Recent News | Popular News | Subscribe

FACTS & STATS: Site: Spartan Stadium (30,456) -- San Jose, California. Television: None. Home Record: Idaho 2-0, SJSU 1-1. Away Record: Idaho 2-1, SJSU 0-2. Neutral Record: Idaho 0-0, SJSU 0-0. Conference Record: Idaho 1-0, SJSU 0-0. Series Record: San Jose State leads, 12-7-1.

GAME NOTES: Sporting a rare three-game win streak, the surging Idaho Vandals set their sights on the San Jose State Spartans as the two program clash in a Western Athletic Conference bout this weekend in California.

Idaho, a team that last season won a total of just two games and was 1-7 in WAC play, is already well on its way to having a successful campaign with four wins in five tries. Since losing to Washington in the second game of the season, the Vandals have ripped off three straight wins, the most recent of those coming in a 31-29 triumph against Colorado State last Saturday in the Kibbie Dome.

As for the Spartans, they were forced to play a pair of top-20 teams right out of the box in USC and Utah, losing by a combined 80-17 score. At Stanford the squad was again blown out of the water in a 42-17 decision, but against Cal Poly on September 26th, SJSU finally put one in the win column with a 19-9 triumph.

Dating back to 1946, SJSU owns a 12-7-1 advantage over the Vandals and scored the fourth straight win in the series with a 30-24 decision last season in Moscow. The 2008 win for the Spartans was the last against a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision for the team, a stretch that has now reached eight games.

After being named the WAC Offensive Player of the Week to close out September, Nathan Enderle had to do something for an encore and he found it with his performance versus Colorado State. Enderle completed 25-of-38 passes for 333 yards and three touchdowns, suffering just a single interception and three sacks in the narrow win. Max Komar had a huge game with his 12 catches for 152 yards and a score, while Eric Greenwood reeled in six balls for another 130 yards and two TDs. Enderle has emerged as a true passing threat the last few weeks, now averaging 258.6 ypg through the air and having tossed a total of eight touchdowns, against just three picks over the course of five starts. Enderle's ability to spread the wealth has certainly given receivers reason to step up their efforts as well, with as many as four players logging at least 14 catches at the moment and three having caught a pair of touchdowns. Not to be forgotten in all of this is running back DeMaundray Woolridge who is averaging better than six ypc and already has six rushing TDs.

As strong as the Idaho offense was over the weekend, not mentioning the defense would certainly be a slight. Safety Shiloh Keo stepped up his efforts and recorded 15 tackles, 12 of which were solo efforts, and also came up with a key interception with just over a minute remaining to seal the victory for the Vandals. The 15 stops by Keo, who was named the WAC Defensive Player of the Week, stand as the most by any WAC player in a single game so far this season. Even though Keo and the rest of the squad has played well enough to help the team earn four wins thus far, there have been times when the group has been exposed. Except for the opener when the Vandals limited New Mexico State to a mere six points, each game has seen the opposition put up sizeable offensive numbers. Nevertheless, Idaho still ranks third in the conference and 57th nationally with just 351.4 ypg allowed. Now if only the group could work on improving in the area of sacks (0.80 per game) and tackles for loss (3.4 per game) where they rank 107th and 117th in the nation, respectively.

The Spartans may have defeated Cal Poly in their last outing, but still SJSU needed a wake-up call to get moving. It was only after the Mustangs tallied 10 straight points to open the game that Jordan La Secla was able to get the Spartans into the end zone on an eight-yard pass to Jalal Beauchman, and yet that still came in the final minute of the first half. La Secla tossed another TD in the third frame and Lamon Muldrow added a two-yard TD run in the fourth to seal the lackluster win. Muldrow finished with 184 yards on 20 carries in the contest. However, before anyone can get too excited with Muldrow's efforts, it has to be noted that in his other 12 carries this season he had tallied just 33 yards. The bottom line here is that SJSU is far from a rushing powerhouse, averaging a meager 74.3 ypg on the ground which ranks the school eighth in the conference and 116th in the nation this week. Averaging just 256.8 ypg overall means the Spartans are last among all FBS programs and are 118th in scoring with a mere 13.3 ppg. Against FBS programs that number drops to only 11.3 ppg.

Cal Poly exposed a few defects in the SJSU defense, but in the end the Spartans still managed to limit the visitors to just 314 total yards, including 135 yards on 10 completed passes. Tanner Burns got himself noticed with his team-high 11 tackles, an interception returned 30 yards and a fumble recovery, while Justin Cole logged two of his five stops behind the line of scrimmage. If the Spartans thought the defense was going to be able to carry this season they are sorely mistaken. After four games the unit is 118th in the country in stopping the run, allowing a lofty 245.8 ypg, and is 114th in total defense, giving up 453.8 ypg. Put it all together and this group is surrendering 32.8 ppg, second-to-last in the WAC and 107th in the nation right now. The disparity between what the Spartans themselves are producing and how much they are permitting opponents to run all over them is enough to drive a coach out of town. With an average of 10 tackles per game, Burns is ranked second in the conference, but that's only because the defense is on the field so much for the Spartans.

Even though Idaho is far from a dominating team, the fact is this might be the right time for the Vandals to get back at a program like SJSU, as long as Enderle can again put up strong numbers and limit his mistakes.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Idaho 28, San Jose State 17