As unlikely as it was for cornerback Dwight Lowery to go from unknown junior-college transfer to first-team All-America, he wasn”t even the biggest surprise on a re-tooled San Jose State defense this season.
Safety Rakine Toomes and linebacker Demetrius Jones didn”t play football last fall. Linebacker Damaja Jones was a special teams player. Most of the defensive line redshirted or still was in high school last season.
But what seemed to be a collection of odds and ends transformed into the backbone of the Spartans” breakthrough season, which concludes Saturday in the inaugural New Mexico Bowl.
“Everything came together,”” Coach Dick Tomey said this week.
The Spartans are 8-4 and headed to a bowl for the first time in 16 years. But the five-win turnaround from last season wouldn”t have been possible without a defensive revival.
SJSU allowed 21.5 points per game, nearly two touchdowns less than a year ago, when the Spartans went 3-8 and lost three games by seven points. Five times this season the defense didn”t allow a point in the second half.
Not bad for a program that two years ago fielded the worst defense in Division I-A football.
“We”re not one of the best yet, but we”re getting there,”” said middle linebacker Matt Castelo, who is third in the country in tackles, averaging 12.2 per game.
The defense turned a lot of heads last month in a heartbreaking 23-20 loss to No. 14 Boise State. The Broncos” high-powered offense was held to nearly half its season scoring average and BSU failed to score a first-half touchdown for the only time this season.
“They played us as good as anyone played us,”” Boise State coach Chris Peterson said this week.
Coming into the season, defense was one of SJSU”s biggest question marks.
The only returning starters, Castelo and Christopher Vedder, were switching positions. Every spot was up for grabs.
“It was like starting over,”” co-defensive coordinator Tom Williams said.
Not only were the faces new, but the coaching staff took a new look at the double-eagle flex, which Tomey made famous in the 1990s at Arizona. The scheme is designed to stop the run, often relying on eight players at or near the line of scrimmage. But that left SJSU susceptible to long pass plays.
Last season, Spartans defensive backs were burned 47 times on passes that went at least 20 yards, including 11 for touchdowns.
So the staff tweaked the flex, opting to drop four defensive backs into coverage.
“There are elements of the true Arizona flex and there are elements of the 4-3 defense and stuff we”ve kind of created on our own,”” Williams said. “It”s kind of a hybrid defense. We don”t have a name for it, just Spartan defense for now.””
By any name, it has worked.
The unit cut the big plays it had yielded nearly in half.
“You”ll be in a lot of football games if you eliminate big plays,”” cornerbacks coach Keith Burns said. “You just have to drive that point home.””
It wasn”t an overnight success. In the opener, a 35-29 loss at Washington, the unit yielded 468 yards and several long gains. A week later at home against Stanford it was more of the same, as the Cardinal scored 34 points and had a handful of long pass plays in the first half.
But the defense regrouped. It shut out Stanford the rest of the way, sparking a comeback victory. The season never was the same.
SJSU had its best defensive season in years despite a beat-up defensive line. Senior Freddy McCutcheon, the best lineman, suffered a dislocated knee cap before opener at Washington and missed the first four games. Another senior, Shane Lapka, suffered a season-ending ankle injury against Nevada.
Eight different players started on the line, including four freshmen.
Lowery, the first SJSU first-team All-American since 1971, struck for seven interceptions in SJSU”s first four games and ended with a school-record nine.
When teams started to throw away from Lowery, Christopher Owens (a.k.a. “the other guy””) stepped up. Owens picked off four passes in four games.
Just as important was the play of converted cornerbacks Vedder and Toomes at safety.
Vedder was solid in coverage and finished second on the team in tackles. Toomes made his impact felt in his season debut against Stanford, knocking the ball out of receiver Evan Moore”s arms at midfield in the closing seconds. Demetrius Jones recovered the fumble, sealing SJSU”s season-altering victory.
Not long ago, the Spartans could more often be found on the other side of those big plays. Not long ago, the thought of a bowl game might”ve been absurd.
“We”ve come a long way,”” said Castelo.
The evolution of the San Jose State defense over the past three seasons. Number in parentheses is rank among Division I-A football programs.
Year Points per game Yards per game TD/INT Turnovers gained
2004 42.6 (117) 441 (108) 17/12 19
2005 32.5 (102) 441 (104) 21/13 21
2006 21.5 (50) 353 (75) 17/16 26
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