SAN JOSE, Calif. — It’s still hours before San Jose State kicks off against Hawaii, and Spartans offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann is already on his ceremonial walk, calling the game in his head.
For nearly two and a half hours on this chilly Nov. 1 morning, he paces his quiet San Jose neighborhood, play sheet in hand, pantomiming calls. Eyes locked on the page, he mutters to himself, matching schemes to personnel, rehearsing answers to every defensive look that his alma mater, Hawaii, might throw his way.
“Like a study guide,” Stutzmann says in a sit-down with The Athletic.
Sometimes he walks the nearby Japanese Friendship Garden in Kelley Park, but when he has the time, he prefers his own block. His mind is in overdrive — running through scenarios, seeing coverages before they exist, tuning his signature “spread and shred” offense that’s produced two consecutive years of top 10 passing offenses and top five receivers.
He believes he’s got the Rainbow Warriors figured out.
“I knew they were going to try playing coverage over the top,” he said. “But nobody, the whole season, challenged their safeties.”
Armed with this knowledge, he mutters his credence.
“Take the shots. Throw on beat. Challenge those guys. That’s the only way we’re going to win.”
The fervent studying is crucial. Because, on game days, he doesn’t use his playsheet. He reads the defense and calls accordingly — from memory.
By the end of his walk, the call sheet is tucked into his back pocket, where it will stay for most of the afternoon. He pulls out a notecard that’s lived on his desk all week — a message drilled into his head.
It reads: “They got to cover us! We’re going to protect! We have better players! Attack and win!”
That night, the Spartans will beat Hawaii in a 45-38 shootout. Senior quarterback Walker Eget will throw for 458 yards and two touchdowns. Three receivers — Danny Scudero (215), Leland Smith (113) and Kyri Shoels (109) — will tally more than 100 yards receiving. It will be the second time this season that they accomplish that feat, the only trio in FBS to do so.
Craig Stutzmann keeps his playsheet pocketed and calls plays from memory. (San Jose State Athletics)
Stutzmann is a Hawaiian native who played receiver for the university from 1998 to 2001, finishing fifth in program history in career receptions. Most of that production came under coach June Jones, who arrived in 1999 and became the architect of Hawaii’s modern run-and-shoot — the pass-heavy offense that jolted the islands in the mid-2000s and helped Colt Brennan throw 58 touchdowns in 2006, before finishing third in Heisman voting a year later as he set the then-NCAA career touchdown record with 131.
Before joining the 2008 Rainbow Warriors staff as a graduate assistant, Stutzmann had been coaching at Kalaheo and then St. Louis High schools, watching prep offenses follow the same evolution. Jones and Brennan’s aerial fireworks pushed Hawaii’s long-standing, ground-heavy identity into something new.
“The island of Hawaii football usually reflects what the university is doing,” he said. “Back in the day, everyone ran the triple option. St. Louis was the only school running the run-and-shoot, and that’s why we won a ton. Then (Jones) starts doing it at the university and everybody’s learning — it’s one big clinic week to week.”
Any offense lives and dies with its quarterback. Eget is that guy now, ranking in the top 12 nationally in passing yards under Stutzmann.
When Stutzmann was cutting his teeth as St. Louis’ JV coach, he had another gifted passer (and an equally talented runner) executing his script — one he’d known since childhood and still talks to today, even as the former Heisman winner moves through his 11th season in the NFL.
“Marcus Mariota, I coached in high school,” Stutzmann said. “I was actually his geography teacher in seventh grade.”
It’s a connection that Mariota still cherishes now, all the way over in Washington with the Commanders.
“I think the world of him,” Mariota told The Athletic. “I learned a lot about life and other things outside of football from him. He’s someone I still reach out to if I ever need anything.”
For the record, Stutzmann wasn’t using a playsheet even back then.
When he arrived at Division III Emory & Henry in 2014, he was already sketching the first strands of what would become the spread and shred. Rooted in run-and-shoot principles, Stutzmann started siphoning ideas from the most explosive college offenses of the early 2010s, blending them into something faster, sharper and unmistakably his.
Run-and-shoot at its core unleashes receivers on option routes and forces quarterbacks into instant decisions that put defenses in perilous situations. The pass-heavy tilt — he got that from Jones. For Stutzmann though, it just wasn’t fast enough.
Hence, he added Art Briles’ veer-and-shoot tempo and the trademark extra-wide receiver splits — alignments that stretch the defense to the sidelines, and carve open running lanes against the vacated middle of the field. Baylor lived at the top of the country offensively (leading the country in points and yards per game from 2013-2015), thanks in part to a suffocating pace.
Then came the RPO layer, popularized by Chip Kelly’s Oregon teams with Mariota, where the quarterback toggles between a quick throw or a handoff in real time. Stutzmann, who was watching it all closely, mixed that with run-and-shoot freedom and veer-and-shoot spacing. The blend began to take shape and become Stutzmann’s signature: The “spread and shred.”
