Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order.
The San Jose State Spartans won only 2 games in 2009, a season that would see long time coach Dick Tomey announce his retirement. Opening losses to USC and Utah set a tone that would be difficult to turn around, and the Spartans finished tied for last in the league with just one 1-A victory.
2010 offers at least a chance for improvement. 7 offensive starters return, including the QB and RB, as do six defensive players from the starting lineup. New coach Mike MacIntyre was able to retain the defensive coordinator and other members of the staff, so SJSU may have a less tumultuous re-engineering than some of the other schools with coaching changeover.
Schedule
9/4/2010 at Alabama
9/11/2010 at Wisconsin
9/18/2010 Southern Utah
9/25/2010 Utah
10/2/2010 UC Davis
10/9/2010 at Nevada
10/16/2010 Boise State
10/23/2010 Fresno State
10/30/2010 at New Mexico State
11/13/2010 Utah State
11/20/2010 at Hawaii
11/27/2010 Louisiana Tech
12/4/2010 at Idaho
San Jose State comes off of one of the most difficult non-BCS schedules last year…and makes it worse. Alabama, Wisconsin, and Utah out of conference to go along with Boise State and the rest of the WAC (that’s #1, 5, 13, and 24 on the preseason poll, if you’re counting). They do have two games against 1-AA opposition, made possible by the Hawaii 13 game rule, although only one can count toward bowl eligibility.
Coaching
Mike MacIntyre comes to San Jose from Duke, where he was defensive coordinator. Prior to that, he spent time in the NFL and at Ole Miss as a defensive coach. He replaces the retiring Dick Tomey, who ends a head coaching career that dates back to 1977 and includes a Fiesta Bowl win with Arizona.
Rankings
Both the WAC media and coaches selected SJSU to finish last in the WAC this year.
Outlook
Given the schedule, MacIntyre can begin his head coaching career with modest (at best) expectations. The biggest disadvantage to the schedule though is the limited opportunity to demonstrate improvement- they could be twice as good as last year’s team, but that won’t show through against Alabama and Boise State. And as we observed in the NM State profile, the bottom half of the WAC looks to be stronger this year than last. Bearing in mind the two 1-AA games, I think four wins total will be as much as the Spartans can hope for.
San Jose State Connections
SpartanBlitz – Independent message board
SJSUInsider – Scout message board
Mercury News – San Jose coverage of the Spartans