Fresno State ends regular season with five interceptions, beating rival San Jose State

In the grand scheme of the season, Fresno State’s 41-14 win against a struggling San Jose State team might not seem like it means much.

The Bulldogs (8-4, 5-3) already had clinched bowl eligibility weeks ago.

They also knew going into Saturday night that they had no chance of finishing in the top two of the Mountain West standings and playing for a conference championship.

Fresno State squandered that opportunity last week after losing to Utah State in the Bulldogs’ last home game of the season.

And yet, Fresno State showed a couple of important team skills while rebounding in its regular-season finale on Saturday: Simply winning when expected, and showing the discipline to do what needs to be done even when there isn’t much outside motivation.

Past Fresno State teams have fallen amid mundane circumstances.

But this Fresno State team, under first-year coach Matt Entz, made sure to not overlook San Jose State (3-8, 2-5) or be distracted by the holidays.

“It would’ve been easy to be frustrated, end of the year not playing for a conference championship,” Entz said on the Fox Sports 1340AM postgame interview. “True competitors got to be ready every week.”

The Bulldogs were 3.5-point favorites against their longtime rival Spartans.

And though Fresno State’s offense once again had issues in turning over the ball and made things uneasy going into the fourth quarter, the defense forced even more turnovers to help the Bulldogs avoid an upset.

Fresno State’s defense registered a season-high five interceptions and held San Jose State’s offense scoreless through the first three quarters as the unit once again reaffirmed Entz’s reputation as a strong defensive-minded coach, as well as defensive coordinator Nick Benedetto’s continued ability to develop turnover-forcing units.

The Bulldogs defense entered Saturday ranked 19th in the Football Bowl Subdivision play with 19 forced turnovers, including 14 interceptions.

The five interceptions against San Jose State could have Fresno State finishing in the nation’s Top 10 in forced turnovers.

In addition, Fresno State held San Jose State to 227 total yards.

Going into the game, the Bulldogs defense was ranked 14th in the country with an average of 299.5 total yards per game allowed.

The unit also disrupted the Spartans passing game to a tune of 11 of 34 completions (32%).

Bulldogs safety Simeon Harris came up with two interceptions. Teammates Jayden Davis, Al’zillion Hamilton and Ethan Tierney each had a pick of their own.

All the while, San Jose State circulated through three different quarterbacks with little success from any of them.

Fresno State quarterback E.J. Warner started for the second straight game after his three-game benching.

He still had turnover issues.

Warner’s 11th interception of the season, which was thrown midway through the second quarter, resulted in a 58-yard touchdown return.

And his fumble at the end of a run led to another touchdown on San Jose State’s ensuing possession as the Spartans reduced the Bulldogs’ lead to 24-14 with 10:59 left in the game.

But unlike last week against Utah State when Fresno State got in trouble and started to pass more down the stretch, which made things worse, the Bulldogs had the comfort of maintaining a lead and sticking to its running game to keep the Spartans at a distance.

With San Jose State threatening and down 10 points, Fresno State followed on its next drive with six straight running plays, including a 2-yard touchdown run from Elijah Gilliam to put the Bulldogs ahead 31-14.

Then on Fresno State’s next possession, the Bulldogs called three more consecutive run plays to set up a 33-yard field goal.

And on Fresno State’s final drive, the Bulldogs again avoided any passing attempts and instead simply turned to the ground four straight times until Gilliam scored again with a 34-yard run.

Gilliam finished with nine carries for 92 yards.

As a team, Fresno State ran the ball 53 times for 259 yards for an average of 4.9 yards per carry. The Bulldogs also had posession of the ball almost twice as long as the Spartans — 39:15 to 20:45.

Warner, meanwhile, finished 15 of 20 for 138 yards and one touchdown.

“Had a couple of turnovers at different times but had to respond,” Entz said. “Our kids did a really good job of playing vision defense. … That’s complimentary football.”

Fresno State will learn which bowl game it will play at some point next week.

Saturday marked Fresno State’s final Mountain West game, with the school moving into the Pac-12 next season. San Jose State is remaining in the Mountain West.

The two rivals, however, will continue to play each other in the future as part of their nonconference schedule.

Fresno State leads the all-time series 46-39-3, and maintains hold of the Valley Trophy, which was introduced in 2013 and is a hardware piece that represents the schools in the San Joaquin Valley and the Silicon Valley.

This story was originally published November 29, 2025 at 11:37 PM.