Coach Ken Niumatalolo Previews San Jose State vs. Cal Poly and the Keys to Staying Focused

0:00It's time for the coach Ken show sponsored by Providing Credit. The dream is alive for San Jose State and they will play in the Mount West title game next. Here's the head coach of the San Jose State Spartans. Can Nea Matallolo with Murphy Marcus on the sports leader? Yeah, let's go. Find on for dear old San Jose State. I'm on me. Mr. Student in the kitchen coach Ken show is sponsored by Provident Credit Union Provident Credit Union Provide smart banking options like super reward checking, visit ProvidentCU.org. And we're talking to a winner here coach Ken and the San Jose State Spartans with a nice fourth quarter come back win at Eastern Michigan. They get to one in one in the year and Marcus guess what? Home for the first time all year this Saturday against well Cal Poly San Jose this year. Well, there's a lot of Cal Poly San Jose State players with kids around KMBR. We got some San Jose State people too. So should be a great game down there at Sefcus Stadium at six o'clock on Saturday. But coach want to say as now we move into week three of the coach Ken show congrats on the big win last Saturday.

1:05Where did go? How you doing? Hey, morning coach. Doing great. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Yeah, let's talk about it that fourth quarter. You guys are on the road. You've already had the game at SC and you're down. Luke Weaver fumbles late in the third and you're down 2117. Maybe I don't know belief becomes a thing right then, but Weaver leads you guys to a touchdown. You get a feel goal. You wind up win and tell me about that moment of truth when you kind of fall behind. There's a fumble and you're on the road and you're losing. Yeah, it's a great perspective. Normally that's the death sentence in football. You know, you get a either strip sack for touchdown. You know, I mean, that's so demoralizing. But it showed a little bit of our resolve and a great of football team. To bounce back on the road on a short week, having to travel east. You know, loose time zones and I'll just part of our guys that are guys. I just saw something in this team that's got me excited for the rest of the team season that we got some tough kids with some some grit.

2:06And it's encouraging for the rest of the season. Yeah, and coach, it seemed like one of the keys to the game was getting your defense off that field and it did a great job over a Eastern Michigan last Friday. And then the third down numbers Eastern Michigan was only three for 16 on the day. So how impressive was that for your defense to get the ball back for your offense in that fourth quarter? Well, it was awesome. You know, we had seven three and outs. I thought we did a really, really good job of stopping the run and making them one handed. You know, we had a hard time obviously stopping the run against the Trojans, but. You know, we recognize also that was a different animal. But I was encouraged to see us being able to stop the run and placed out there and play really good defense. And I could say give our offense a chance there, man. And and also, as you said, Luke was able to come through, you know, not only we get some stops, but we had some big. You know, drives there at the end of the game to feel the win. So that was a great team win. Talking to coach Ken Neumattolo, who of course, San Jose State gets the big win at Eastern Michigan 2721. They come home one on one to face a California rival. Now it's an FCS school.

3:10Cal Polyshan Luis Vesbo, but they're 2 and 0. Is there a danger coach can in the in, I don't know, looking past us. An FCS school. They're 2 and 0. They're trying to go 3 and 0. They haven't beaten an FBS school since 2012, I believe, but where's where's the danger? How do you get your guys on cutting edge for Saturday at 6 o'clock? Well, there, there is definitely a danger because, you know, today's day and age, you know, guys are constantly on their phone, people are constantly on their phone and they read things. But we also recognize there's a honesty and humility on our group. Like it's not like we're all how state or organ anybody, you know, we're, we're a team just fighting for our own identity and trying to make our own way. So we recognize that we can't take anybody lightly for who we are. We got to come ready to play every, every game, every snap, every quarter. I mean, we're not a program that can take anybody lightly. We just got to make sure we're ready to play ourselves. Coach, Ken, coming back home after two back to back row games, what did you learn from your team?

4:12What their ability to not only go down in battle against USC and show you some real life in that second half, but to go on the road to set up this home opener this weekend. Yes, like you said, I mean, I love the way our guys responded in the second half against USC, you know, the top 10 program. Some guys got a lot of people got them ranked in the top 10 now. But our guys didn't quit and we battled in the second half. And then to kind of carry that over as we went on the road, I was concerned because in football is such a physical game and we had one less stated prepare and recover. And we had to travel across the country. So all of those factors and unfortunately we got a team bug doing that, you know, we got several guys sick. You know, so like, you know, over all those obstacles and some things that happened in the game, I was just proud of our guys that they fought. And so a lot of this, a lot of football, a lot of sports, I mean, not in my if you just, you know, there's going to be adversity and finding a way to fight to it and really, really proud of our guys and.

5:12Let us show their character and who they are because I believe in adversity, you know, you get to see people's true character. Did they complain to the quit? Did they soak? Well, they just keep fighting. I'm like, is keep fighting good stuff and Saturday night at Seth Kus stadium six o'clock in San Jose, San Jose State Spartans home opener against Cal Poly coach Ken, the Amatilolo on the Uma guests. And I would do this every Thursday at this time. And now that you have two weeks of data, listen, we know about Luke Weaver. He was hyped coming in and he he's performing 316 yards. I believe in three touchdowns at Eastern Michigan, but you start to learn about other guys too. I'm looking at Jibari Bates, the running back who had over 100 yards at Eastern Michigan. So that was cool. But now you start to see other players emerge and I'm looking at why receiver Cooper Hoke. Six foot three kid out of Costa Mesa went to Corona Del Mar high school down there and the Newport Beach area. Five catches 115 had some big plays. What are we learning about this kid? Again, Cooper is another kid that you know, he's a walk on. Came here. He's a guy that just constantly works.

