SPARTANS’ GRAD TRANSFER WORKS OUT
From Texas A&M to Arkansas, Starkel has SJSU in gear
When San Jose State quarterback Josh Love, last year’s Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year, graduated it would have been understandable if the Spartans needed some time to groom a successor.
At least that’s how it was back in the day. The ability to get graduate transfers who can come in and make an immediate impact has changed things.
Nick Starkel, San Jose State’s new starting quarterback, is a great example of that.
The 6-foot-3 graduate transfer from Texas has completed nearly 75 percent of his passes (56 for 76) for 693 yards and seven touchdowns with only one interception.
San Jose State (2-0) comes into Friday night’s game against San Diego State (2-0) following a 38-21 win over New Mexico in which Starkel was 34-for-47 passing for 467 yards and five touchdowns.
“I don’t care who you’re playing, that’s putting the ball where it needs to be,” SDSU head coach Brady Hoke said. “He does a nice job keeping his eyes down the field. Reads defenses very well and he’s really got a tremendous arm.
“Either it’s hitting the out from the hash to the boundary or does a really nice job on the deep ball. Drops it in there.”
Starkel played at Texas A&M in 2017-18, where he made five starts before transferring to Arkansas.
He started five games last season for the Razorbacks and decided to transfer again after the school made a coaching change.
He transferred to San Jose State last December and now is one of only two QBs to
have started for three different Division I programs in the past decade. The other is Pete Thomas, who started at Colorado State (2010-11), North Carolina State (2013) and Louisiana-Monroe (2014).
“The decision to leave Arkansas was not based on emotion,” Starkel told The Athletic. “I don’t put a lot of emotional investment into that type of decision. It was more just looking at the facts. I had to face the music.
“I had a rough year; a coach comes in who’s going to go get a transfer; we have a small quarterback room. Just by pure numbers, you’ve got to go get another guy. Not being the guy, and a coach bringing in someone who’s technically their guy and is exactly what they want — they’re not going to go recruit someone they don’t like. … I saw that was probably the end of the line for me.”
Arkansas’ loss has been a huge gain for San Jose State, which is off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 1987.
San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan put it simply enough after the victory over New Mexico: “Starkel was fantastic.”
Working on field goals
Hoke did not seem overly concerned with the placekicking situation after sophomore kicker Matt Araiza had one field goal attempt blocked (33 yards) and missed another (45 yards) before making good on his third try (28 yards) last week at Utah State.
“Obviously, we’ve got to work on it a little bit more,”
Hoke said. “I think the snaps were good, one of them got a little high, but we’ve got to snap it, catch it and put it on the ground.
“I have a lot of faith in Matt. I think we mishit the first one and the second one we just pulled a little bit. It was good to see him go out and make the third one.”
Araiza was 22-for-26 last season, setting a single-season school record for field goals.
Senior Turner Bernard snapped for Araiza last season, although holder Tanner Kuljian is new to the mix.
The laces of the football were toward Araiza on his second attempt, although Hoke didn’t think that was an issue on the kick.
“If they’re extremely long field goals, I do think it matters,” Hoke said. “But we’ve had some opportunities during practice and when we’ve been preparing. Once in a
while he will hit it on the laces and he will hit it just fine.”
Kuljian takes over punting
Araiza began the season as both SDSU’s kicker and punter.
The Aztecs attempted only one punt against the Aggies and it was a 58-yarder in the fourth quarter by Kuljian, a senior transfer from USD.
Hoke said Kuljian will be the punter against San Jose State as well after earning the job in practice.
“We have a program that’s built on competition and what they do during the week matters,” said Hoke, noting that Kuljian’s consistency made the difference.
Safety returning
Senior safety Trenton Thompson is expected back in the starting lineup after missing last week’s game with a sprained ankle.
“He will be OK,” Hoke said.