Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 93. San Jose State
"SPARTANS! What is YOUR profession?" - King Leonidas
Ah, San Jose State. The Bay Area’s Group of 5 team. I’ve visited their campus many times, and they’ve been good to me, so I’ll try to be good to them. Located in a talent hotbed, SJSU gets access to the Bay Area’s best leftover/overlooked players. Famous alumni include Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil, and John Elway’s dad, Jack, was the coach from 1979-1983. Solid NFL players include QBs Jeff Garcia and Steve DeBerg, and 5x All-Pro CB Louis Wright.
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+----------------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+----------------+------+--------------+--------+
| 16 | San Jose State | 2012 | 26.289 | 11-2 |
| 14 | San Jose State | 1990 | 25.042 | 9-2-1 |
| 18 | San Jose State | 2020 | 20.87 | 7-1 |
| 18 | San Jose State | 1986 | 19.139 | 10-2 |
| 23 | San Jose State | 1987 | 14.639 | 10-2 |
| 44 | San Jose State | 1991 | -2.934 | 6-4-1 |
| 50 | San Jose State | 2006 | -3.378 | 9-4 |
| 50 | San Jose State | 1992 | -7.257 | 7-4 |
| 63 | San Jose State | 2000 | -10.13 | 7-5 |
| 70 | San Jose State | 2022 | -10.65 | 7-5 |
| 59 | San Jose State | 1989 | -11.221 | 6-5 |
| 63 | San Jose State | 1984 | -12.3 | 6-5 |
| 76 | San Jose State | 2013 | -12.703 | 6-6 |
| 59 | San Jose State | 1983 | -14.76 | 5-6 |
| 84 | San Jose State | 2008 | -21.992 | 6-6 |
| 88 | San Jose State | 2015 | -24.245 | 6-7 |
| 90 | San Jose State | 2011 | -24.489 | 5-7 |
| 75 | San Jose State | 2002 | -24.502 | 6-7 |
| 98 | San Jose State | 2019 | -26.107 | 5-7 |
| 98 | San Jose State | 2021 | -28.284 | 5-7 |
| 89 | San Jose State | 2007 | -29.05 | 5-7 |
| 85 | San Jose State | 1997 | -33.527 | 4-7 |
| 101 | San Jose State | 2016 | -34.885 | 4-8 |
| 89 | San Jose State | 1998 | -35.16 | 4-8 |
| 88 | San Jose State | 1988 | -36.491 | 4-8 |
| 99 | San Jose State | 1999 | -37.964 | 3-7 |
| 92 | San Jose State | 1995 | -39.421 | 3-8 |
| 95 | San Jose State | 2003 | -40.018 | 3-8 |
| 97 | San Jose State | 1993 | -41.454 | 2-9 |
| 95 | San Jose State | 1985 | -41.772 | 2-8-1 |
| 106 | San Jose State | 2005 | -43.143 | 3-8 |
| 94 | San Jose State | 1994 | -43.416 | 3-8 |
| 100 | San Jose State | 2001 | -45.459 | 3-9 |
| 118 | San Jose State | 2014 | -47.173 | 3-9 |
| 102 | San Jose State | 1996 | -49.875 | 3-9 |
| 114 | San Jose State | 2004 | -53.878 | 2-9 |
| 113 | San Jose State | 2009 | -55.64 | 2-10 |
| 124 | San Jose State | 2018 | -56.185 | 1-11 |
| 117 | San Jose State | 2010 | -61.665 | 1-12 |
| 129 | San Jose State | 2017 | -67.716 | 2-11 |
+------+----------------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: 6107 (93rd)196-268-3 record
5 conference titles
5-3 bowl record
0 consensus All-Americans
30 NFL players drafted
With a similar record to Army, Ohio, and Utah State, SJSU gets the nod over them with 4 seasons finishing in the top 20, and another in the top 25. 4 top 20 finishes is the most of any program on the list so far, combining recent sporadic success with a mini-dynasty in the late 80’s/early 90’s. 5 conference titles is also tied for the most so far with Utah State and Arkansas State. The most well-known SJSU player drafted since 1983 is probably former Packers WR James Jones.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 2017 (2-11 overall, 1-7 Mountain West)
Brent Brennan’s been a pretty good coach for the last 5 years for SJSU, but his tenure started rough. Brent is a first cousin of the late legendary Hawaii QB Colt Brennan. After a 1-1 start, SJSU lost 56-0 to Texas in Tom Herman’s first win ever with the Longhorns. The results kept getting worse with a 16-54 loss to Utah and 10-61 to Utah State. San Jose State was basically noncompetitive for the rest of the year, losing 7-52 to San Diego State, 14-59 to Nevada, and 14-42 to Colorado State. A surprise 20-17 win over 7-4 Wyoming in the final week prevented them from being the worst team in the country in 2017, but it was mostly due to Josh Allen missing the game with an injury. 7 different players threw a pass for SJSU on the year. QB Jordan Love threw for 928 yards 5 TD 7 INT, but would go on to throw for 3923 yards 22 TD 8 INT two years later for his senior season, winning Mountain West OPOTY. LB Frank Ginda led the nation in tackles with 173! Also put up 2 sacks and 11 TFL, earning 1st Team All-MWC.