“It’s a multiple-choice, counter-based offense,” Stutzmann said. “There’s not just one answer. It’s the best possible answer.”
Stutzmann gave Eget a different name for it: “multiple-answer offense.” A volatile mix of tempo, spacing and leveled choice routes — especially from the slot, who is tucked between the outside wideout and the offensive line. A smaller, quicker operator with the whole interior of the field at his command.
Walker Eget has run Craig Stutzmann’s “spread and shred” for two years and ranked highly in yards per game both seasons. (San Jose State Athletics)
In this system, someone like Scudero can break in any direction depending on the coverage. From the slot, with space on every axis, the picture mutates on the fly. It’s a nightmare for defenders trying to anticipate movement — mostly because the receivers don’t even know their own path until the snap.
Just like their coach — calling from memory, reacting to personnel — the offense breathes with the defense. It’s lethal multiplicity, built on absolute trust between quarterback and receiver. Routes layer, break at varied depths and evolve mid-play. Cover the first option, and the next unfolds instantly.
“It has answers in every situation,” Scudero told The Athletic. “Walker does a great job conducting it. Even if we don’t get the look we want, there are still answers. It stays explosive against anything.”
In 2022 Joey Hobert at Utah Tech bore the fruits of the patented offense. He led all of FCS in receiving yards (1,258) and TD receptions (16) while being second in the country in receiving yards per game (114.4) and receptions per game (8.2). He was named an FCS 2nd-team AP All-American that season.
In 2024, Stutzmann’s first year in the Bay, the passing attack ranked fifth nationally at 321.8 yards per game. Nick Nash won the receiving triple crown, finishing with 104 catches, 1,382 yards and 16 touchdowns. (Two tight ends, Harold Fannin Jr. and Tyler Warren, topped him in certain categories, but no receiver did.) Nash signed with the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent and is now on their practice squad.
“As a receiver, I loved it,” Nash told The Athletic. “Being a focal point of the offense … I was able to get a lot of playing time and a lot of balls coming my way.”
This season, the passing attack remains top-tier — ninth entering the final week at 297.5 yards per game. Scudero has followed Nash into the sport’s upper receiving tiers. Heading into the last week of the regular season, he sits in the top six nationally in all three major categories with an 84/1,234/10 line.
Danny Scudero running after a catch against Central Michigan. (San Jose State Athletics)
A transfer from FCS Sacramento State, Scudero needed little convincing during the recruiting process. Stutzmann walked into the meeting, cued a slideshow of his former standouts — Nash and Hobert included — and asked if the potential transfer sitting in front of him wanted to join them.
“It was one of those moments where the proof is in the pudding,” Scudero said. “He’s not lying; his offense is explosive. In that moment, I just wanted to be the next one in that slideshow.”
All that production — and all that receiving talent — is a quarterback’s fantasy. In 2024, Eget stepped in a little under a quarter into the season and still averaged 295 passing yards per game over the last eight contests. In 2025, as the full-time starter in the quick-hitting attack, he’s 11th nationally with 3,047 yards and tied for the second-fewest sacks taken (six) among quarterbacks with over 150 attempts.
Get the ball out fast and wide. Trust the system, playing in “almost like a dream.” Do that, and Eget’s name keeps climbing leaderboards.
“It’s pretty cool,” Eget told The Athletic. “Definitely a dream growing up to even be at this level. To be able to be on the charts you always saw as a kid and talked about those players … It’s pretty cool.”
His top targets have been Nash, a 6-foot-3 jump-ball specialist, and Scudero, a 5-foot-9 slot technician with blur-speed instincts. Two contrasting body types, both thriving not because of physical traits alone, but because of their shared mental acuity — their ability to sync with their quarterback and navigate the system with precision.
“The biggest thing they have in common is their ability to not only read a defense but be on the same page,” Eget said. “We really had two quarterbacks playing the slot position.”
Despite the volatility and fireworks, wins have eluded San Jose State’s grasp in 2025. The Spartans are 3-8 (2-5 in conference), missing a bowl for the first time since 2021. Some of that could be attributed to a defense giving up 31.7 points per game or to the 22 turnovers lost — a minus-11 margin, second-worst in the Mountain West.
Offense is fun. But in the end, only one statistical column matters.
And it isn’t yards.
“You could ask Walker, or any of these guys, we’d trade these numbers to get more wins,” Scudero said. “At the end of the day, you just keep your head down and keep working, and then the rest will take care of itself. It’s been what it’s meant to be.”
What has worked is Stutzmann.
Every week, he returns from his walks with a fully armed attack living in his head — pure reaction, a volatile blend of tempo and choice, a system that shreds defenses without having ever needed laminated guidance since it was leading a young Mariota. The playsheet is incidental.
Better yet, forget the playsheet. Look at the note again. That’s all he needs.
“They got to cover us! We’re going to protect! We have better players! Attack and win!”
