{"id":467087,"date":"2026-09-17T19:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467087\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T19:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:30:18","slug":"what-is-different-about-san-jose-states-game-against-fresno-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467087\/","title":{"rendered":"What is different about San Jose State’s game against Fresno State"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 89th edition of the Battle for the Valley will have different stakes from the last dozen games between San Jose State and Fresno State.<\/p>\n

In a series that dates to 1921 (a 14-2 San Jose State victory), the teams have played each other as members of a half-dozen conferences, including the Mountain West, the WAC, the Big West and the California Coast Conference.<\/p>\n

But Saturday night at CEFCU Stadium will be the Spartans\u2019 first nonconference matchup against Fresno State since 1994, after the Bulldogs left the Mountain West to join the new-look Pac-12.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/a>San Jose State players celebrate with fans after a 62-52 victory against Fresno State in an NCAA college football game on Friday, Nov. 29, 2013, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo\/Tony Avelar)<\/p>\n

The Spartans have won two straight since opening the season with a 42-26 loss at USC. After the Bulldogs\u2019 visit San Jose State gets a bye before opening conference play at Hawaii on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a huge game for us. It\u2019s a rivalry game (and then) going into conference play we want to continue that positive trend that we\u2019re going in,\u201d Spartans head coach Ken Niumatalolo said. \u201cI know it\u2019s going to be hard, but I think this will be monumental for us for the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second-year Fresno State head coach Matt Entz\u2019s roots are in the Midwest, but he has quickly embraced the regional rivalry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways excited,\u201d said Entz, who had the Battle for the Valley trophy on display during practice this week to \u201ccontinually remind our kids what\u2019s up for grabs. Winning bright, shiny objects is a cool thing in college football, so it\u2019s our goal to be as competitive as we can and hopefully bring that thing home with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spartans entered the season with 48 new players, making this the first time many have participated in this storied rivalry. Fresno State holds a 46-39-3 all-time edge and has won the past two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a lot of new guys coming in their first time playing Fresno, and some of those guys don\u2019t know what it means in this rivalry to hold that Valley Trophy,\u201d SJSU veteran defensive lineman Justin Stearns said. \u201cIt\u2019s really special. I think it\u2019s going to be great winning as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stearns is one of the few SJSU players remaining from the 2023 roster, the most recent SJSU team to win the Valley Trophy.<\/p>\n

\"Fresno<\/a>Fresno State offensive lineman Bula Schmidt holds up the Valley trophy after defeating San Jose State during the second half of an NCAA college football game in Fresno, Calif., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (AP Photo\/Gary Kazanjian)<\/p>\n

The Spartans (2-1) enter this game with their first winning record since 2024. The Bulldogs (1-1) are coming off a win against Sacramento State.<\/p>\n

So far this season, the Spartans have relied on running back Jabari Bates. In last week\u2019s win over Cal Poly, SJSU finished with more rushing yards than passing yards in a game for the first time in the Niumatalolo era.<\/p>\n

Bates is third in the nation with 319 rushing yards and is the first Spartan to rush for back-to-back 100-yard games since Kairee Robinson did it in four straight games during the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

SJSU wide receivers Cooper Hoch and Carson Clark have become the Spartans\u2019 most reliable targets. Hoch leads the team with 216 receiving yards, while Clark, a true freshman, has 213.<\/p>\n

Hoch, who was a walk-on in 2023, leads the team with three touchdowns this season and will enter his fourth matchup against the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played them three times. I know there are a couple of dudes that haven\u2019t seen them at all, and they don\u2019t understand how big the game is and how much we don\u2019t like them and they don\u2019t like us,\u201d Hoch said. \u201cTheir fans don\u2019t like us, and our fans don\u2019t like them. It\u2019s going to be a dogfight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither team scored a point in the first quarter this season, so starting fast could help the Spartans get a leg up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to make it that big of a deal, and then it becomes one of those glitches in your offense,\u201d SJSU offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann said. \u201cI can say, in years past, we started off very fast, and we couldn\u2019t finish. I\u2019d rather take an offense that, when it\u2019s crunch time, it finds a way to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

SJSU and Fresno State each opened their season playing USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. SJSU lost 42-26 in Week 0 after being shut out in the first half and rallying in the second half, while Fresno lost 39-0 in its Week 1 matchup against the Trojans.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/a>San Jose State Spartans\u2019 Cooper Hoch (13) celebrates scoring a touchdown with San Jose State Spartans\u2019 Lavaka Taukeiaho (72), San Jose State Spartans\u2019 Carson Clark (1), and San Jose State Spartans\u2019 Jabari Bates (6) against the Cal Poly Mustangs during the third quarter at CEFCU Stadium in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The Spartans\u2019 offense produced 336 yards of total offense while the Bulldogs managed just 155 against the Trojans. Fresno State quarterback Jayden Mandal made his first start after suffering a season-ending injury last year.<\/p>\n

Fresno State\u2019s rushing attack will be another test for the Spartans\u2019 defense, which has held strong so far this season, allowing 3.84 yards per carry.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs\u2019 offense starts with running back Bryson Donelson, who averages 6.1 yards per carry and has scored three touchdowns already this season.<\/p>\n

SJSU\u2019s defense has an interception in every game this season and will look to keep that momentum.<\/p>\n

SJSU will look to clean up the undisciplined errors that haunted them in last week\u2019s win against Cal Poly. SJSU has 18 penalties for 155 yards over the past two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to do a better job of getting us to play more disciplined, especially next week obviously, with a rivalry game incoming. We gotta be smarter, but I\u2019m proud of our guys finding ways to win,\u201d Niumatalolo said after the win last weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 89th edition of the Battle for the Valley will have different stakes from the last dozen games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[7,1471,1327,112,114,113,266,198,127],"class_list":["post-467087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-california","tag-central-coast","tag-college-sports","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-northern-california","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}