5. 1987 (10-2 overall, 7-0 PCAA)
This was the final year of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, which was renamed to the Big West the subsequent year. San Jose State, along with Fresno State, were the teams to beat in the PCAA for 1987. San Jose was coming off a 7-0 conference record and title, while Fresno State finished 2nd at 6-1. Right away, SJSU proved they were the best team in the Bay Area: They beat Cal 27-25 in week 2, and Stanford 24-17 in week 4. A close 34-36 loss to Oregon State in week 3 showed that SJSU could hang with teams in the stronger Pac-10. Around midseason, 5-1 San Jose State headed to the valley to play 3-2 Fresno State, in a game that seemed it would determine the PCAA champion for the second straight year. In a back and forth game, with both coaches waving towels at each other from opposite sidelines, SJSU scored a late TD to win it 20-16 and take control of the conference. The rest of the games were easy in comparison, and SJSU finished with a 10-1 regular season record. They lost 27-30 to Eastern Michigan in the bowl, who was also finishing up one of their best ever seasons. San Jose State QB Mike Perez was one of the best QBs in the country, throwing for 3550 yards 23 TD 13 INT, leading the nation in total yards per play with 7.1, and was 2nd in the nation in total yards with 3499. WR Guy Liggins was the favorite target, ranking 2nd in the nation with 81 catches for 1262 yards, and 10 TD as well.
4. 1986 (10-2 overall, 7-0 PCAA)
This was San Jose State’s first of two straight PCAA titles. Expectations were low coming off a 2-8-1 year, but in one of the biggest wins in recent SJSU history at the time, they upset Washington State 20-13 in Pullman in week 2. After dropping a game to Stanford then beating Cal, 2-2 SJSU hosted #19 4-0 Fresno State. Fresno had just beaten Oregon State 37-0 and Louisiana Tech (8-3 the previous year) 34-10. In what was voted Sports Illustrated’s Game of the Year 1986, San Jose State raced out to a 24-0 lead in the 2nd quarter, before Fresno State retook the lead before the end of the 3rd. Fresno held a 41-31 lead with just 1:15 to go, but San Jose State scored 2 TDs in the last 70 seconds, including a 22 yard TD pass from Mike Perez to win it with 18 seconds to go. San Jose State pulled off the 45-41 upset and it remains arguably the greatest game in the Fresno-SJSU rivalry to this day. SJSU wiped out the rest of the weaker PCAA en route to a 7-0 conference record and PCAA title. Fresno finished a close second at 9-2 with a 6-1 conference record, the game on October 4th proving to be the difference maker. SJSU finished off the year with a nice 37-7 bowl win over MAC champs Miami (OH). Perez led the NCAA in passing yards with 3225 (17 TD 17 INT), while Liggins (mentioned in 1987) had 80 catches for 1116 yards and 8 TD. DBs John King and KC Clark had 6 INTs each.
