San José State has its own hole to climb out of. The Spartans were 2-2 heading into Saturday's late game at Hawai'i, with a 16-point loss at home to Fresno State hanging over them. That trip matters here. The game kicked off late Saturday night on the islands, so this week means a flight back across the Pacific and a Friday kickoff, the same short week Wyoming has. Neither team gets a full week to prepare. There's no board posted on this game yet.
Northern Colorado21-13
Cal Poly30-20
The Spartans' 4 results so far make some sense. They scored 26 at USC, which is more than most Group of 5 teams manage there, then won close ones at Eastern Michigan and at home against Cal Poly. Then Fresno State came to San Jose and held them to 10. When this offense gets going it puts up 26 to 30. When it doesn't, it looks like the Fresno game. Wyoming's defense held Hawai'i to 10 and Northern Colorado to 13 at home. The question is whether it holds up on the road with an offense that keeps putting it back on the field.
It's Homecoming in San Jose, and the school is also honoring the 20th anniversary of its 2006 New Mexico Bowl team, so expect a bigger crowd than a usual Friday night. The forecast says mostly sunny and warm, upper 80s with almost no wind, so weather shouldn't make this a grind. That's up to the offenses. Wyoming needs to show the shutout was a bad night in Fargo and not who it is on the road. San José State needs to show Fresno was the exception. Whatever happened in Honolulu will tell us a lot about the Spartans before Friday.