TULSA – SAN JOSE STATE GAME PREVIEW

Saturday, September 7

San Jose, Calif.

8:00 PM (CT)

Tulsa

San Jose State

Photo by: Brett Rojo

TULSA – SAN JOSE STATE GAME PREVIEW

9/7/2019 7:00:00 AM | Football

GAME 2: TULSA (0-1, 0-0 American) vs. SAN JOSE STATE (1-0, 0-0 MWC)
Date/Time:	Saturday, Sept. 7, 8:05 p.m. (CT) / 6:05 p.m. (PT)
Site:	San Jose, Calif.
Stadium:	CEFCU Stadium
Coaches:	TULSA – Philip Montgomery (Tarleton State '95), 5th year SAN JOSE STATE – Brent Brennan (UCLA '96), 3rd year
TV:	ESPN 3
Talent:	Trey Bender (pxp), Al Groh (analyst)
Tickets:	To purchase tickets, contact San Jose State ticket office
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM or Online
Talent:	Bruce Howard (pxp), Rick Couri (analyst), Jeremie Poplin (sidelines)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Eighth Meeting
First Meeting:	Sept. 25, 1999 (San Jose State 34, Tulsa 10), San Jose, Calif.
Last Meeting:	Sept. 3, 2016 (Tulsa 45, San Jose State 10), Tulsa, Okla.
Game Notes:	Tulsa (PDF) \| San Jose State (PDF) \| American Athletic Conference (PDF)

Tulsa Squares Off in San Jose Against Spartans Saturday Night

SAN JOSE, Calif. –– Tulsa travels to the west coast for a Saturday night tilt against the Mountain West Conference's San Jose State Spartans on the second weekend of the football season.

The Hurricane (0-1) looks to even its record after opening the season with a 28-7 loss at the No. 18 Michigan State Spartans a week ago, while this group of Spartans are looking to start their season 2-0 for the first time since 1987. San Jose State handled Northern Colorado in its season opener last week 35-18.

The game will kickoff at 6:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. CT) from CEFCU Stadium, while the coverage will be on ESPN 3 and Big Country 99.5 FM radio in Tulsa or fans can use the Tune-In App to listen to the Hurricane radio broadcast.

Tulsa's defense showed a week ago what had been expected of this veteran group and will need another strong performance against San Jose State, while the Hurricane offense will have to put together an attack that keeps the Spartans defense off-balance.

The Spartans are pretty experienced on offense with six seniors in the starting lineup and one graduate transfer.

San Jose State senior quarterback Josh Love started his 15^th career game last week with 224 yards and 2 TDs on 21-of-31 with zero interceptions, while true freshman Nick Nash made his presence known as Love's sub with a team-high 67 yards rushing on 5 carries, including one run for 49 yards.

The starting targets on the outside for the Spartan quarterbacks are senior Bailey Gaither, junior Tre Walker and red-shirt freshman Isaiah Hamilton. Love spread the ball around to 10 different receivers, but Hamilton led the way by hauling in 5 passes for an 18.2-yard average per catch a week ago.

In the opening weekend, the Spartans used three running backs as Tyler Nevens and DeJon Packer ran for 42 and 40 yards, respectively. SJS' 158 rushing yards was the most on the ground for the Spartans since the 2017 season.

The offensive front has a total of eight players with career starts under their belt and is led by seniors Jackson Snyder at left tackle and Troy Kowalski at left guard.

Tulsa's defense had a strong showing last week with its performance against the Big Ten's Spartans. The Hurricane two-deep is both talented and experienced, and last week the Hurricane kept fresh by shuttling players in-and-out.

Eight players had between 5 and 9 tackles against Michigan State, while the unit as a whole totaled 6 TFLs for -16 yards.

