This one is a non-conference booking now, not a Mountain West rivalry game, and that's the whole subplot. Fresno State officially left for the Pac-12 on July 1, joining Boise State, Colorado State and San Diego State, while San José State stayed put in a reshuffled Mountain West. Both programs' schedules are locked up for years, which makes this Central Valley series a lot harder to keep alive going forward — so treat Saturday, September 19 as a rivalry game on borrowed time.
The trend lines are pointed in opposite directions. Fresno State capped 2025 at 9-4 and knocked off Miami (Ohio) 18-3 in the Arizona Bowl, Entz's first year in charge. San José State cratered from a 7-6, bowl-eligible 2024 — which included wins over Stanford and Oregon State — down to 3-9 a year later. That collapse is exactly why this offseason is about a full teardown in San José rather than building on momentum.
The names to watch on the field: Fresno's Rayshon Luke and Bryson Donelson give Entz a proven two-back rotation, and Josiah Freeman returns as the top target regardless of who's throwing him the ball. San José State's answer is linebacker Ethan Powell, a fifth-year senior who racked up 37 tackles last season and projects for a much bigger role, plus sophomore receiver Jordan Anderson, a Sacramento State transfer with more speed than production so far.
Strip away the conference realignment noise and this still reads like a program on the rise visiting one still figuring out what it has. Fresno State gets to test its new pieces against an SJSU roster that's essentially been rebuilt from scratch, while Niumatalolo needs results now to prove last year was the outlier and not the new normal.