Unbeaten San Jose State aims to continue making history
After San Jose State knocked off San Diego State 2817 on Friday night, the numbers 592 and 363 became important to head coach Brent Brennan.
The 592 refers to the texts Brennan said he received in the aftermath of the Spartans improving to 30 for the first time since 1982, and the 363 refers to the texts to which he still hadn’t responded near the end of his weekly Monday afternoon Zoom news conference.
“It’s pretty cool to hear from people and know that a lot of people are excited about our process,” said Brennan, whose team hosts UNLV ( 03) on Saturday night. Among the people texting Brennan were UNLV head coach Marcus Arroyo, former Cal and Fresno State head coach Jeff Tedford and former San Jose State and Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre.
What made the Spartans’ win especially impressive is they lost starting quarterback Nick Starkel — who had thrown for 693 yards and seven touchdowns in the first two games — to an injury on the game’s opening series. Sophomore Nick Nash replaced Starkel. Nash struggled for much of the first half, then got something of a pep talk from Starkel.
Said Starkel on a Zoom interview Monday: “I just said, ‘ Hey, schemes are great on paper. You are not a great player on paper. You’re a great player when you have the ball in your hands and you’re just playing football.’
“He took a little different approach to some of the plays than I would have, but that’s how he wins.”
Nash was 16for25 passing for 169 yards and two touchdowns. He also carried the ball 11 times for 53 yards and a score. Neither Brennan nor Starkel would comment on Starkel’s injury or his status for the game against UNLV. San Jose State’s depth chart lists Starkel “or” Nash as the starter.
Brennan was asked to put the victory over the Aztecs into historical context for the San Jose State program.
“I don’t think we can put anything in historical terms until we’ve actually done something,” Brennan said. “We’ve won three games. We’ve got five left. I’m sure you’re all sitting there, saying, ‘ That sounds like coachtalk’ … but this is all about the next one now. That will be historical if we play well this week, and if we play well the next week. None of it matters if we don’t play well going forward.”
If the Spartans do play well and prevail Saturday, they’ll be 40 for the first time since 1955.
“That’s just a testament to this team,” said Starkel, a grad transfer from Arkansas. “It just makes me smile to see the hard work that these guys have put in, to see the dedication that these coaches have shown and to get some of those results is really awesome for us.”
Briefly: San Jose State safety Tre Jenkins was named the Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Week. The sophomore had nine tackles ( including a sack), forced a fumble and made an endzone interception against San Diego State. ... Arroyo, who’s in his first season as a head coach, played four seasons ( 1998, 200002) as a quarterback for San Jose State and was an assistant coach with the Spartans. Arroyo and Brennan worked together for four seasons ( 200508) at San Jose State under head coach Dick Tomey.