Somewhere on the virtual social ethersphere, someone has the fix for San Jose State football. Fire this one. Bench that one. Hire that one.
Spartan DC Bojay Filimoeatu doesn’t have time for it. He doesn’t think twice to entertain it.
“The main focus, especially for myself, is just to worry about our own little square footage that we have on our side of the ball,” said Filimoeatu during Tuesday’s presser. “We’re never perfect. We’re nowhere close to that.”
Spartan head coach Ken Niumatalolo calls the
defense “the strength of our team.” Over the last eight games, it has allowed 19.9 points a game, while the offense has needed Trajan Sinatra to lead the league in field goals.
Then Filimoeatu said something you rarely hear from a man paid to push young men.
“These players, man, they help me through a lot,” said Filimoeatu on the constant pressures. “I would be stupid not to mention how well these guys have fed the energy back to me, to get me going, especially in those crucial times in the game.”
Feeding the energy back
The box score tracks sacks, 31 of them, fifth most in the country. It doesn’t track the energy fed back to the coach.
Asked who isn’t showing up as much on the stat sheet but whose presence matters, Filimoeatu went straight to the heart.
DE Justin Stearns has spent three years outworking everyone and is “finally getting his flowers.” His blocked field goal against New Mexico got a coach who is “never really juiced” really fired up.
Safety Brian Dukes Jr., the Cal Poly transfer, had an interception in that game, but that’s not what Filimoeatu brought up first.
“The way he works, the way his attitude is every single day, he’s one of our best leaders on this team,” said Filimoeatu of Dukes. “Not just on the defensive side, but on the team. Always positive, always bringing guys with him.”
“Those guys, man, they have a special place in my heart,” added Filimoeatu.
Then there’s safety Tuli Tagovailoa-Amosa, “always calm and collected” and “one of the first kids in the building, whether it’s treatment or meeting with Coach Joe Dale.”
All season, Dale had the same message for Tagovailoa-Amosa: “Just do your job and the plays will come.” Against New Mexico last week, a big one came, as Tagovailoa-Amosa intercepted a deflected pass and cruised 89 yards for a critical score.
Filimoeatu loved the next part more. Tagovailoa-Amosa’s brothers celebrated the right way, then went right back out and got a stop to keep the Spartans in striking distance of a Lobos team that cracked the AP Top 25 the next day.
Social media saw the highlight. The staff saw the kid who is first in the building.
Family over numbers
Linebacker Aizik Mahuka is a long way from Mililani, Oahu. The Weber State transfer points the credit right back at the room.
“I’d say, like, family,” said Mahuka, when asked what his coordinator sees in him. “Stats don’t matter as long as we get the win. That’s what matters most is my team. If I’m doing my job, at least other people get to eat.”
“Our head coach is the best too and he really emphasizes love,” added Mahuka on what makes San Jose home. “That’s what he coaches with is love. It’s the best team I’ve ever been a part of culture-wise.”
Then the island kid had to be honest looking at the palm trees around CEFCU Stadium.
“The weather is better in Hawaii though. I can’t lie, I’m sorry.”
On Tagovailoa-Amosa’s move to safety. It started with a January call from receivers coach Billy Ray Stutzmann.
“When I first heard it, it was like, ‘Dang,'” he said. “Let’s look at it as a opportunity to keep on going.”
Ask Tagovailoa-Amosa what makes San Jose feel like home and he names coaches before palm trees.
“I always feel like I sound repetitive, but it’s really true that it’s my coaches,” he said. “Coach Dale, Coach Ken, Coach Bojay.”
Then come the brothers beside him.
“I look at them as not just teammates, but people that I could talk to about anything,” said Tagovailoa-Amosa. “On the football field, classroom and just outside of everything.”
Real life over the comments section
The virtual noise and pressures aren’t new.
Last November, a 55-10 loss in Reno cost defensive coordinator Derrick Odum and special teams coordinator Joe Palcic their jobs. That shake-up is how Filimoeatu got this job.
So yes, Saturday matters.
Northern Illinois arrives 0-8 with 10 straight losses, fresh off outgaining UNLV as a 24.5-point underdog. Lose to the Huskies at home and every burner account gets much, much louder.
But the comment section runs on outcomes. This room runs on something slower: a linebacker who wants other people to eat and a safety who answered “Dang” with “keep on going.”
And civilians never see that part. The treatment table before sunrise. The film session after a loss everyone already has an opinion on. The body that hurts on Tuesday so it can hit again on Saturday.
It’s a strange balance. These are kids who love life out loud and play the game with a violence most people will never feel. They do both in public, where every snap gets graded by strangers who have never taken one.
These kids get a few years at San Jose State, then they’re gone. What they leave behind is the coach they lifted on the hard days.
The keyboard will never feel that. The coaches feel it every day.
Just do your job and the plays will come.
