By Ernie Gonzalez (@superego1012):
It will be a battle of 1-7 teams in Provo as San Jose State visits Brigham Young University Saturday afternoon in Utah for a non-conference matchup.
Both teams began their campaigns in August, had early-season victories and have both dropped their last six contests.
Other parallels between the two squads include untimely penalties, heavy amounts of turnovers and a third down efficiency of under 35 percent.
After a late bye week, Spartan head coach Brent Brennan believes his team has a full tank ahead of the matchup against the Cougars.
“I think we definitely needed the rest,” Brennan said. “I hope that we took advantage of it.”
Not playing on a Saturday for the first time in nearly two months may help, but Brennan says because his team is young, it puts a pause on their maturity.
“When you have a young football team, you’re just anxious to play,”Brennan said. “The young players need the reps. They need the live bullets. They need to be out there playing the game of football when the game is on the line.”
Both SJSU and BYU rank in the bottom 10 in scoring offense entering Saturday, with the Cougars averaging 12.1 points per game and the Spartans putting up just over 16.
Brennan announced on Monday that redshirt freshman QB Montel Aaron will start Saturday, saying he’s earned the role.
Aaron will make his fourth start for SJSU and leads the team with six passing touchdowns thus far.
“I hope that Montel can take another step,” Brennan said. “I’m excited for him to play and see how he handles the atmosphere.”
On the ground, expect the Spartans to counter BYU’s west-coast style running attack with a bulky back of their own in Tyler Nevens, who has three straight games of at least 80 rushing yards.
Teams have proven they don’t mind running the football against the Cougars, and the Spartans will lean on Nevens come Saturday.
Although the two teams have identical win-loss records, the Cougars are favored by two touchdowns
Brennan knows BYU is a handful, and he says his team will be ready to bring the fire come kickoff.
“We know exactly who they are,” Brennan said. “It’s another great challenge for our football team … I’m looking forward to seeing us play.”