3. 2020 (7-1 overall, 6-0 Mountain West)
Even though Brent Brennan coached the worst San Jose State team of the last 40 years (2017), he also coached the 3rd best in 2020. Coming into the season, pretty much everyone expected Boise State or San Diego State to win the Mountain West, with SJSU being an afterthought. Mountain West didn’t start play until October 24th because of covid, and when it did, SJSU was 7 point underdogs to Air Force in the opener. They won 17-6 in a pleasantly surprising defensive performance. After an expected win over New Mexico, SJSU upset 10.5 point favorites San Diego State 28-17, showing they were to be taken seriously. Fast forward a few weeks later, 5-0 San Jose State hosted 6-1 Nevada for a spot in the Mountain West championship game. Once again, SJSU pulled off the upset, beating the 5.5 point favorites and holding Carson Strong to just 260 yards on 48 attempts. I’m getting tired of saying this, but in the Mountain West championship against Boise State, they pulled off yet ANOTHER upset, this time being 11.5 point underdogs, with a 34-20 win to finish the regular season 7-0. This was SJSU’s first conference title since 1991. #19 San Jose State lost to 6-1 Ball State in the bowl, but they still finished #24 overall, and 18th in my rankings. DL Cade Hall won Mountain West DPOTY with 10 sacks in just 7 games, and Brennan won MW Coach of the Year. 4 players on offense and 4 players on defense were 1st/2nd Team All-MWC.
2. 1990 (9-2-1 overall, 7-0 Big West)
San Jose State wins their titles in pairs. This was the first of 2 straight Big West titles, and their 3rd title in 5 years. And this team was REALLY good, very likely better than the 2012 team that’s first on this list. They started the year by tying Louisville 10-10, who went on to finish 10-1-1, beating Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl 34-7. Next game, SJSU played #20 Washington to a 17-20 loss in Seattle, who would go 10-2 on the year and finished #5 in the nation. A few weeks later, SJSU beat Stanford 29-23, who’d finish the year 5-6 led by future Vikings and Cardinals head coach Dennis Green. The last loss on the year came in week 6 against Cal, 34-35, who finished 7-4-1. That’s 2 losses and 1 tie, by a combined 4 points, to three teams that finished with a combined 27-7-2 record. In the final week, a de-facto Big West title game was played between San Jose State (7-2-1 overall, 6-0 Big West) and Fresno State (8-1-1, 5-0-1). SJSU played flawlessly, smoking Fresno 42-7 to win the title. More of the same in the bowl, beating MAC champs Central Michigan 48-24 to finish 14th in my rankings. SJSU cleaned up the Big West awards: Coach Terry Shea won Big West COTY, OLB Lyneil Mayo won DPOTY, and RB Sheldon Canley won OPOTY.
1. 2012 (11-2 overall, 5-1 WAC)
I don’t think this team was better than 1990…but they were damn good, and had tons of talent all around. 5 offensive players made NFL rosters at some point, and 7 defensive players too. It took a 4th quarter FG for Stanford to beat SJSU 20-17 in the opener—Stanford finished 12-2 and #7 in the nation that year. A few weeks later, the Spartans beat San Diego State 38-34, who’d finish 9-4. A 12-0 win over eventual 8-5 Navy came a week later. That set up 4-2 Utah State against 4-1 SJSU in a surprisingly key matchup. Utah State won 49-27, but they’d finish 11-2 and #16 in the nation, and 2012 was the best Utah State team in the last 40 years according to my algorithm. SJSU got big win after big win, and saved the best for last. First, they beat 6-4 BYU 20-14. Then they beat preseason conference favorite, 9-2 Louisiana Tech, 52-43 to take 2nd in the WAC. Former Minnesota RB De’Leon Eskridge had 217 rushing yards and 3 TD on 7.8 YPC in that game. Finally, they capped the season with a 29-20 win over 8-4 Bowling Green in the Military Bowl, holding MAC DPOTY and 1st Team All-American DT Chris Jones to just 1 tackle.
QB David Fales finished just 3rd Team All-WAC because of the outstanding QBs in the conference that year, but was one of the most underrated players in the nation, completing 72.5% of passes for 4193 yards, 33 TD and 9 INT. He was #3 in the nation in passer rating with 170.8. WR Noel Grigsby was the top target with 82 catches for 1307 receiving yards and 9 TD. DL Travis Johnson was the WAC DPOTY and an All-American with 65 tackles, 13 sacks, 8.5 TFL, and 3 FF. K Austin Lopez was an All-American as well, going a perfect 17/17 on FGs as a freshman. 12 out of 22 starters on offense/defense made 1st/2nd Team All-WAC.
5th Quarter
Why has San Jose State been so irrelevant as a fanbase? I rarely see anyone talk about them, I find them very interesting as a Bay Area native. Which was the better team/season, 1990 or 2012? What do you think about San Jose State football, do any memories come to mind?
Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years - Main Hub
