Spartans rack up yardage — and penalties — in their latest loss
San Jose State ended a losing streak, but not its own.
The Spartans lost their sixth straight game Saturday night, falling 37-26 to a Hawaii team that had lost four straight.
San Jose State now is 0-4 in the Mountain West Conference and 1-7 overall, its only victory coming against Cal-Poly, an FCS school that is 0-6.
There were bright spots. Quarterback Montel Aaron returned from injury and played well. The Spartans led for the first time since Sept. 2, scoring the first 10 points of the game. The Spartans rolled up a season-high 504 yards.
But the overall picture was dark, owing largely to penalties. The Spartans were penalized 11 times, some of them extraordinarily inopportune.
“We had all sorts of crazy, ridiculous, absurd penalties that I’m totally embarrassed about,” firstyear coach Brent Brennan said before invoking the name of a former SJSU coach. “As my old mentor, Dick Tomey, used to tell me: You’re either coaching it or allowing it to happen. So I need to fix some things.”
An especially bad and costly penalty came after a 96-yard kickoff return by Rashead Johnson, the first in five years for SJSU, pulled the Spartans to within 28-26. An unsportsmanlike conduct infraction left no option for a two-point try, so the Spartans kicked. The kick was blocked and returned to the endzone by Hawaii, making the score 30-26.
“We gave them two points,” Brennan said. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The kickoff return was one of three touchdowns for Johnson. Two came on passes of 15 and 59 yards from Aaron, the redshirt freshman playing for the first time since suffering a leg injury Sept. 16. Aaron finished 17 of 27 for 322 yards.
Hawaii (3-4, 1-3) was led by Diocemy Saint Juste, who had a school-record 39 carries for 202 yards and two touchdowns.
San Jose State has a bye week and returns to action Oct. 28 at BYU.
NEXT GAME Oct. 28: San Jose State (1-7) at BYU (1-6), TBA