List of San Jose State Spartans head football coaches

The San Jose State Spartans college football team represent San Jose State University in the Mountain West Conference. The Spartans competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) College Division in the years 1921–1968. In 1969, the team moved to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I.

The program has had 32 different head coaches in its 106 seasons of existence (through 2023), including one who had multiple tenures as coach. Many coaches throughout the Spartans football history have won multiple National and Conference Awards and have been enshrined into multiple Halls of Fame including Pop Warner (associate coach with the Spartans), Bob Bronzan, Terry Shea, John Ralston, Dick Tomey and Brent Brennan. Many former players who were taught by these innovate coaches have gone on to become some of the greatest football coaches of all time including Bill Walsh, Dick Vermeil and Terry Donahue.

Key

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
† Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 5]
No. Name[A 6] Season(s)[A 7] GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT DC CC NC Awards
1 James E. Addicott 1893
1895
1900 		16 6 6 4 0.500 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
2 Thad McKay 1898 6 5 0 1 0.917 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
3 Jess Woods 1899 10 6 3 1 0.650 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
4 Fielding H. Yost† 1900 1 1 0 0 1.000 — — — — — — — — — 0 —
5 David Wooster 1921–1922 14 3 10 1 0.250 0 3 0 .000 — — — — 0 0 —
6 Hovey C. McDonald 1923 6 0 6 0 .000 0 4 0 .000 — — — — 0 0 —
7 Ernesto R. Knollin 1924–1928 38 14 22 2 0.395 11 15 1 0.426 — — — — 1 0 —
8 Mush Crawford 1929–1931 24 6 14 4 0.333 3 8 2 0.308 — — — — 0 0 —
9 Dudley DeGroot 1932–1939 87 60 19 8 0.736 11 1 5 0.794 — — — — 3 0 —
10 Ben Winkelman 1940–1941 23 16 4 3 0.761 5 0 1 0.917 — — — — 2 0 —
11 Glenn Hartranft 1942 9 7 2 0 0.778 1 1 0 0.500 — — — — 0 0 —
12 Wilbur V. Hubbard 1946–1947 48 36 11 1 0.760 16 2 0 0.889 2 0 0 — 3 0 —
13 Bob Bronzan 1950–1956 67 32 30 5 0.515 — — — — 0 0 0 — — 0 —
14 Bob Titchenal 1957–1964 80 33 46 1 0.419 — — — — 0 0 0 — — 0 —
15 Harry Anderson 1965–1968 39 13 26 0 0.316 — — — — 0 0 0 — — 0 —
16 Joe McMullen 1969–1970 13 3 10 0 0.231 2 1 0 0.667 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
17 Dewey King 1970–1972 30 10 20 0 0.333 6 7 0 0.462 0 1 0 — 0 0 —
18 Darryl Rogers 1973–1975 34 22 9 3 0.691 9 2 2 0.769 0 0 0 — 1 0 —
19 Lynn Stiles 1976–1978 34 18 16 0 0.529 10 3 0 0.769 0 0 0 — 2 0 —
20 Jack Elway 1979–1983 56 35 20 1 0.634 19 7 1 0.722 0 1 0 — 1 0 —
21 Claude Gilbert 1984–1989 69 38 30 1 0.558 30 11 1 0.726 1 1 0 — 2 0 —
22 Terry Shea 1990–1991 23 15 6 2 0.696 13 1 0 0.929 1 0 0 — 2 0 Big West Coach of the Year (1990)
23 Ron Turner 1992 11 7 4 0 0.636 4 2 0 0.667 0 0 0 — 0 0 —
24 John Ralston† 1993–1996 45 11 34 0 0.244 11 26 0 0.297 0 0 0 0 0 0 —
25 Dave Baldwin 1997–2000 45 18 27 — 0.400 13 17 — 0.433 0 0 — 0 0 0 —
26 Fitz Hill 2001–2004 47 14 33 — 0.298 9 21 — 0.300 0 0 — — 0 0 —
27 Dick Tomey 2005–2009 60 25 35 — 0.417 16 24 — 0.400 1 0 — — 0 0 —
28 Mike MacIntyre 2010–2012 37 16 21 — 0.432 8 13 — 0.381 0 0 — — 0 0 —
Int Kent Baer 2012 1 1 0 — 1.000 0 0 — – 1 0 — — 0 0 —
29 Ron Caragher 2013–2016 49 19 30 — 0.388 14 18 — 0.438 1 0 — 0 0 0 —
30 Brent Brennan 2017–2023 82 34 48 — 0.415 25 30 — 0.455 0 3 — 2 2 0 Mountain West Coach of the Year (2020)
31 Ken Niumatalolo 2024–present 13 7 6 — 0.538 3 4 — 0.429 0 1 — 0 0 0 —

Notes

  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[1]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[2]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[3]
  5. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2024 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
  6. ^ The head coach for the 1892 season is unknown.
  7. ^ San Jose State did not field teams during the 1894, 1896–1897, 1901–1920, and 1943–1945 seasons.

References

  1. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  2. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  3. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.