San Jose State again has quarterback intrigue ahead of Colorado State game

SAN JOSE – It may sound strange that a player who threw a game-winning touchdown is not involved in the next week’s quarterback battle.

While Nick Nash did find the end zone on a trick play to seal San Jose State’s 35-31 victory last Saturday over Nevada, it was Walker Eget’s second-half heroics that have reignited a fall camp competition.

Head coach Ken Niumatalolo and offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann know who their starter will be heading to Fort Collins, where the Spartans (4-1, 2-0 Mountain West) play Colorado State this Saturday (12:30, TruTV). Yet in a Week 1 deja vu, they will not reveal who their starter will be.

“We don’t want to give anyone a competitive advantage but we do know who’s going to be the starter,” Niumatalolo said at his Tuesday press conference.

Colorado State (2-3, 0-0) ranks 111th nationally in pass defense and now will have an even more difficult time game-planning for the week.

Eget was called on in the middle of a third-quarter series last weekend and looked like he had prepared to be the starter.

“I’ve done that in the past at a lot of different places I’ve been at and luckily it’s kind of worked out for the better,” Stutzmann said of the substitution.

For the first time in his college career, Eget was given more than garbage time or emergency snaps.

He finished 10-for-13 for 141 yards and completed his first six passes. His biggest play was a 51-yard completion to Sebastian Macaluso that set up Nash’s passing touchdown the next play. On that final drive, Emmett Brown, whom Eget replaced earlier, returned to the game and threw two incompletions before Eget took over again.

“Sometimes it’s as simple as what does it look like? If it doesn’t look like normal Emmett, then OK, we’ll go with Walker,” Stutzmann said regarding the final drive.

Brown soared until the Nevada matchup. He finished 12-for-28 for 170 yards and two touchdown passes. The Wolf Pack disrupted Brown’s rhythm, though, with multiple tipped passes at the line of scrimmage.

The incumbent still leads the Mountain West with 1,460 passing yards and his 15 touchdown passes are the fifth-best in the nation.

The Spartans are the eighth-best passing offense in the nation, averaging 328.6 yards per game. Both Brown and Eget have excelled at times and both may continue to have that opportunity in the second half of the season.

“Emmett has handled the situation really good, he’s had a good week of practice and Walker’s game has elevated too,” Stutzmann said. “Honestly this QB battle and who plays, it’s going to go through the whole season.”

Offensive line finding its groove

Whoever starts as the signal-caller this week should have a clean pocket. The offensive line for the Spartans has allowed just one sack in its last two games. It could be attributed to the same five linemen starting and finishing the game for each of the last two games, the first two times this season.

”We’ve come a long way since Sac State,” Niumatalolo said of the offensive line, which struggled in the season opener.

Pass blocking is not the only area of improvement for the group.

Running backs Floyd Chalk IV and Jabari Bates have both gone for over four yards a carry in these two weeks. Even Brown gained 20 yards on four carries last week.

This is all largely thanks to the holes the line has opened.

Colorado State has not generated much pressure, averaging only one sack a game. The Rams are in the middle of the pack in run defense, but that is not where SJSU thrives.

A week off from dual threats

San Jose State has found difficulty in stopping mobile quarterbacks, or “Houdinis,” as Niumatalolo calls them.

Quarterbacks John Mateer and Brendon Lewis terrorized the Spartans’ front seven, rushing for 233 yards and three touchdowns combined over the past two games. Fortunately for San Jose State, the Rams don’t have such a rushing threat.

“We have to look past it and once we get another opportunity to play a quarterback like that we have to hone in on it,” linebacker Jordan Pollard said.

Colorado State’s Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi is more of a conventional quarterback: Just 14 rushing attempts all year.

“He ain’t nobody spectacular for real, in my opinion. I feel like he plays within the system,” cornerback DJ Harvey said.

Fowler-Nicolosi is 84-for-136 with 865 passing yards, four touchdown passes and four interceptions through five games.

The Spartans rank as a top-50 pass defense in the nation allowing 195.4 yards a game through the air and have intercepted nine passes this season.

Can the secondary hold Tory Horton?

Anyone who has watched much Spartan football this season is familiar with the dominance that Nick Nash has shown. Tory Horton is that for Colorado State. Both receivers are on the Biletnikoff Award watch list for the best receiver in college football. Horton hauled in nine receptions for 158 yards and a touchdown last week in his first game back from an injury.

“They got one of the best receivers in the league and that presents a lot of issues,” Niumatalolo said.

Cornerback Michael Dansby, who leads the Spartans with four pass breakups, is currently in concussion protocol and is, “trending towards probably being back,” Niumatalolo said.

Harvey and Amir Wallace will have the assignment of covering Horton in the event Dansby cannot play.

“I respect his game but he has to respect my game,” Harvey said.

Horton had nine catches for 196 yards and a touchdown as a redshirt sophomore when the teams last played in 2022.