San Jose State ‘climbed the mountain’ all the way to the Mountain West title game
The No. 25 San Jose State football team has had to take a nomadic approach to its most successful season in recent memory.
The Spartans take on Boise State on Saturday (2:40 p.m. MT, Fox) in their first Mountain West championship game in program history in their temporary home, Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, which was once home to conference rival UNLV.
San Jose State is 6-0 for the first time since 1939 and the Spartans posted their first winning season since 2012, but they’ve had to overcome strict COVID-19 protocols just to practice.
“This is not the college football experience old people like me experienced,” San Jose State coach Brent Brennan told reporters Monday. “This team is amazing at focusing on what we can control and focusing on right now.”
Saturday’s title game is being held in Las Vegas because of a public health order in Santa Clara County, which prohibits all contact sports through Dec. 21. The Spartans also hosted their final regular-season home game — a 30-20 win over Nevada — at Sam Boyd Stadium, which was still decorated with New Mexico logos after the Lobos were forced to host their final two games there because of COVID-19 protocols in their home state.
This isn’t the first time San Jose State was forced to call somewhere else home this year.
When the Mountain West announced in late September there would be a 2020 season, San Jose State had to look elsewhere to host fall camp because of restrictions in Santa Clara. So, the Spartans traveled 323 miles north to Humboldt State University, where they spent almost two weeks prepping for the season.
In honor of the experience, the Spartans will wear an H decal on their helmets Saturday.
“It was a real come-together moment for all of us,” Brennan said. “It was just another example of our team finding ways to overcome.”
The Spartans stayed in the Humboldt dorms and ate in its dining halls. They held practice on the Lumberjacks’ fields, lifted in their weight rooms and used their team meeting rooms, and players attended class virtually.
Brennan said coaches patrolled the hallways of the dorm making sure players stayed on top of their studies, and overall, he called it a positive experience.
“It’s just been this incredible journey of ups and downs,” Brennan said of the season. “We can’t control the spiking COVID cases in the country, but we said if we want to keep playing, this is what we have to do and the players just attacked it.”
It was an example of the Spartans climbing the mountain — an expression Brennan said the team started using during spring practice, which lasted just three days before the players were sent home March 13.
“You don’t climb a mountain in one single bound,” Brennan said. “You do it a step at a time.”
San Jose State finished the 2017 season with a 2-11 record. The Spartans were 1-11 in 2018 and showed promise last season, finishing 5-7. This fall, the Spartans won six games in a row and they’re ranked in the AP poll for the first time since 2012.
Brennan gave a lot of the credit to his seniors, who endured the lean years and educated the younger players.
“Those seniors have been around. They’ve gone 1-11,” Brennan said. “They really attacked the offseason even though it was the strangest, most unique offseason in the history of college football.”
San Jose State and Boise State (5-1, 5-0 MW) each had two games canceled this fall because of COVID-19, including one against each other. The Spartans made the trip to Boise on Nov. 28 just to find out less than 5 hours before kickoff that the game was canceled.
Brennan said he was just finishing his usual pregame run when he found out and called a team meeting.
“It was a tough day,” he said. “Guys were disappointed. Playing against Boise State, a big opponent on national television, guys were excited to compete.”
Boise State is in the championship game for the fourth year in a row, and the Broncos are looking for their fifth title, which would be the most in conference history. Their four titles are already the most by a current member of the conference and tied with Utah, BYU and TCU.
BOISE STATE VS. SAN JOSE STATE
When: 2:40 p.m. MT Saturday
Where: Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas
TV: Fox (Tim Brando, Spencer Tillman)
Radio: KBOI 670 AM/KTIK 93.1 FM (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)
Records: Boise State 5-1, 5-0 Mountain West; San Jose State 6-0, 6-0
Series: Boise State leads 14-0 (last meeting: Boise State won 52-42 last season in San Jose, California)
Vegas line: Boise State by 6.5
Weather: 55 degrees at kickoff, sunny, 4 mph winds
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 4:00 PM.
