Nebraska-San Jose State: Winning Coach, Ex-Cal QB Won't Help Spartans in Lincoln

When I hear the words "San Jose," the first things that come to mind are Technology, Silicon Valley, and No Way Jose.

With the spread currently hovering around 27 points in favor of Nebraska, it might be easy to dismiss this game as a "No Way Jose" game for the Huskers—as in there’s no way in hell San Jose State can come in and beat the Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium.

But if you take a closer look at the Spartans, there are definitely some things that grab your attention and let you know this game isn’t going to be a total cakewalk.

First off, let’s start with their head coach, Dick Tomey.  I bet you didn’t know about these two eye-popping diddy bam stats.

Total D-I Football Wins Among All Active Coaches

t1) Bobby Bowden (Florida State, West Virginia): 373

t1) Joe Paterno (Penn State): 373

3) Mack Brown (Texas, North Carolina, Tulane): 184

4) Dick Tomey (San Jose State, Arizona, Hawaii): 176

5) Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech): 167

6) Steve Spurrier (South Carolina, Florida, Duke): 164

Coaching Longevity Among FBS Head Coaches

1) Joe Paterno, Penn State: 500 games

2) Bobby Bowden, Florida State: 496 games

3) Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech: 321 games

4) Dick Tomey, San Jose State: 311 games

Wow!  How about that drop-off from Joe Pa and Bowden to the rest of the pack in Total Wins?  No wonder these guys refuse to stop coaching until the lid is slammed on their caskets.  Whoever outlasts the other guy owns that freaking record forever.  Mack Brown would have to coach until he was 99 years old before he could even sniff that record.

Back to San Jose State.  You want to know more about this Dick Tomey character?  Check out this chestnut, son.

Remember back in 1999 when Sports Illustrated picked the Arizona Wildcats (!) as their preseason No. 1 team in the country?  And in the 1999 nationally televised Kickoff Classic game, that Arizona team played at Penn State and got absolutely annihilated by LaVar Arrington, Courtney Brown, and company something like 222 to 0?

Dick Tomey was the coach of those Arizona Wildcats.  His team never recovered from that Kickoff Classic drubbing, and they ended up finishing the season with a 5-6 record.

Tomey got fired at the end of that season, as did several people at Sports Illustrated.  He spent the next few years as an assistant coach, and this is now his fourth season as head coach of the Spartans.

All right, enough about their coach.  The X-factor in this game is quarterback Kyle Reed, who transferred from the California Golden Bears to San Jose last year.  Reed was the number two QB at Cal as recently as 2007.  He missed all of spring practice with a broken foot and came into the 2008 season listed as the third string quarterback.

Coach Tomey planned on playing him in the third quarter last week, regardless of the score.  San Jose State was down by 10 points to lowly UC-Davis at halftime.  Reed came in and completed 14 of 18 passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns.  He also rushed seven times for 28 yards.  After rallying the team to victory, he now gets his first collegiate start against Nebraska.

Coming out of high school, Reed was considered one of the nation’s top-ranked "double threat" quarterbacks, ranked No. 5 overall by Rivals.com.

Our prediction for Saturday's game?

Well, Kyle Reed hasn’t started a game at quarterback since 2004, back when he was a senior in high school.  It’s safe to say he’s never experienced an environment like Memorial Stadium before.

Reed is definitely the wild card in this game, without question.  But let’s be honest: He’s seen a grand total of 30 minutes of "live game action" over the past 1,300 days.

Although Dick Tomey might have a boatload of wins over his 31-year career, I’ve been passionately following college football for damn near 31 years now, and I hardly knew dick about Dick Tomey until I started researching this post.

The one stat that really grabbed my attention?  He’s only won five bowl games in 31 years.

Five?  That’s right, five—the exact number of touchdowns the Cornhuskers will win by this Saturday.

Nebraska 56, San Jose State 21