Tulsa's defensive front is led by end Trevis Gipson, who had 4 tackles, 2 TFLs and 2 QB hurries last week. His 5 forced fumbles last year ranked second in the country. Nose guards Jaxon Player and Tyarise Stevenson anchor the middle, while senior Shemarr Robinson and Cullen Wick man the tackle position for the Hurricane.
Robinson had 31 tackles, Wick 29, Stevenson 25 and Player had 14 tackles last season.

The Tulsa linebacker corps is poised to be one of the top units in the American Athletic Conference, not to mention the country, and they didn't disappoint last week. Senior MIKE linebacker Cooper Edmiston led the Hurricane last year for tackles (113), interceptions (4) and fumble recoveries (4), while WILL linebacker Zaven Collins was named Freshman All-America by USA Today and the FWAA after totaling 85 tackles and a team-high 9.5 TFLs.

In the opener Edmiston and Collins each had 8 tackles, while senior starter Diamon Cannon totaled 5 tackles. Reserves Yohance Burnett, Treyvon Reeves and Robert Revels III each saw playing time as well.

Tulsa's secondary is long and athletic and returned 40 starts among eight players – corners Reggie Robinson II, Akayleb Evans and Allie Green, safeties Manny Bunch and Brandon Johnson as well as nickel safeties Bryson Powers, TieNeal Martin and Cristian Williams.

Johnson had a team-high 9 stops last week, while Bunch had 8 stops, Green 7, redshirt-freshman safety Kendarin Ray 4, Williams 4 and Evans and Powers 2 tackles each.

The San Jose State 3-4 defense also made a statement last week in its season opener by holding Northern Colorado to just 110 yards on the ground and 177 yards through the air.

Leading the way for the Spartans is senior linebacker Ethan Aguayo, who was all over the field in the opener, totaling 20 tackles, 2 TFLs for -11 yards, one sack and one QB hurry. Fellow linebacker Jesse Osuna totaled 8 stops and 2 TFLs.

The middle of the San Jose State defense is led by a big man – 6'2", 334 nose tackle Sailosi Latu. The senior has started 17 games in his career and led all Spartan linemen last season with 43 tackles.

A trio of cornerbacks – Zamore Zigler, Brandon Ezell and Nehemiah Shelton – can create havoc for opposing receivers. Zigler had 5 tackles in the opener, while Exell had 3 stops and 2 pass-breakups and Shelton came off the bench to total 4 tackles, one breakup and had his second interception in the last 4 games dating back to 2018.

The Hurricane offense will need to get more production than a week ago when the nation's leading returning defense against the run and 10^th-ranked defense overall held the Hurricane to negative rushing yards and 153 passing yards.

The strength of the Hurricane offense last year was its run game with the duo of Shamari Brooks and Corey Taylor II. The pair combined for 1,813 yards and 18 touchdowns, and will look to rebound after being shut down last week.

Zach Smith made his first start since the 2017 season when he was the starting quarterback at Baylor. Smith completed 16-of-27 passes for 153 yards and a 28-yard touchdown in his Tulsa debut.

His two main targets were junior Keylon Stokes, who caught 6 passes for 54 yards, and sophomore Sam Crawford, who caught his first career passes and touchdown with 5 receptions for 49 yards and a 28-yard TD in the opener. Stokes led the Hurricane in receiving yards with 575 yards on 41 receptions in 2018, while senior Keenen Johnson totaled 438 yards a year ago.

Tulsa's young offensive front came into the season with just 27 career starts after losing three starters who started 128 games.

Last week, Tulsa used seven different players on the front line as the left side – Chris Ivy, Jr. and Chris Paul – played from start to finish along with true freshman right tackle X'Zauvea Gadlin, and expect to see that again. Tiller Bucktrot at right guard and center Dylan Couch were the starters in the first game and were spelled by Gerard Wheeler at center and Dante Bivens at guard.

This is the eighth meeting between the two schools as Tulsa leads the series 4-3. Tulsa won the last meeting in the 2016 season at home 45-10. San Jose State has a 2-1 record at its home stadium, as Tulsa's road win was a 34-32 victory in the 2003 regular season finale.