Nevada Sports Net columnist Chris Murray breaks down Nevada\u2019s football game against San Jose State on Saturday at Mackay Stadium with a position-by-position analysis.<\/p>\n
San Jose State (3-6, 2-3 MW) at Nevada (1-8, 0-5)<\/p>\n
When: Saturday, 12:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Where: Mackay Stadium (capacity 27,000)<\/p>\n
Surface: FieldTurf<\/p>\n
Weather: High of 54; low of 40; 25 percent chance of rain<\/p>\n
TV\/Radio: CBS Sports Network\/105.7 FM (also on the Varsity Network)<\/p>\n
Online: None<\/p>\n
Betting line: San Jose State favored by 9.5; total of 52.5<\/p>\n
All-time series: Nevada leads, 23-12-2<\/p>\n
Last matchup: San Jose State won 35-31 on Oct. 5, 2024 (in San Jose)<\/p>\n
Position-by-position<\/p>\n
Quarterback: SJSU\u2019s Walker Eget leads the FBS with 2,941 passing yards with 17 touchdowns against only five interceptions. He\u2019s dealt with a shoulder injury and missed some of last week\u2019s game, so that\u2019s something to monitor. But he\u2019s been one of the MW\u2019s most effective offensive players. Nevada will stick with true freshman Carter Jones under center despite his struggles over the last month. Edge: SJSU<\/p>\n
Running backs: SJSU plays two young backs in sophomore Lamar Radcliffe (319 yards, 5.2 ypc) and freshman Steve Chavez-Soto (300 yards, 5.4 ypc, seven TDs). They\u2019re not hugely featured in this pass-heavy offense but are solid. Nevada doesn\u2019t have a back who\u2019s hit 400 yards this season despite running the ball 63 percent of the time. Herschel Turner Jr. exited last week\u2019s game with injury. Edge: SJSU<\/p>\n
Wide receivers\/tight ends: This is the most lopsided edge in the game with SJSU\u2019s Danny Scudero leading the nation with 1,126 yards. He\u2019s caught 68 balls, including 10 touchdowns. If you focus too much on him, Kyri Shoels (52\/680\/2) and Purdue transfer Leland Smith (37\/643\/3) can hurt you. Nevada doesn\u2019t get the same pop from its wideouts, but TE Jett Carpenter (26\/286\/1) has been solid. Edge: SJSU<\/p>\n
Offensive line: SJSU has allowed only eight sacks in 386 pass attempts, partially a result of its quick-throw scheme and partially a result of the quality of the offensive line. The team also averages 4.7 yards per carry. The starting five includes two Weber State transfers and a Utah State import. Nevada\u2019s line has taken injury blows to Zach Cochnauer, Hadine Diaby and Snoop Leota-Amaama. Edge: SJSU<\/p>\n
Defensive line: SJSU\u2019s three-man front is a strong group that\u2019s held foes to 3.8 yards per carry. NG Gafa Faga sets the tone with Utah transfer Vili Taufatofua posting four sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss. Nevada\u2019s line has been its strength this season, but the tackles for loss and sacks have shriveled up in recent games. The run defense has been good of late, but Nevada must get a pass rush on Eget. Edge: Nevada<\/p>\n
Linebackers: Jordan Pollard of SJSU is one of the MW\u2019s elite linebackers. He had 71 tackles, 3.5 TFLs, 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble this season. Taniela Latu is good, too, and has chipped in 56 tackles, five TFLs, a sack, an interception and a forced fumble. For Nevada, Nakian Jackson has earned an enhanced role in recent games and is coming off back-to-back outings with double-digit tackles (14 and 12). Edge: SJSU<\/p>\n
Secondary: SJSU lost a ton of secondary talent to transfer and has not recovered. The Spartans are allowing opponents to complete 64.5 percent of their passes for 281 yards per game. SJSU ranks 123rd out of 136 FBS teams in pass efficiency defense. Six of SJSU\u2019s eight FBS foes have passed for at least 300 yards. Nevada\u2019s secondary has been iffy and now gets its toughest test of the year. Edge: Nevada<\/p>\n
Special teams: The Spartans have a field-goal kicker issue having made just 10-of-18 field goals (and also missing an extra point). P Trent Carrizosa (47.2 yards per attempt) is elite, although he sometimes out-boots his coverage. SJSU also has some dangerous return men. Nevada\u2019s group produced a blocked punt last week and has generally been at least average despite the return game being so-so. Edge: Nevada<\/p>\n
Coaching: SJSU head coach Ken Niumatalolo has won 119 FBS games at a 56 percent clip, although he\u2019s not gotten everything possible out of his roster this season. Craig Stutzmann does a good job at offensive coordinator. Defensive line coach Al Lapuaho worked at Nevada under Ken Wilson. Wolf Pack head coach Jeff Choate looks for his first MW win after starting 0-12 against league foes. Edge: SJSU<\/p>\n
Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter at @ByChrisMurray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nevada Sports Net columnist Chris Murray breaks down Nevada\u2019s football game against San Jose State on Saturday at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[33352,13389,33350,21271,11491,88,90,89,996,30453,33351],"class_list":["post-52695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-defensive-line","tag-mountain-west","tag-nevada-football","tag-offensive-line","tag-quarterback","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-state","tag-special-teams","tag-wide-receivers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52695","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=52695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}