San Jose State wins its opener as Deese and defense deliver
San Jose State joined the Mountain West Conference for the 2013 football season. Until Saturday night, the Spartans had not opened league play with a win.
Behind two thirdquarter touchdown catches by tight end Derrick Deese and a strong defensive effort, the Spartans beat Air Force 176 to open their pandemicdelayed season. It was San Jose State’s first win over Air Force since 1997.
“It’s just awesome to get the chance to play and and then to play the way we did. And get a win against a really, really good opponent,” San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan said. “It was just really special.
“You know, our defensive staff did a great job putting together a plan. And then I thought our players did a great job executing. ... Our guys just handled the scheme really well and execute at a high level, against a really good football team, so I couldn't be happier.”
Deese, a senior who entered the game with two career touchdowns, had TD catches of 7 and 11 yards, the latter giving San Jose State a 140 lead with 43 seconds left in the third quarter.
Graduate transfer Nick Starkel completed 22 of 29 passes for 226 yards and Bailey Gaither tied his career high with eight receptions for 110 yards, including a 52yard catch that set up Deese’s first touchdown grab.
“Bailey is probably the fastest player in the Mountain West, so if we have press mantoman coverage on him, we don’t think anyone can run with him,” Starkel said. “So we take that shot. That’s something we talk about in the quarterback room.”
Air Force ( 11), which had won nine in a row dating to last season, was coming off a 407 win over Navy on Oct. 3 in which it ran for 369 yards, and it had scored at least 10 points in each of its previous 29 games. The Falcons had 49 carries for 206 yards against San Jose State.
“We knew Air Force runs that tripleoption, which is really difficult to defense,” said junior linebacker Kyle Harmon, who led the Spartans with 14 tackles. “We talked all week that ... we can’t let them get it going.
“Stopping the fullback was our main focus and trying to get them going sideways. Instead of going north and south on us. So I think we did a good job with that. And I think that led to success all four quarters.”
Top 25 poll: Indiana jumped into the Associated Press poll at No. 17 Sunday after pulling off the weekend’s most dramatic upset, and Ohio State moved up to No. 3 following a dominant season debut.
Clemson remained a rocksolid No. 1 and Alabama was No. 2. The Tigers received 52 firstplace votes and the Crimson Tide got the remaining 10.
Ohio State leaped two spots after easily dispatching Nebraska as the Big Ten began its season.
No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 5 Georgia each slipped a spot behind the Buckeyes.
Indiana pulled off a 3635 stunner in overtime to jump into the rankings, beating thenNo. 8 Penn State to earn the program’s first victory against a team ranked in the AP top 10 since 1987. The Hoosiers snapped a 25year absence from the poll last season but stayed there only one week.
Indiana has its best ranking since 1993, when it also reached No. 17.
Penn State slipped 10 spots to No. 18 after losing to the Hoosiers
for just the second time in 24 meetings since joining the Big Ten.
Briefly: Wisconsin says nobody who played in its season opener Friday, a 457 win by the No. 9 Badgers over Illinois, tested positive for the coronavirus or reported having any symptoms beforehand, amid weekend reports that quarterback Graham Mertz has tested positive. The Milwaukee JournalSentinel and Wisconsin State Journal reported Mertz would be taking a second test to determine whether his first test was a false positive. The JournalSentinel reported Mertz’s positive test came Saturday. ... Army ( 61) has accepted a bid to the Independence Bowl. The date for the game, which is to include a Pac12 team, has not been set.