The Inside the Spartans 2023-24 report card: Grading the San Jose State sports season (2024)

2023 results: 7-6 (6-2 MW, T-1st), lost Hawaii Bowl 24-14 to Coastal Carolina

Brent Brennan ended his seventh and final season as head football coach with a second straight winning season, third bowl appearance, and second Mountain West regular season championship. However, there were two very contrasting halves to the season. There was a 1-5 start with a blowout win over an FCS opponent, with two missed opportunities for quality road wins at Boise State (35-27 loss) and Toledo (21-17 loss). With a bowl berth on the line, San Jose State wrapped up the regular season with six straight wins, most memorably a 42-18 demolition of Fresno State at CEFCU Stadium.

Yet all the hard work done to extend the season led to coal in fans' stockings on Christmas morning. At the Hawaii Bowl on December 24, San Jose State lost 24-14 to Coastal Carolina. It felt like the first half of the season again with the way the team lost: Scoring nothing for the first three quarters, with two turnovers on the opponent's side of the field. Similarly, a late pick-six cost San Jose State the game at Toledo, and San Jose State blew a 27-7 lead at Boise State.

Then in a storyline that could make for a compelling 30 for 30 documentary, the January 10 retirement of Alabama head coach Nick Saban entangled San Jose State in a web of coaching changes around the nation, as The Buffalo News recounted in a May 25 feature story.

Within one week of Saban retiring, Arizona had a job vacancy after its previous head coach Jedd Fisch resigned for Washington, which had earlier hired former Fresno State head coach Kalen DeBoer. Brennan was announced as the new Arizona head coach on January 16. Then on January 21, San Jose State eventually hired Ken Niumatalolo, UCLA tight ends coach and longtime head coach at Navy.

Brennan was hired in late 2016 to clean up after decades of poor decisions. It is undeniable, thanks to the heavy lifting on his part, that Brennan has left Spartan football in a far better place than what he inherited. At the same time, the last three seasons have had too many what-ifs, like the Toledo game or Hawaii Bowl.

Thankfully, San Jose State now has the most knowledgable, qualified coaching staff in a long time. Niumatalolo has a demonstrated record in 15 seasons at Navy of winning bowl games, putting out detail-oriented football teams, and challenging power conference teams. He is the type of coach who can take San Jose State football to the next level. Year One may be a challenge due to the numerous roster changes, but Niumatalolo has established enough credibility in the football world to assure fans that they will see a no-nonsense, disciplined team that will cut it out with the mindless penalties and defensive lapses that were too consistent in the last few years. (Case in point: That time when he threw a player out of the spring game for a cheap late hit.)

Football 2023 final grade: B-. While the six-game winning streak was very praiseworthy, the overall results of the season had too many of the same costly errors as last year, which also got a B-. So this was another good but not great season, and the minus is tacked on due to the horrendous start.

2023-24 results: 9-23 (2-16, T-10th in MW)

Following the 21-14 season of 2022-23, it appeared that Tim Miles was elevating a perennially bad San Jose State men's basketball program to a higher level.

This season had a good start, with non-conference play wrapping up at 7-6 with an 81-78 win vs. Santa Clara.

But as Mountain West Conference play continued, it became clear that the roster lacked the depth needed to compete well against conference peers. San Jose State had a 17-point lead in the first half of the conference opener at Wyoming but lost 75-73 at the buzzer. Three days later, San Jose State lost 78-69 vs. Boise State, after leading 57-48 in the second half. Eventually, the only two wins in conference came against Air Force—a team that ended up tied for tenth in the conference standings with San Jose State!

In his 2023 recruiting class, Miles relied mostly on high school players, with only one Division I transfer in former Washington State center Adrame Diongue. Defense and rebounding were serious weaknesses in 2023-24, with no adequate next players up to replace Sage Tolbert and Ibrahima Diallo. It also did not help that returning forward Robert Vaihola sat out the entire season with a foot injury. The 2022-23 team allowed 66.2 points per game and had an average rebounding margin of plus-7.7. Those numbers regressed to 75.0 and minus-5.0 this past season.

Now, Miles will have to rebuild practically the entire starting lineup, with starters MJ Amey, Álvaro Cárdenas, and Tibet Görener alltransferringand Trey Anderson graduating. Thankfully, Miles changed his recruiting strategy this year, bringing in six players from the transfer portal. Among the incoming transfers is Josh Uduje, former Utah State shooting guard and 2024 Mountain West Sixth Man of the Year who averaged 8.7 points and 2.5 rebounds last season. Another Mountain West transfer to San Jose State is former Fresno State point guard Donavan Yap, who averaged 9.0 points and 1.8 assists in 2023-24. From the power conferences, Chol Marial is an incoming 7-foot-2, sixth-year senior center who played at Maryland and Oregon State.

Men's basketball 2023-24 final grade: F. I was mulling between a D- and F before settling on F. Yes, it is true that San Jose State has unique institutional challenges that were too much even for a proven coach like Miles. But at this point of time, is it really too much an ask for men's basketball to reach 13 or 14 wins on a transitional season? Fortunately, the fact that Miles was able to bring in so many quality transfers this year does hint that the school is providing Miles the resources he needs to bring in a higher caliber of athlete.

2023-24 results: 7-24 (2-16, T-10th in MW)

Year Two for head coach April Phillips was hardly distinguishable from her first in 2022-23, at 6-25 (3-15, T-9th in MW), or Jamie Craighead's final, 5-25 season of 2021-22.

