Next game: San Jose State at Nebraska, Saturday, September 6, Memorial Stadium, 11:30 a.m. (CDT)/9:30 a.m. (PDT)

2008 San Jose State record: 1-0. The Spartans opened the season with a 13-10 non-conference victory over UC Davis.

2008 Nebraska record: 1-0. The Cornhuskers kicked off the season with a 47-24 out of conference triumph over Western Michigan.

Radio Coverage: KLIV (1590 AM, San Jose) originates San Jose State University football broadcasts. Mike Chisholm calls the play-by-play. Kevin Richardson offers commentary. The pregame show for the Nebraska game begins at 9:00 a.m. (PDT). Broadcasts also are available on a subscription basis on www.sjsuspartans.com and Yahoo!Broadcast.

Television Coverage: The San Jose State-Nebraska game will be available on a pay-per-view basis in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Ron Thulin calls the play-by-play. Dave Lapham provides commentary. Joel Goldberg is the sideline reporter. DirecTv and DISH Network subscribers should check their listings for the telecast.

San Jose State head coach Dick Tomey: In his fourth season with the Spartans. Has an 18-19 win-loss record at San Jose State. His 17 wins in his first three seasons as the Spartans head coach are the most by the team since the 1990 through 1992 seasons when those San Jose State teams combined to win 22 games.

Overall, Tomey now is in his 28th season as a major college head coach and has a record of 176-129-7. He ranks in top-10 for coaching victories both in WAC and the Pacific-10 Conferences.

As a head coach, Tomey is 1-2 against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers defeated the Tomey-led Hawaii teams in 1978 (56-10 in Lincoln) and in 1982 (37-16 in Honolulu). Tomey directed Arizona to the 1998 Culligan Holiday Bowl title in a 23-20 decision. With the Wildcats’ postseason win, Tomey became the only head coach in the decade of the 1990’s to lead a team to bowl victories over both Nebraska and Miami (Fla.). Arizona defeated Miami (Fla.), 29-0, in the 1994 Fiesta Bowl.

Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini: In his first full season as the head coach at Nebraska. Has a major college coaching record of 2-0, all with the Cornhuskers. He was Nebraska’s interim head coach in the 2003 Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State.
Pelini once was an assistant coach for the San Francisco 49ers and head coach George Seifert during the 1995 through 1997 seasons. The 49ers won their fifth Super Bowl championship in 1995 with Pelini serving as an assistant secondary coach.

San Jose State-Nebraska series: The Cornhuskers lead the series, 1-0. Nebraska won the only meeting between these teams, 49-13, on September 2, 2000, at Memorial Stadium. That contest is the only time in San Jose State history that the Spartans took on the number-one ranked team in a nationally-recognized poll.

Defending the home turf: With the UC Davis victory, San Jose State has won 13 out of its last 15 home games going back to the November 19, 2005 win against New Mexico State. In Dick Tomey’s tenure, the Spartans have a 14-4 record in Spartan Stadium. He is the first San Jose State coach since Ron Turner (1992, 3-1) to lead the Spartans to a plus-.500 record in Spartan Stadium games.

Another San Jose State comeback under Dick Tomey: The UC Davis win marked the 11th time since Dick Tomey became San Jose State’s head coach that the Spartans overcame a deficit and emerged victorious. In six of these wins, San Jose State trailed by 10 or more points in the first half.

Effective second-half defense continues into 2008: Since the tenth game of the 2007 season, San Jose State has given up just 10 second-half points. At the end of 2007, New Mexico State scored a fourth-quarter touchdown in a Spartan win, Louisiana Tech kicked an important fourth-quarter field goal to beat San Jose State and Nevada was held scoreless in the last two quarters as the Spartans closed out the season with a win. San Jose State did not allow UC Davis to score any second-half points in the 2008 opener.

Quarterbacks top the ground attack: The UC Davis game marked the seventh time in the last 15 games a San Jose State quarterback was the team’s leading rusher. Kyle Reed, who played only in the second half, led the Spartans with 28 yards on seven carries.

New timing rules quicken game: The San Jose State-UC Davis game was played in 2 hours, 50 minutes and took the least amount of time since the 2007 opener at Arizona State that needed 2 hours, 57 minutes to complete. The Spartans and UC Davis combined for 122 offensive plays. A year ago, there were an average of 141.8 plays per San Jose State game.

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