6:13He doesn't, you know, he doesn't complain. The same thing I just said and doesn't, you know, cry about where his situation was. He was a backup last year, but you can see every day he came to work. And I think his process and away he attacks his, you know, his work every day is work ethic is work habits. As proven, you know, great results for him. It could be more happy for a kid like that because he's such a great person. Such a great kid. He's seen him play like he's played and produce like he's produced has been really exciting for us. Like you said, you're barry played awesome. You know, Carson Clark is a guy that's coming to his own to his main couple games now. He's played really well. You know, two linebackers. I thought a two inside linebackers not a badger sent. And Dylan Lee had really good games last week. And they were solid and so like you said, as a season progresses, you see guys emerge. But a lot of guys that we've seen are guys that have been doing well in camp, but you never know how guys are going to plan the lights.

7:13And so really excited for Cooper. And like I said, you root for kids like him because he's such a great person. That's a great story. I didn't know his walk on set to touch down in that game. And that's that's really, really cool. By the way, I neglected to mention. Does everybody know that the San Jose State kickers last name is Sinatra? I mean, I'm a Frank Sinatra guy, coach. Can I'm like, I want to like blast. I don't know. We got to blast some Sinatra on every P 18 field goal. We got to get and we got a lot of songs to choose from. So let's do that. Right. That's a great idea. We definitely need to do that. But he's he's another kid. I mean, he was actually our first recruit. It was our top priority in off season. We had to get a kicker. And you know, Trajan has been awesome. But you know, we have a walk through doing camp. We had walkthroughs at night every night doing camp. And when kids were guys are leaving the field, they recognized that one guy stayed on the field to walk through his pregame or his pre kicker team all by himself on the field. And I know our kids noticed that you know, he just did on his own.

8:15And so for just him to kick the how he's kicked right now. I know our guys have seen like, well, this guy's paid the price. He's mentally focused. He's a guy that's done everything he can to be the best kicker he can for us and super excited for all the things that Trajan's doing for us too. Trajan's a natural. We'll get a little summer win the way you look tonight. Whatever it is. It's keep making kicks, kid. I love it. I love it. Well, listen, good win on the road. Really exciting and fun to see. Or of course, rooting for you makes for better shows too when you when you guys win. And and six o'clock tonight. Like you said, listen, I know Vegas has you guys as a big favorite. And you got to get your kids on a in a belief mode that they got to attack Cal Poly. So I'd imagine the way you start this game Saturday is going to be important to you. No doubt. I mean, we got to get up to great start. I was able to stay after our game versus Eastern Michigan. My son coaches at Michigan. Oh, nice. And so I was able to stay for that game and watch that game.

9:15And you could just see as a game progress, you know, between Western and Michigan that Westerns. There are confidence grew and grew and grew and so we got to make sure that we get off to fast start. You know, if there's any kind of confidence, you'll flu. We can, you know, snap that out. But we've definitely a priority for us to get off to fast start. By the way, we won't mention was your son, the one who put the second back on the clock coach. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't have that kind of power. No, but you're right. I mean, Western got belief and that's what you got. You got to snuff out Cal Poly's belief early in that game. Otherwise, you might have a situation on your hands. So it is sports after all. So all right, coach. Well, listen, enjoy it. We'll be watching the game on Saturday. Good luck. Hope you guys played great. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks coach. All right, guys. I was great talking to you guys. Take care. Yeah, fun stuff. Coach Kenney and Matalolo is fun stuff. They're 20 and a half point favorites, but he's right. You give it. All it takes is an underdog to get a little belief.

10:16All it takes is a triple. We are young Tony showing up in the crowd. Dude, Cal Poly sent us a bispot. We got a triple E. Tony, young Tony TV Tony at Kyle Har. Kyle Har is another one. Other others. Um, I think we've had a couple other sprinkled in. I can't think off the top of my head. But we, yeah. So we got to deal with the SLO arm. And I believe we have a Cal Poly guest coming up next. Cal Poly Humble. Yes, indeed. Mel Meyoko from Cal Poly Humble. Shout out Danny Dunn. Also Cal Poly Humble play the horns. Walt, because I haven't done it because we had Zander McGuire on from Pardon me, Xavier. God, Zander. Zander McGuire from NBC News 7 or 7 News Melbourne. I'll get that right eventually. Zander McGuire from 7 News Melbourne was when we usually play the horn. So, well, sponsored by El Serito Honda more than just a car dealership. We're family. Spit out that guest list, buddy. Yeah. So we just had coach Ken Mata Lolo. One of my favorite names to do.

11:17But. Mata Lolo. Me and Mata Lolo. Do you see it to a rhythm? Why is coach Ken? Yeah, yeah. Keep it easy. Yeah. Yeah. But like Mark has just said, Matt Meyoko coming up from Australia 650. Yeah, Mattie. And then the couple of Larry's later, right? Yeah. And we got Larry Bear 730 cooler, a concept 830 and Larry Kruger at 915. Want to tell everybody the roundtable at noon features a mystery guest at 1215. Mysterious. We scheduled a mystery guest at 1215. Oh, I wonder who it could be. I'm going to show up and find out. I'll be there. By the way, that kid Sinatra, Trajan Sinatra's a kid went to Silver Creek High School. Oh, wow. I love it. I love it. I love it. Does anybody trace the Sinatra Lint? No, I don't want to say like after a concert, maybe down at Circle Star Theater. Yeah, no, I'm not going to go to that. No, no, no, no. All right. Matt Meyoko at Midnight in Melbourne. Midnight in Melbourne. Next on these sports leaders. KMBRB Sports Leader.