Date/Time: Saturday, September 6, 2025 – 11 AM CDT / 9 AM PDT
Location: Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, TX
Broadcast: ABC or ESPN
Radio: 860 KTRB AM (SF Bay Area)
Head-to-Head: Texas has the one win from 2017.
Spread: -36.5 favoring Texas
San Jose State (0-1, 0-0 MW) gets a Texas-sized dose of football vs. the seventh-ranked Longhorns on Saturday (0-1, 0-0).
Besides the obvious of a great payday for SJSU, as the David to the $2.4 billion-valued Goliath goes, head coach Ken Niumatalolo’s
hope is to be competitive.
“We have to play our very best to even have a chance to compete against these guys,“ said Niumatalolo. “At the same time, I’m super excited for the opportunity to play against one of the blue-bloods of college football.”
With the Spartans dropping their opener to Central Michigan in a game where the SJS offense started slow and struggled, Texas had their troubles as well in their opening game loss to Ohio State.
In each of the losses, each quarterback had difficulties that stymied their teams chances to win.
It’s about the QBs: Walker Eget vs. Arch Manning
Last week, Manning of his own blue-blood pedigree managed 170 yards passing, one TD pass, one interception with a 58 QBR rating to Eget’s 302 yards passing, two TD passes and two interceptions but only a 35 QBR.
With all the hype, Ohio State’s defense made Manning look very pedestrian, while Central Michigan roughly did the same to Eget.
“For the quarterback, if there’s a premier look to do this or that – take advantage of it,“ said OC Craig Stuzmann on Eget. ” If not, just take care of the football and err on the side of caution.“
Stutzmann added to his assessment, “Trust what your eyes see, let it take to your brain and let your body react to it.”
In lieu of instincts based on practice and repetition, overthinking and trying to do too much is a nemesis for any skill-position athlete.
“There’s a balance to how much we coach-up Walker,” said Niumatalolo on the many questions around Eget. “Craig is one of the best OCs in the country in managing quarterbacks, so I give him his space, but I am who I am.”
“I interject with what I see and I speak the truth,” added Niumatalolo. “All said, I have the utmost faith in Walker.”
Niumatalolo also shared context of a 1:30 AM text from Eget after the frustrating season-opening loss where Eget took full responsibility and pledged to play better.
“It was one of the most disappointing losses in my career,” admitted Niumatalolo, “At the same time, I’m telling him, ‘Get your eyes right, we’re counting on you.”’
As a fierce former quarterback, Niumatalolo should be one to offer perspective.
As for Stutzmann, “I’ve also got to do a better job getting him out of any funk and into a rhythm.”
The rest of Texas
With San Jose State also struggling in the run game last week, facing the Longhorn defense is a tall, tall order. Getting something on the scoreboard for the Stutzmann offense may be a proverbial moral victory.
Reminiscent of the 56-0 loss in 2017, those Spartans came in like a hyped-up underdog with then head coach Brent Brennan trying to will SJS to be competitive. San Jose actually did look competitive in that first quarter eight-years ago — that is until 406 yards of Longhorn rushing put the Spartans to sleep.
“We have to prepare the very best we can just to have a shot and control what we can control with our very best effort,” said Niumatalolo.
Leading the Texas defense is linebacker Liona Leaf from Niumatalolo’s hometown of Laie, Hawaii. Leaf had nine tackles against the Buckeyes last week.
Quite simply, San Jose’s hope for any respectful showing is squarely on Eget’s shoulders. If Eget’s eyes and instincts get right, this is the ultimate game to show it — to allow a battalion of receivers to have a chance, even in a loss.
Receiver Danny Scudero came out of last week’s game as advertised — nine receptions, 189 yards receiving and one catch-and-run touchdown. With Scudero, there was also a lot left on the table last week, where a 300-yard receiving game could have been a possibility.
Other burgeoning receivers were Leland Smith who had a touchdown grab with two receptions, Kyri Shoels and tight-end Jackson Canaan. Receivers Malachi Riley and Matthew Coleman left last week’s game early due to injury with Riley’s injury looking more serious.
Spartan defense
Linebacker Jordan Pollard came right into the season also as advertised.
Picking up where he left off last season, Pollard stacked 15 tackles against the Chippewas and led a defense that took a minute to find their feet against the size and force of Central Michigan.
Pollard graded the Spartan defensive effort last week at a C+. Expect the nonchalant Pollard to thrive among the trees in Austin.
In a typical DC Derrick Odum defense, its overall strength lies in its collective experience and cohesiveness with many contributors around Pollard.
If the Spartan defense can be competitive in the most relative sense, they’ll need to sustain a good level of energy and intensity the entire game. Against bigger bodies with more depth and talent, that is a large order.
What will help this defense is if the Spartan offense can obviously stay on the field as long as possible.
Stutzmann’s offense has different speeds from fast, faster and fastest, but it also counts on Eget’s field vision and clarity.
“Our offense is going to see a lot of different things,” said Stuzmann. “I tell the guys to keep it simple and don’t overthink things. There’s only so many things they can do with a given front or presentation on the back-end and don’t worry about the what-ifs.”
In the most basic sense, San Jose State has nothing to lose, except to stay as healthy as possible to be ready for conference play.
In the realm of possibility, if San Jose State can make things competitively close, they will leave behind worry and pressure for the fevered Longhorn kingdom.
And in the 1.2% chance for a Spartan win, statues will have to be built.
