Long before Luke Weaver ever set foot on San Jose State’s campus, he threw one football that changed everything.
Down in the final seconds of the Hawaii Bowl against Cal last year, Weaver came off the bench cold and delivered a game-winning touchdown that still gets brought up in meeting rooms today.
“It was like one of the plays we have here at San Jose State. Coach Chang told me before that play, ‘Hey, if he’s open, throw it. If not, we’re fine with throwing it out of bounds and going to overtime,'”
Weaver recalled.
Weaver credited the guys around him for making that magical moment work.
“Nick Cenacle ran a great route. I think it was Brandon White who held the safety, so they both did a good job to make it easier for me and the O-line protected. Yes, that was fun,” added Weaver on his 22-yard TD toss with 10-seconds left for the Hawaii Bowl win.
That single throw in Honolulu put Weaver on SJS OC Craig Stutzmann’s radar in a way few transfer targets ever manage. SJS head coach Ken Niumatalolo said he barely knew the name before that night.
“When Craig told me, ‘Hey, we’re looking at the kid from Hawaii,’ I didn’t know anything about the kid, but I said I just saw him in a bowl game, come off the bench and throw a game winner. That’s all I knew about the kid back then.”
What sealed it for Niumatalolo came later and had nothing to do with arm talent.
Niumatalolo watched Weaver from across a dining room during a visit, before Weaver even knew he was being watched.
“I just saw his presence. He ingratiated himself with all the other players and all the other recruits and parents. Very humble, but I just loved the way he came in. I told that to Craig. I said, ‘I haven’t seen this kid operate in person, but there’s something already I like about him.'”
Stutzmann held the pen on the final call and Niumatalolo made clear he trusted his coordinator completely.
“Craig made the decision to name Luke our starter and I support him a thousand percent. It’s a discussion we have daily on it.”
Toughness, savviness and playmaking won the room
Weaver beat out Robert McDaniel and Daniel Rolovich in a battle both coaches described as agonizingly tight.
Niumatalolo did not sugarcoat how close it actually was. “If we were in a court and they were to defend their case, they might be able to win it, both of them. That’s how razor-thin this competition was.”
What separated Weaver, in the end, was not one measurable trait but a combination of them.
“Luke processes things really quickly. He sees the field. He’s athletic. He’s a guy that can extend drives with his legs, but he’s not just a scrambler to scramble. He can scramble and throw the football. He’s got some intangibles that we hope are going to pay dividends for us,” said Niumatalolo, pointing to growth in “knowledge of the offense” as the clearest jump he saw over fall camp.
Stutzmann framed it almost identically from the coordinator’s chair.
“It’s been about the intangibles. It’s how he leads, how he can process information, what he can take from the meetings, whether it’s on the film or on the whiteboard and be able to execute that consistently in practices. The guy has just a cool, collective calmness about him and I think that’s what we need right now.”
That calmness translates on the field too.
“Luke has a really good feel of the offense and throws with great anticipation. He can process what he sees pre-snap and get the ball out quick. He gives us that ability and he has the arm talent required to make the throws deep as well,” said Stutzmann. “He does a really good job of scrambling and helping out the O-line when need be to get us those extra yards.”
First start comes at the Coliseum
There is no soft landing for a new starter here.
Weaver’s debut arrives at No. 14 USC in the Coliseum; the kind of stage that would rattle most first-time starters. Weaver, for his part, is not treating it any differently than he would a Group of Six opener.
“The preparations have to be the same. You’ve got to treat every game like the same thing. The atmosphere can be loud in there, so just preparing for that, knowing it’s going be noisy, knowing it’s going be chaotic, but just preparing for it like any game.”
Stutzmann sees exactly why that mindset matters against a team with USC’s speed and talent.
“Going into a hostile environment like the Coliseum, playing against USC, we’re going to need a guy that has some experience and a guy that the highs aren’t very high and the lows aren’t very low.”
If SJSU can find anything close to the level Chevan Cordeiro and Nick Nash produced in a “good loss” to USC in 2023, it could count as a salient moment for a team still finding its identity under a new starter.
Whatever happens against the Trojans, both coaches are betting that Weaver’s poise gives the Spartans a real chance and a foundation for the season ahead.
As promising as it can all sound, the delicate balance Stutzmann just as quickly points out, “Robby and Daniel still will practice hard and keep grinding, because honestly, they’re just one play from going in and that’s also the reality of it.”
