Hiatus doesn’t slow Spartans
College football: San Jose State beats Hawaii for its best start since 1939.
San Jose State finally played a football game.
Given the circumstances — back-to- back canceled games, the malleable schedule, their nomadic status — playing Saturday afternoon at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu was a return to normalcy.
Winning has become normal, too.
San Jose State defeated Hawaii 35-24, improving to 5- 0 for the first time since 1939 and setting up to play in the Mountain West championship game in two weeks. The teams with the two-best winning percentages advance. San Jose State is No. 1 right now.
“As hard as this time has been, the last whatever months, the beauty of it is that we get to do this together,” San Jose State coach Brent Brennan said. “T hat’s what family is all about, doing the hard work and through the hard stuff together. I couldn’t be more excited. I’m just ecstatic.”
Saturday, the Spartans laid the foundation for their wire- to-wire victory in the first quarter, opening the game about as perfect as possible.
They found the end zone in their first three offensive possessions. Nick Starkel connected with Isaiah Holiness in the flat for a twoyard touchdown, then Tyler Nevens scored on runs of 72 and 10 yards.
The Rainbow Warriors went three- and- out and were held to 14 yards in their first three possessions. Quarterback Chevan Cordeiro didn’t complete any of his three pass attempts. In less than 10 minutes, San Jose State led 21- 0.
Neven sand Kai ree Robinson both had career games and did the heavy lifting for San Jose State’ s offense, combining for 263 of the team’s 288 rushing yards.
Nevens had careerhigh 152 rushing yards along with two touchdown sand Robinson had a career- high 143 all- purpose yards and a rushing touchdown.
By halftime, the Spartans had 214 rushing yards, eclipsing their previous 2020 single- game high of 176 yards against UNLV on Nov. 14, the last time San Jose State played.
With N even sand Robinson running the ball so well, quarter backs Starkel and Nick Nash took a rare backseat in the offense.
Stark el completed 11 of 23 passes for 167 yards with two touchdown san done interception and Nash rushed for 20 yards.
Tre Walker left his imprint on the game with his first touchdown reception since Halloween, taking a short pass in the flat 50 yards to the end zone.
Cornerback Kenyon Reed made his first start with the Spartans, making an impact on defense and special teams. In addition to five tackles and helping break up several passes, Reed had two returns for 29 yards.
San Jose State’s win is all the more impressive considering what this program has had to navigate.
The team’s previous two games on the schedule — Fresno State and Boise State — were canceled after those programs experienced coronavirus issues.
On top of having its nationally- telev ised game against Boise State canceled the previous week, San Jose State could no longer practice or play in San Jose after Santa Clara County announced a ban on contact sports through at least Dec. 21.
The game against Hawaii was supposed to be in San Jose but was moved to Honolulu after the new county restrictions.
Suddenly nomads, these Spartans keep doing what they seem to do best: Win.