The 2012 San Jose State Spartans football team represented

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

in the

2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on August 30, 2012 and ended on Dec ...

. The Spartans were led by third year head coach

Mike MacIntyre George Michael MacIntyre (born March 14, 1965) is an American football coach. He is the head coach at FIU. MacIntyre served as the head football coach at San Jose State University from 2010 to 2013 and the University of Colorado Boulder from 2 ...

and played their home games at Spartan Stadium. They were members of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

. This was the Spartans' final season as members of the WAC. They joined the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

on July 1, 2013. They finished the season 11–2, 5–1 in WAC play to finish in second place. They were invited to the

Military Bowl The Military Bowl is a post-season National Collegiate Athletic Association-sanctioned Division I college football bowl game that has been played annually each December in the Washington metropolitan area since 2008. The game was originally held a ...

where they defeated

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...

. Head coach Mike MacIntyre resigned at the end of the regular season to take the head coach position at

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Defensive coordinator

Kent Baer Kent Lex Baer (born May 2, 1951) is an American college football coach. He is the defensive coordinator at the University of Montana, a position he had held since 2018. Baer served as the interim head football coach at the University of Notre D ...

was the Spartans' interim head coach for the Military Bowl.

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

head coach

Ron Caragher Ronald Allen Caragher (born January 24, 1967) is an American athletics administrator and former college football coach who currently serves as the assistant athletics director for development at the University of San Diego. He was previously th ...

was hired as the Spartans new head coach beginning in 2013.

Personnel

Coaching staff

Head coach

returned for his third season with San Jose State. Under MacIntyre, San Jose State went 1–12 in its 2010 season and improved to 5–7 in 2011. On December 10, the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

hired MacIntyre to be the new head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes football team. With a five-year, $10 million contract, MacIntyre would annually earn nearly quadruple his annual salary at San Jose State. The following day, San Jose State named defensive coordinator

to be interim coach for the

2012 Military Bowl The 2012 Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman was a post-season American college football bowl game held on December 27, 2012, at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. The fifth edition of the Military Bowl began at 3:00&n ...

on December 27, in which they defeated Bowling Green 29–20. The previous week, MacIntyre stated that although other schools had contacted him about potential job openings, MacIntyre was not actively seeking another job. During San Jose State's late-season win streak, speculation occurred that MacIntyre might become head coach at Cal or

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

in 2013.

Departing starters

San Jose State lost 12 starters from the 2011 season, including quarterback Matt Faulkner, running back

Brandon Rutley Brandon DiAundre Rutley (born April 9, 1989) is a former Canadian football running back. He played college football at San Jose State. He was a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Montreal Alouettes, and BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (C ...

, safety Duke Ihenacho, and placekicker Jens Alvernik. Ihenacho went on to play for the NFL's

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

as an undrafted free agent.

Returning starters

Offense

Defense

Special teams

Depth chart

Starters and backups from the final depth chart:

Final roster

Schedule

The 2012 schedule was officially released on March 5, 2012. The schedule had six home games and six road games. Because the WAC had only seven football member schools by 2012 due to conference realignment, San Jose State played six conference games and six non-conference games for the season. San Jose State played against all six other WAC member schools: Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, Texas State, UTSA, and Utah State. The non-conference games were against:

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

and

San Diego State San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

of the

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

of the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

, and FBS independent schools

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

and

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

. On November 3, San Jose State became

bowl eligible Bowl eligibility in college football at the Division I (NCAA)#Football Bowl Subdivision, NCAA Division I FBS level is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason bowl games. When a team achieves thi ...

for the first time since 2008 after beating Idaho and attaining six wins against FBS schools. However, the win over UTSA did not count, because UTSA was not yet a full FBS member school. Six games were nationally televised this season.

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

showed the

on December 27,

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

showed the games against BYU and Louisiana Tech,

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as ...

showed the game against Navy, and

Pac-12 Network The Pac-12 Network (P12N; also sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks) is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities are headquart ...

showed the game against Stanford.

WatchESPN WatchESPN was a branding of the Internet television website and mobile application operated by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst C ...

also streamed the games shown on ESPN and ESPN2 as well as two games—the ones against Colorado State and UTSA—broadcast by

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ...

