FACTS & STATS: Site: Spartan Stadium (30,000) -- San Jose, California. Television: ESPN2. Home Record: FSU 2-3, SJSU 3-2. Away Record: FSU 4-1, SJSU 3-3. Neutral Record: FSU 0-0, SJSU 0-0. Conference Record: FSU 3-3, SJSU 4-3. Series Record: Fresno State leads, 36-33-3.

GAME NOTES: Teams in the Western Athletic Conference continue to jockey for possible postseason positioning, as the Fresno State Bulldogs pay a visit to the San Jose State Spartans for a special Friday night affair. Entering this week the Bulldogs are a mere 3-3 in conference and are sixth in the standings, yet with this and a game against Boise State next Friday night there is a possibility the squad could end up with eight wins overall. At the moment, FSU is just trying to win back-to-back games for the third time in 2008 after defeating New Mexico State by a score of 24-17 last weekend. Meanwhile, the Spartans have dropped from first place in the WAC into a tie for fourth with Hawaii at 4-3 following a 41-17 thumping by Nevada last weekend. The loss was the second in a row and the third in four games for an SJSU squad that is already bowl eligible at 6-5 but would like to make themselves a bit more appealing with another tally in the win column in this their regular-season finale. As one of the oldest rivalries for SJSU, the Bulldogs own a 36-33-3 advantage in the series, thanks in part to a 30-0 shutout in last year's meeting. The series has been dominated by FSU in recent years, with the Bulldogs winning 13 of the last 14 affairs. The lone SJSU win during that stretch was a 24-14 decision back in 2006 at home.

Tom Brandstater completed 14-of-20 passes for 146 yards, but it wasn't his arm that carried the Bulldogs to their most recent win it was his legs. The signal-caller posted a pair of one-yard TD runs for the home team against New Mexico State last week, the second coming in the fourth quarter was the deciding factor in the seven-point decision. Gaining the tough yards on the ground for the unit was Anthony Harding who picked up 101 yards on 23 attempts. With injuries taking their toll on running backs in Fresno, only Harding has appeared in all 10 games for the program at the position, leaving him to post 592 yards and two touchdowns on 103 carries. He's one of three players (Lonyae Miller and Ryan Mathews) to have gained as many yards rushing. Except for the Hawaii game when he tossed three interceptions, Brandstater has pretty much been the stabilizing factor for the Bulldogs, averaging 219.6 ypg on 61.4 percent completions.

While the rushing offense for the Bulldogs was getting the job done, the defense was clamping down on New Mexico State ball carriers, so much so that the Aggies posted minus-nine yards on 15 attempts. Against one of the top quarterbacks in the country, the Bulldogs allowed Chase Holbrook 192 yards on 27 completions, but only one of those made its way into the end zone. Although he failed to win the WAC Defensive Player of the Week award, Jon Monga was certainly in the running as he made three of his four tackles against Holbrook in the backfield. Monga tends to make his tackles count as he leads the program with five sacks and eight stops for loss on just 22 overall tackles in six games. Much further up the tackles list is Ben Jacobs with his 90 tackles, adding a blocked kick for good measure for a unit that is currently seventh in the WAC and 98th in the nation with just 1.3 sacks per game and is last in the conference and 109th with 4.3 TFLs per outing.

Kyle Reed took the majority of the snaps for the Spartans last week, hitting 15-of-27 passes for 215 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but between him and Sean Flynn (5-of-14, 86 yards) the team was never in contention against Nevada. David Richmond recorded a team-high nine catches for 91 yards and a two TDs and Terrance Williams stretched four grabs into 101 yards, but that still couldn't cover up a rushing attack that was held to minus-23 yards on 16 attempts. The rushing offense for the Spartans has been almost invisible this season. At the moment the program is averaging a feeble 95 ypg, ranking them eighth in the conference and 110th in the country. Now, consider that the team rolled up 293 of their 1,045 yards on the season against the worst run defense in the country in San Diego State and this group is even worse off than it appears. Six times they've been held to 87 yards or less, so it should come as little surprise that the offense is 108th overall (290.4 ypg) and it is 104th in scoring (19.5 ppg).

As so many defenses have found out this season, there's a reason why Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick was named the WAC Freshman of the Year last season. Kaepernick converted 15-of-31 passing for 192 yards and a score but, more importantly, ran for 147 yards and two TDs on 16 carries in the win for the Wolf Pack. At no point did the SJSU defense get close enough to Kaepernick to bring him down on the backfield, although there were plenty of TFLs to go around for the Spartans. Duke Ihenacho logged three TFLs and Jarron Gilbert two on his five stops. Gilbert leads the team this season in both sacks and TFLs with nine of the former to rank second in the conference and 21.5 in the latter, making him first in all of college football entering the week. Not far behind in the tackles for loss department is Carl Ihenacho who has 15.5 to go along with his seven sacks. Brother Duke is the team leader with five interceptions. Because of their efforts the Spartans rank second in the conference and 13th in the nation with a 102.72 pass efficiency defense.

With so much riding on the next two games, the Bulldogs would like to solidify their presence in the postseason bowl picture. As long as the running game for FSU can move the ball then the visitors should be in good shape.