SAN JOSE, CALIF. >> For one day, former football teammates are frenemies.

Hawaii head coach Timmy Chang and San Jose State offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann were a quarterback-receiver duo at Saint Louis School and then at UH.

Stutzmann and UH associate head coach Chris Brown were Warriors together through the early 2000s. When Stutzmann was named Saint Louis’ junior varsity coach, one of his first hires was Brown.

“He gave me my first coaching job,” Brown recalled. “He’s a friend of mine. He’s a brother.”

SJSU head coach Kenny Niumatalolo and assistant coaches John Estes and Billy Ray Stutzmann are former Warriors. Niumatalolo owns a house less than a mile from UH’s Manoa campus.

But the pleasantries will have to wait until the final whistle of today’s meeting between UH and SJSU at CEFCU Stadium.

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“We always root for Hawaii when we’re not playing Hawaii,” Niumatalolo said. “We have four Rainbow Warriors on our staff: me, Craig, Billy and John — we bleed green. That’s our school. But for this game, we want to beat them and they want to beat us.”

Brown, who also coaches UH’s linebackers, said: “It’s about accomplishing the mission. We’re on a mission. After the game, we can shake hands and talk about the good ol’ days. Craig Stutzmann and I go way back. He’s a good friend of mine. But he knows me. He knows what I’m telling this football team. The mission is the mission. War is war.”

After byes last week, the teams enter on different tracks. At 6-2, the Warriors have earned the minimum number of victories in a 12-game regular season to qualify for a postseason bowl. But in an impassioned speech to teammates on Thursday, nickelback Elijah Palmer said being bowl eligible was only one step toward a larger goal.

“That’s a given,” Palmer said of assuring a bowl berth. “Our mission is to win the Mountain West championship. That’s what the vision is. That’s the mind-set. That’s what we’re striving for.”

By practicing on Thursday at the Ching Complex ahead of their departure to San Jose, the Warriors were able to do a dry run of their game plan using a full roster of scout players.

On Friday, the Warriors had a run-through session at Del Mar High School in San Jose. After that, they did a team walk at CEFCU Stadium in advance of an evening of meetings and video sessions.

“You want them continuously growing,” Chang said of the Warriors, who are third at 3-1 in the 12-team Mountain West. The top two teams play for the MW title.

“We don’t want to look back,” Chang said. “We want to keep moving forward.”

The 2-5 Spartans have a prolific offense featuring a quarterback (Walker Eget) who has not been intercepted in the past five games and the NCAA leader (Danny Scudero) in receiving yards (870) and receiving yards per game (124.3).

“We’re literally four plays away from being 6-1,” Niumatalolo said. “We’ve got to find ways to close games.”

Texas overpowered SJSU from the opening kickoff to the final kneeldown. But the Spartans had fourth-quarter leads in the other six games, squandering four of them. Of their four non-Texas losses, the average margin was 3.75 points.

“We have to find a way to make one more play,” Niumatalolo said. “We still have a lot to play for. We need to win four of five to become bowl eligible. I love this team. I hope we can make a run.”

In his second year as SJSU’s head coach, Niumatalolo has instilled uniformity and discipline. On road trips, the team eats every meal together. During games and workouts, the Spartans are not allowed to have piercings, wear jewelry or write messages on their wristbands. There are no restrictions on off-the-field accessories.

He also has entrusted the offense to Stutzmann, creator of the hybrid spread-and-shred attack.

“I’ve been a head coach 17 years and been a coach for 36 years,” Niumatalolo said. “I’ve seen a lot of coaches, been around a lot of head coaches. … I can’t tell you how many really good coaches I’ve been around. My point is: Stutz is a head coach. There’s no doubt he’s going to be a Division I head coach. He’s as good a coach as I’ve been around. His time will come. I’ve been around a lot other coaches, and Craig is as good as any of them.”