is now an experienced senior. He will make some mistakes, but generally Reed is an efficient quarterback. He will not win games on his own, but as long as he does not lose them either the Spartans will be happy. The offensive line gave up a slew of sacks so Reed’s lack of production is not all his fault. And even David Richmond, who seemed to catch every pass Reed threw, is gone. The line returns all five starters for better or worse, but who is going to catch the ball? Terrance Williams only caught 22 passes for 288 yards a year ago and he was second to Richmond in receiving yards last year. Somebody better step up or Reed will be in for a long year.

Our Prediction for the 2009 Spartans:

Reed, if he can keep the quarterback job, will be in more trouble if the ground game does not improve. Yonus Davis was the best ball carrier on the team last year and he is gone and that leaves Brandon Rutley as the likely candidate to carry the load. Coach Dick Tomey always prides himself on defense, but this team can only go so far on defense alone. Somebody, somewhere has to emerge as a playmaker on the other side of the ball if San Jose State wants to get back to a bowl game.

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