Ken Niumatalolo Explains How San Jose State Is Building Its Roster in the NIL Era

LAS VEGAS — Ken Niumatalolo has stopped worrying about the name, image and likeness markets San Jose State cannot afford to enter.

The financial gap has not disappeared. The Spartans simply have a better understanding of where they can compete and which players are worth pursuing.

“There are some stores we don’t even worry about going to because we don’t have the money,” Niumatalolo told The Scarlet Standard during an appearance on Rebel Daily Drive at Mountain West Football Media Days. “We just go to the stores that we know we’re at least in the ballpark budget-wise.”

That reality has clarified San Jose State’s recruiting approach entering Niumatalolo’s third season. The Spartans are not trying to win bidding wars against programs with larger revenue-sharing budgets or more aggressive collectives. They are looking for players who have already experienced the Power Four level, understand what San Jose State does not have and still value an opportunity to play.

If money is the first question, Niumatalolo does not believe the fit will work.

“If a kid comes and his first question is, ‘How much money do you make in revenue share here?’” Niumatalolo said, “I say, ‘You’re coming to the wrong school.’”

That was the clearest takeaway from his interview. San Jose State’s path back from a disappointing 2025 season will not come from pretending it can purchase the same roster as wealthier programs. It will depend on identifying players motivated by opportunity, connecting a reshaped team quickly and winning early enough to keep everyone invested.

The urgency comes from how quickly Niumatalolo’s first two seasons changed direction.

San Jose State went 7-6 and reached the Hawai‘i Bowl in his 2024 debut, giving the program a fourth season with at least seven victories in five years. The Spartans then fell to 3-9 last season despite producing the Mountain West’s second-ranked passing offense and another receiver who finished as the national leader in receiving yards.

The decline was not caused by a complete absence of talent. San Jose State beat New Mexico and Hawai‘i, two of the conference’s stronger teams, but lost several close games and never recovered once the season began to slip.

Niumatalolo came away from the experience wondering whether modern roster movement has changed how players respond when a season reaches that point.

“I don’t know if, in today’s day and age, if you’re kind of middle of the pack a little bit, guys start looking for their next opportunity,” Niumatalolo said. “It was different for me as a coach trying to navigate it.”

That question makes a fast start more important than it was earlier in his career. Every coach wants to win in August and September, but early results now influence more than conference position and bowl eligibility. Players who are not receiving the role they expected can begin considering the portal. Established contributors may start evaluating their professional options. A team that loses momentum can become more difficult to hold together.

Before the portal, coaches could assume most players would remain in the program through the season and continue developing. That assumption no longer exists.

“If a guy’s not playing, maybe they become a little disgruntled,” Niumatalolo said. “If you’re struggling a little bit as a team, does the guy start to look elsewhere? It’s a new world that all of us are trying to navigate.”

His answer has been to recruit more players whose primary motivation is getting back on the field.

Some have already spent time at Power Four schools, received financial opportunities and discovered that the larger brand did not guarantee a meaningful role. Others have produced elsewhere but are searching for a roster that offers a clearer path.

San Jose State does not hide its limitations from those players. Niumatalolo tells them the Spartans may not have every facility, benefit or financial advantage available at the programs they are leaving.

The offer is simpler: come compete, work and see what the opportunity becomes.

“We’ve looked at guys that want to come and want to play,” Niumatalolo said. “They’ve had some production or potential, and it’s not all money-based.”

Luke Weaver fits the broader profile Niumatalolo described.

Weaver transferred from Hawai‘i after playing five games last season and completing 63 passes for 628 yards and three touchdowns. His most important moment came in the Hawai‘i Bowl, when he entered the game and threw the winning touchdown against California.

Niumatalolo remembered that play when San Jose State began searching for another quarterback. Weaver is now competing with Robert McDaniel and Daniel Rolovich in a race Niumatalolo described as hotly contested. He would like to settle the position sooner rather than later, but the competition remains open.

The competition carries additional weight because the Spartans must replace Walker Eget, who threw for 3,047 yards in 11 games last season and went 275 consecutive attempts without an interception. San Jose State has produced one of the Mountain West’s most prolific passing attacks during both seasons under Niumatalolo, but the next quarterback must take control of that offense while establishing himself as one of the team’s central leaders.

The Spartans are asking the same leadership question throughout the roster.