, the game against New Mexico State via New Mexico State's AggieVision network, and the game against Utah State via

ESPN Regional Television ESPN Events is an American multinational sporting event promoter owned by ESPN Inc. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and shares its operations with SEC Network and formerly with ESPNU. The corporation organizes sporting events f ...

KLIV KLIV (1590 AM broadcasting, AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to San Jose, California, KLIV serves San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley with a Vietnamese language, Vietnamese format simulcasting KVVN. It is one of the ...

in San Jose served as the flagship station for the San Jose State Spartans Football Radio Network, along with fellow affiliates KION in Salinas and newcomer

KFIV KFIV (1360 AM) is a broadcast radio station in the United States. Licensed to Modesto, California, it has a talk format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. Founded in 1950 as KMOD, the station became KFIV in 1957 and had a hit music format brand ...

Modesto Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton- ...

. Michael Spero returned for his second season as play-by-play announcer, with Kevin Richardson at color commentary.

Game summaries

at Stanford

Scoring for Stanford: S. Taylor 1-yard run, J. Nunes' 11-yard pass to D. Terrell, J. Williamson 46-yard and 20-yard field goal. Scoring for San Jose State: Austin Lopez 38-yard field goal, Blake Jurich 3-yard run, and

David Fales David Daniel Fales (born October 4, 1990) is a former American football quarterback. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He played college football at San Jose State. Fales played high school football a ...

' 21-yard pass to Noel Grigsby.

UC Davis

Colorado State

at San Diego State

at Navy

Utah State

In San Jose State's

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

game, San Jose State lost to eventual WAC champion Utah State. Although David Fales completed 38 of 50 passes for 467 yards and three touchdowns, Fales was sacked 13 times with a cumulative loss of 102 yards. Utah State also had a 212–4 advantage in rushing yards.

at UTSA

Texas State

at Idaho

at New Mexico State

BYU

Louisiana Tech

Bowling Green–Military Bowl

Ranking movements

On November 25, San Jose State made the No. 24 spot in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Top 25 rankings. This was San Jose State's first-ever BCS ranking and first national ranking since 1990. The following week, both the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

and

Coaches' Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...

ranked San Jose State No. 24. This ranking marked San Jose State's first top-25 AP ranking since 1975. San Jose State also played its first

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

since the 2006 New Mexico Bowl. On December 27, San Jose State defeated

in the

Washington, D. C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

by the score of 29–20. For the first time in school history, San Jose State made it into the final rankings in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls, earning a No. 21 ranking in both.

After the season

Awards

;Conference Travis Johnson earned the WAC Defensive Player of the Year award. With 16 honorees, San Jose State led all WAC teams in 2012 for All-WAC honors. Named to the All-WAC first team were Noel Grigsby, Ryan Otten, Nicholas Kaspar,

David Quessenberry David Lee Quessenberry Jr. (born August 24, 1990) is an American football offensive guard for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Houston Texans in the sixth round of the 2013 NFL Draft and previously p ...

, Travis Johnson, Travis Raciti, Vince Buhagiar, Keith Smith, and Bené Benwikere. Named to the All-WAC second team were Chandler Jones, David Fales, De'Leon Eskridge, Anthony Larceval, David Tuitupou, Austin Lopez, and Tyler Ervin. ;National Travis Johnson was invited to the

East-West Shrine Game East West (or East and West) may refer to: *East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture Arts and entertainment Books, journals and magazines *'' East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salm ...

and was named to the

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

second team. Johnson, Ryan Otten, and David Quessenberry all got

Senior Bowl The Senior Bowl is a post-season college football all-star game played annually in late January or early February in Mobile, Alabama, which showcases the best NFL Draft prospects of those players who have completed their college eligibility. Pr ...

invitations.

NFL Draft

In the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall in ...

, David Quessenberry was selected in the sixth round and 176th overall by the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

Conference change

On July 1, 2013, San Jose State officially became a member of the

(MWC). San Jose State football followed fellow WAC school

Utah State Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

to the MWC and reunited with

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

in football only and Boise State,

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, and several other fellow former WAC schools in football and many other sports. The WAC stopped sponsoring football after the 2012 season.

References

General: * * Specific:

External links

{{San Jose State Spartans football navbox

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

San Jose State Spartans football seasons Military Bowl champion seasons

San Jose State Spartans football The San Jose State Spartans football team represents San Jose State University, San José State University in NCAA Division I NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, FBS college football as a member of the Mountain West Conference. History ...