San Jose State’s Amazing Season Come To A Bitter End

Arizona Bowl loss should not damper what Spartans achieved

Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire

7-1 is still really good.

The 2020 San Jose State football season was a great and weird run for the Spartans. They were projected to be at the bottom of the West division and their season was in jeopardy when twice they had to leave town to practice and play games.

The end result was a 7-0 Mountain West championship team and a bowl berth to the Arizona Bowl to play MAC champions Ball State. This was the first time that the Spartans saw defeat, losing 34-13 and it wasn’t all that close.

San Jose State was the favorite but in pregame, during the Spartans radio broadcast it was announced six players and five starters were out and that included Mountain West defender of the year Cade Hall, top receiver Bailey Gaither and tight end Derrick Deese, Jr. Plus, a pair of key offensive lineman in Kyle Hoppe and Tyler Stevens. For even worse luck, San Jose State was without its offensive and defensive coordinators.

The school did not say why any of those players and coaches were out but it is pretty clear it would be COVID-19 related since a pair of coaches were involved.

That led to a lopsided result which saw San Jose State fall behind 27-0 in the first quarter and starting quarterback Nick Starkel felt responsible for the loss.

“I gotta take full responsibility for it,” Starkel said. “When I have that ball in my hand, I’m the one responsible for it. Whatever happens, whether it’s a guy falling down or a ball getting tipped or something like that, ultimately it’s my fault.”

In this game, Starkel played poorly with three interceptions on the day. Those picks led to 14 points and the game started off poorly with a pick-six on the opening drive. Too many drives stalled out with three of its first-quarter drives going three-and-out.

The defense did not fare much better with that first-quarter explosion of points, but even when the defense forced turnovers in that first half, the offense was unable to capitalize on those plays.

The game turned a bit in San Jose State’s favor in the second half on a 99-yard kickoff return by Charlie Bostic III for the first score of the game but it was too little too late as the Spartans were down 34-0 at this point.

TOUCHDOWN SPARTANS

99 YARDS TO THE CRIB pic.twitter.com/al52JBCF7V

— San José State Football 🏆 (@SanJoseStateFB) December 31, 2020

There was another score at the end of the third quarter when Starkel connected with Jermaine Braddock to get to 13 points and that would be all of the scoring for the game.

TOUCHDOWN SPARTANS

Hitting the comeback trail ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/v2h5vfl25j

— San José State Football 🏆 (@SanJoseStateFB) December 31, 2020

This result does put a damper on the Spartan’s amazing 2020 season but COVDI-19 finally caught up with San Jose State. They moved around all year to play their games and when ones were canceled it was not on them.

Despite how the bowl game looked, there are bright spots to look forward to in this San Jose State team. Starkel announced he will be back for another year and head coach Brett Brennan signed an extension through 2023. Given how San Jose State has played over the majority of this past decade, Spartan fans should keep their chins up as the future looks good and the Arizona Bowl loss is a bump in the road.