Niumatalolo said San Jose State has a larger group of players capable of taking responsibility than it did a year ago. The quarterback will have to lead regardless of who wins the job, while experienced players along both lines and in the secondary must help connect a roster that includes another large group of newcomers.

That process has required the coaching staff to spend more time with the team than it normally would during June.

San Jose State held Friday barbecues and used beach volleyball, pickleball and other informal activities to create interactions away from meetings and workouts. Coaches reduced some of the time typically devoted to summer camps because Niumatalolo believed the immediate roster needed more attention.

The reason is practical. A transfer may visit campus, commit and enroll within a matter of days. Coaches and teammates who barely know him are then expected to build enough trust to handle adversity together by September.

“It’s kind of speed dating, so to speak,” Niumatalolo said. “You just try to force-feed a lot of things.”

That comparison captured one of the central problems facing programs that rely on the portal. Talent can be added quickly. Chemistry cannot.

Niumatalolo’s staff must accelerate relationships without making them feel manufactured. Players need to understand their roles, learn how teammates respond and establish enough trust to remain connected when playing time or results do not meet expectations.

The defensive staff will be central to that effort after Bojay Filimoeatu was promoted to defensive coordinator.

Filimoeatu served as the interim coordinator for the final two games of 2025 before receiving the permanent role in January. Niumatalolo said the promotion came from watching how he taught, the energy he brought into meetings and the way players responded to him.

“It didn’t take me long to realize this guy is a special football coach,” Niumatalolo said. “I saw the way the players played for him. I loved his football knowledge and the energy that he brings.”

Filimoeatu inherits a defense that must become more consistent if San Jose State is going to rebound. The offense produced individual achievements last season, but the Spartans allowed 47 touchdowns while scoring 32 and finished with a minus-15 touchdown differential.

Niumatalolo believes leadership will come from a larger collective rather than one obvious voice. That could help a team whose roster has changed substantially, but it also places more responsibility on returning players to establish standards before the season begins.

San Jose State will receive an immediate measure of how far the new roster has come.

The Spartans open Aug. 29 at USC in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It is the first game of a 13-game regular season, San Jose State’s first since 2017, and begins a nonconference schedule that also includes Eastern Michigan, Cal Poly, Fresno State and Jacksonville State. The Spartans will play seven home games before a possible Mountain West championship appearance.

Niumatalolo understands the challenge. He expects USC to enter the season highly ranked and knows San Jose State will need to play with almost no margin for error.

The game also provides something he wants from the opener: an honest measurement.

“They garner your best shot,” Niumatalolo said. “We open up in the Coliseum with the Trojans. We have a lot of Southern California guys on our team. Whatever happens, we’re going to be at our best.”

USC also represents another financial reality San Jose State does not avoid.

Niumatalolo acknowledged that guarantee money remains a significant reason the Spartans schedule games against programs such as USC and Texas. The staff uses those opportunities in recruiting, especially with Southern California players who grew up watching the Trojans, but limited resources make the revenue difficult to turn down.

“A lot of ours is money,” Niumatalolo said. “That’s just the truth of the matter. When you’re at a school that’s limited in resources, those are the games you have to play.”

He would eventually like San Jose State to reach a position where the program can schedule more prominent opponents from outside the power conferences. If the Spartans become a consistent Mountain West contender, games against leading American Conference or other Group of Six programs could create useful comparisons for the College Football Playoff selection committee without the same competitive risk as an annual guarantee game.

Niumatalolo believes that model makes sense for a program such as UNLV because the Rebels have established themselves as a conference contender and can build a résumé around wins over comparable national competitors.

San Jose State is not there yet.

The Spartans still need the money games, and their immediate concern is returning to bowl contention after last season’s setback. Niumatalolo keeps the formal goals simple: compete for the Mountain West championship and reach the postseason.

The more complicated work is building a roster capable of remaining together long enough to pursue them.

San Jose State cannot participate in every recruitment. It cannot assume every player it develops will stay, and it cannot wait until November to create urgency. The Spartans must evaluate their market honestly, recruit players who value opportunity and give them an early reason to believe the season is going somewhere.

Niumatalolo does not sound defeated by that reality. He sounds more certain about what San Jose State must be.

The Spartans do not need to shop everywhere.

They need to be right about the players they bring home.

Watch the full Rebel Daily Drive interview with San Jose State head coach Ken Niumatalolo: