Though the Mountain West said adiós to the conference championship game, San José State will be saying aloha to the Hawai‘i Bowl.
On Wednesday, the Spartans accepted an invitation to play in the Easypost Bowl on
Dec. 23 at T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in Honolulu.
Their opponent: the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.
“What these young men did the last half of the season was really, really special,” said SJSU head coach Brent Brennan. “I think them being rewarded with going to a bowl game is just awesome.”
The Spartans rattled off six straight wins to close the season and were in play to get to the Mountain West Title game. The Spartans fell short as computers deemed Boise State and UNLV to be higher in the rankings, but SJSU gets a consolation prize as it will head to the Hawai‘i Bowl — one of the most coveted bowl games in the country.
The Spartans have now reached a bowl game in three of the last four seasons under Brennan. It is the first time SJSU has made a bowl game in back-to-back seasons since 1987.
It will be a homecoming ending for sixth-year quarterback Chevan Cordeiro who is a Honolulu native. He also played four seasons at Hawai‘i before transferring to SJSU in 2022.
Cordeiro had played in the Aloha State earlier this season when the Spartans routed the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa 35-0. He had one of his best games of his SJSU career, throwing for 251 yards and 2 touchdowns.
“It means a lot,” Cordeiro said about finishing his career back home. “To go back home and play in front of my family for the last time in my collegiate career means everything.”
SJSU quarterbacks coach Lyle Moevao added “I think any college football player’s dream is being able to play your last career game in front of your home crowd, especially being the 808. We're happy for him.”
This is not the first time Brennan and Moevao have made an appearance in the Hawai‘i Bowl. Moevao was the quarterback and Brennan was the wide receivers coach at Oregon State when the Beavers defeated Boise State to take the 2013 Hawai‘i Bowl.
“It’s such a well-run bowl game,” Brennan said. “It’s probably one of my favorite bowl game experiences … We had a fantastic time there in 2013 with the Oregon State team. It was really special.”
Coastal Carolina finished the season with a 7-5 record. The Chanticleers had a five-game winning streak at one point of the season that helped them get to bowl eligibility, but lost the final two games of the regular season.
Star quarterback Grayson McCall missed the last five games of the season with a head injury and will not be suiting up for the bowl game as he entered the transfer portal on Nov. 27.
Sixteen Coastal Carolina players have hit the transfer portal since it opened last week.
The Chanticleers are led by first-year head coach Tim Beck. Coastal Carolina was elevated from the Football Championship Series (FCS) to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level in 2017 and have made it to a bowl game in each of the last three seasons.
“Coastal Carolina has been an awesome football team for a while now,” Brennan said. “They’ve done a really good job. They’ve got great personnel and they play extremely hard. This is a great matchup and a great challenge for our football team.”
