SJSU set for road game in Hawaii.
Spartans return to action with an unexpected road game
For San Jose State, the abnormal has become normal.
The team that is off to its best start in 65 years was to play today at home against Hawaii. Instead, the game was moved this week to Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.
Santa Clara County’s latest coronavirus protocols caused the shift. Contact sports — high school, collegiate and professional — are banned until at least Dec. 21.
The Spartans are now nomads. Because of the county’s mandatory 14- day quarantine
for anyone who travels outside the county’s 150-mile radius, they cannot return home and continue playing. San Jose State will fly to Las Vegas after the Hawaii game to prepare for Nevada next week at a location not yet announced.
In the context of this season, it’s par for the course.
“There is no shortage of things going on and challenges for us to face and overcome,” SJSU coach Brent Brennan said.
For the Spartans, just being
Winless Cal plays host to Oregon. PAGE 4
back on the field will be a small victory.
Their past two opponents on the schedule, Fresno State two weeks ago and Boise State last week, canceled because of coronavirus issues. San Jose State hasn’t played since beating UNLV on Nov. 14.
Hawaii, on the other hand, has played its entire schedule and is peaking at the right time.
The Rainbow Warriors (33) upset previously-undefeated Nevada 24-21 last weekend. Two weekends earlier, they nearly upset Boise State. In late October, they beat Fresno State.
San Jose State is 4- 0 for the first time since 1955, but there’s no playbook for having two consecutive games called off.
“Missing two weeks in a row, not being able to play, I think definitely is a negative for us,” Brennan said. “Especially when you consider, watching Hawaii, I feel like two weeks ago, they very could’ve and maybe should’ve beat Boise. And then, obviously, they beat Nevada last week. For them, that’s an advantage because they’ve been able to play.”
Back- to- back cancellations and navigating county-wide re
strictions is just the latest chapter in San Jose State’s wild ride of a season.
When the Mountain West changed course in September and announced that it would have a football season this fall, San Jose State did not have approval from Santa Clara County to conduct 11- on-11 drills. So the team packed up and drove 320 miles north to Arcata. The Spartans practiced at Humboldt State to prepare for their season opener against Air Force.
After defeating Air Force, San Jose State was scheduled to play a week later at New Mexico. But the Lobos couldn’t host because of a high number of COVID-19 cases in Bernalillo County.
The game was played in San
Jose, and the Spartans won.
The next two weeks went off as scheduled. San Jose State upset San Diego State on the road, even after quarterback Nick Starkel was injured on the first series, and then defeated UNLV at home.
Things were good. Unbeaten at the midway point, the Spartans could show in the hefty back half of their schedule that they belonged.
But half of those opportunities didn’t materialize.
There was no game against rival Fresno State, and there was no over-the- air national TV game last Saturday against Boise State.
The Spartans haven’t appeared on an over-the-air network in 14 years — and that game was regionally televised, not aired coast to coast, as the Boise State game would have been.
This week’s matchup in Hawaii will be shown on Spectrum Sports and can be watched for free on the Team1 Sports app, according to San Jose State.
To reach this point, the Spartans have made sacrifices.
The players’ families could not attend the few games San Jose State hosted, and the primary forms of communication between the players and their families have been FaceTime and Zoom.
Last week, along with the cancellation of the Boise State game, the players didn’t even have Thanksgiving dinner as a group.
“This thing’s affecting everybody in one way or another, but it’s really interesting — and really challenging — to help young people navigate this time where their world has been absolutely obliterated,” Brennan said.
Maybe Saturday, they’ll actually have a game.