Let's Get Ready To RUMMMMMBLE! A lot of quality thinking went into that prediction of needing a dominant win.
San Jose has to to be expected to dominate because:
They were horrible last year,
Still don’t know who their QB should be
Have to replace most the offensive line
Lost their best defensive lineman
Have a guy who is a true freshmen and walked away from Cal last year after Cal gave him a late offer which looked better to him than his commitment to Cal Poly. This freshman is projected a starter.
In summary a unsettled team. They probably have good running backs, receivers, so we could lose.
Note the spread in the sbnation article has us favored. We should be a much more polished team for the first game. On offense we know who our players are and they know each other. That is a big advantage in the first game, against a rebuilding team with a new offensive coordinator.