Understandably so, San Jose State will take no solace in a
terrific effort put forth in a 23-20 loss to Boise State at Spartan
Stadium on Saturday.
Understandably so, San Jose State will take no solace in a terrific effort put forth in a 23-20 loss to Boise State at Spartan Stadium on Saturday.
After all, a loss is still a loss and you don’t get brownie points for staying close with a highly-ranked opponent.
“I’m just really disappointed,” coach Dick Tomey said. “I felt strongly we could win.”
But this loss, where the Broncos’ Anthony Montgomery kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired, is not devastating for the Spartans.
SJSU is 6-3 with three games remaining on its schedule. Two of those three are winnable contests on paper, although football isn’t paid on paper and anything can happen.
But one win in any of those three games against Hawaii, Idaho and Fresno State likely gets the Spartans into a bowl game. A win against Idaho would guarantee that SJSU finishes the season with no worse than the fourth-best overall mark in the conference.
The representatives from the Poinsettia Bowl were on hand Saturday (as were the Sugar Bowl reps, but they were looking at somebody else) and they couldn’t have been disappointed with what they saw.
“They don’t give out bowl invitations or anything for deserving it,” Tomey said.
But a game SJSU squad giving the No. 14-ranked team in the country its toughest battle of the year had to be impressive. Even more impressive might be the 21,472 people that attended the game – the largest home crowd the Spartans have had this season outside the Stanford game that was part of the Cardinal season ticket package.
It’s no secret that bowls are about making money. That’s why we have about a gazillion of them now and every one of them has a ridiculous sounding name because it includes a sponsor. (Forgive me for not calling it the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl).
The fact that Spartans fans are finally showing an ability to get behind their team (if you haven’t yet, there’s one more chance Dec. 2 against rival Fresno State), could be a sign that the team has enough support that if it was granted a bowl bid, some people might actually show up.
And that’s why this Poinsettia Bowl would seem attractive to SJSU and why SJSU would be attractive to it. The game is played at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, so the chance to select a California team as the at-large opponent to face the Mountain West Conference entry would seem to be beneficial.
Add in the fact that the Spartans have played terrific against other California teams, beating Stanford, San Diego State and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, and SJSU seems to be a good fit.
While no one in Sparta Land will admit it, the loss (as long as the Spartans at least one more win) may help their cause with Boise State now moving up to No. 12 in the BCS rankings and looking more and more likely to become the first non-BCS conference team to earn one of those elusive bowl bids (and a $6 million pay day for the conference). If the Broncos win out against Utah State and Nevada, they are in the BCS and that, of course, frees up one more bowl slot for Western Athletic Conference teams.
Hawaii’s already committed to the Hawaii Bowl. Nevada is the only other bowl-eligible team and the WAC only has affiliations with the MPC Computers Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl, so it surely wouldn’t hurt to get Boise State in the BCS and out of the WAC bowl picture.
While you could sense the pain of this loss, it was nothing like the way the Spartans felt last season after losing tough games in the fourth quarter to Nevada and Hawaii or after they’re double-overtime loss to Boise State two years ago.
At those stages, the Spartans were a bad team hoping for breaks to deliver a surprising win. In this case, SJSU proved that it’s a good team capable of winning games that lost a close decision to a admirable opponent.
Quarterback Adam Tafralis said the feelings were the same as after those past losses.
“All losses hurt,” he said. “Just because Boise’s ranked No. 12 … it doesn’t matter.”
But while Tafralis seemed somber after this loss, there wasn’t the same teary-eyed look in his face after this one that he had last year.
For he and the Spartans know that their best days are ahead of them.
