For 10 years Utah State hasn't beaten San Jose in football. The bizarre loss Saturday - USU truly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory - made it eight straight for the Spartans. Not since 1985 have the Aggies beaten them.
Three of the last four losses came down to final-seconds plays and involved strange, stunning Aggie errors.In Saturday's 32-30 loss, a USU lineman called a timeout that allowed an out-of-timeouts San Jose to leisurely put its field goal unit in place for the winning points with :18 left on a fourth-and-1 situation. It was the final straw in a strange day that saw the Ags set a school record for penalty yards (185), including 39 on one play (three penalties) that led to a 70-yard look-what-I-found San Jose passing TD to cut USU's lead to 30-29 with 2:26 left.
San Jose kicker Joe Furlow admitted, "I needed a little bit of time to compose myself, and I started to calm down. I've never done it (win a game)," he said. He and coach John Ralston insisted :18 would have been enough time to set up and kick and that the Ag timeout didn't mean much. But with the clock running, QB Carl Dean ran from the sideline to midfield to line up for a play (would he have mistakenly tried to spike the ball to stop the clock?), then ran halfway off the field and back on, unsure what to do.
In 1992's 27-25 Aggie loss to SJSU in Logan, Joe Nedney's 32-yard field goal with :06 left won it after the Spartans drove from their own 20 in the final 1:59. In the game, USU missed two fourth-quarter two-point PAT tries, San Jose QB Jeff Garcia turned a near-sack into a 17-yard TD run to complete a 96-yard drive and, on the next scrimmage play, USU fumbled at its 17 set up another Spartan TD for a 24-10 SJSU lead.
Most similar to Saturday was the 1990 34-27 loss at Spartan Stadium. The Ags were down 10-0 before they touched the ball. The Spartans kicked a field goal on their first drive; on the kickoff, an Ag freshman let the ball bounce in front of him not realizing it was live. SJSU recovered on USU's 22. On fourth-and-7, a doubly deflected pass found a San Jose receiver in the end zone. It was 17-0 when a fourth-and-8 fumble by SJSU's quarterback bounced back to him and froze the defense long enough for him to toss a TD pass. Still, the Ags could have won save for a fourth-quarter SJSU end-zone interception.