One strength in an otherwise bad season would be in rebounding, as the rebounding margin improved from minus-1.6 to plus-2.5. Defense did slightly better, with points allowed declining from 67.6 to 66.2.

The biggest liability for the team: Ball control. The team committed around 20 turnovers per game, with a minus-4.2 turnover margin on average. In one particularly disastrous outing on February 3, San Jose State lost at home 78-56 vs. Air Force, with a 9-41 assist-turnover ratio.

Lack of depth affected women's basketball similar to men's; leading scorer Jyah LoVett (14.6 ppg) played only 17 games due to injury.

Five players are transferring out, including starting guard Sabrina Ma (to UC San Diego) and LoVett (to Arizona State). Phillips has brought in three new transfers, including Houston center Djessira Diawara, a former junior college All-American, and Louisville forward Hennie van Schaik.

Women's basketball 2023-24 final grade: F. There was no significant growth or improvement for this team, sad to say. Would it be possible to assign something like a G, H, or I for those who feel an F is too lenient? Next season will show if the solution was worse than the problem in terms of the previous head coach.

Among the other sports teams, women's golf gets a very well deserved A+ for winning a second Mountain West championship in three years under Dana Dormann and qualifying for a third straight NCAA championship as a team.

For women's track and field, junior Emilia Sjöstrand had yet a second-straight individual All-American season, finishing third in the NCAA women's triple jump final on Saturday and earning first-team All-American honors. On Thursday, Sjöstrand earned second-team All-American honors in the long jump. Although the team finished fifth in the Mountain West indoor championships and eighth in the Mountain West outdoor championships, I will use professor's discretion and issue an A to San Jose State women's track due to Sjöstrand's standout season.

Men's track also turned in a quality season with third place finishes in both the indoor and outdoor Mountain West championships. In the NCAA Outdoor Championships, freshman Malachi Snow got first-team All-American honors for a fourth-place finish in the men's 110-meter hurdles final, and the men's 4x100 relay team set a new school record with a 38.69 second finish time and earned second-team All-American honors. Other second-team All-Americans on men's track were Demaris Waters in the men's 110-meter hurdle and Jaden Smith in the men's 400-meter. Therefore, men's track also gets an A. Charles Ryan and Charmaine Darden are proving to be great leaders for Speed City.

Men’s water polo (13-9, 4-2 WCC) won theWCC championship in their first year moving from the Golden Coast Conference with an interim head coach Gabor Sarusi after longtime head coach Bruce Watson was on leave. Here is another well-deservedA.

Improving from last year's sixth place finish, men's golf with head coach John Kenneday finished fourth in the Mountain West championship. For the first time since 2019, men's golf qualified as a team for an NCAA regional, so the team gets a B+ after getting a C in 2023.

In their first season moving from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation to the Mountain West, women's gymnastics finished third in the Mountain West championship, but the team did qualify for an NCAA regional for the second time in three years, again showing that head coach Joanne Bowers is raising the bar (clears throat) for this team. Like men's golf, women's gymnastics gets at B+ for a postseason team appearance.

Women's beach volleyball, in its second season under head coach Gary Hodge, did show improvement in Southland Conference play from 1-4 in 2023 to 3-4 this year during an overall 14-12 season. Based on a curve, this team gets a C+.

Another sport with high expectations was baseball, following the Mountain West regular season and tournament championships of 2023. But a lack of pitching depth cost the team in key moments throughout the year, based on a lack of midweek wins (including an 0-3 record against a horrible San Francisco), blowing a 6-0 lead vs. New Mexico in the regular season finale, and missing two chances to beat Fresno State for a second straight Mountain West tournament title. Baseball did have a 16-14 conference record (24-33 overall). But that record looks much different coming off a conference championship, than it did in 2022 after one of the worst seasons in program history. In his seventh season on the job, head coach Brad Sanfilippo should show much better results than this! So this team regrettably deserves a C. Now that Sanfilippo will need to retool the roster with practically the entire starting nine graduating, be prepared to feel disappointment next season.

Men's soccer had an impressive 10-win season and second place WAC finish in 2022, which makes last season's 6-8-4 (3-4-1 WAC) record far below expectations. This is worthy of a C-.

D- grades will go to men's cross country (eighth out of nine in Mountain West championships), women's swimming and diving (eighth out of nine in Mountain West championships), and women's volleyball (13-18, 4-14 MW).

Finally, the dreaded F belongs to softball (18-27, 7-14 MW), women's cross country (last place in MW championships), women's soccer (3-10-6, 1-7-3 MW), and women's water polo (0-6 in conference play). Women's soccer and volleyball have taken major steps backwards from stellar 2022 seasons.

This season at San Jose State had moments worthy of all five of the San Francisco Chronicle's Little Man rating cartoons, from leap-out-your-seat applause to leaving completely.

With 2024 being an election year, the age-old question is returning to public discourse, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

For San Jose State athletics under Jeff Konya, who will enter his fourth year as athletics director this fall, the answer has to be an unequivocal yes. Conference championships have become an expectation, not an occasion. Facilities have had long-overdue upgrades, especially for the highest profile sport in football. Most obviously, Konya is delivering a clean, ethical athletics department after inheriting scandals and negative publicity on his first day.

In a decision I do not make lightly, due to some of the more disappointing performances this season from teams like baseball and volleyball, I can only issue a B- for 2023-24 compared to B+ in 2022-23.