The San Jose State football team remains the only undefeated school in the Mountain West Conference this season after a 35-24 win against the University of Hawaii at Aloha Stadium on Saturday.
SJSU is 5-0 this season for the first time since 1939 when the Spartans finished with a 13-0 record, according to SJSU Athletics.
“As hard as this time has been in the last months for our team, the beauty of it is we get to do this together,” said head coach Brent Brennan in a Zoom post-game press conference. “And that’s what family is all about, doing the hard work and [getting] through the hard stuff together.”
This is the first win for SJSU against Hawaii in the last five seasons. The Spartans clinched their first Dick Tomey Legacy Trophy, which was first awarded in 2019 and highlights the winner of the University of Hawaii and San Jose State football game.
The Spartans dominated the game from the beginning and jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter with touchdowns from receiver Isaiah Holiness and running back Tyler Nevens, who established a strong running game for SJSU.
The Rainbow Warriors gained traction on the Spartan lead, scoring 10 points in the second quarter from a field goal and a touchdown by running back Dae Dae Hunter as the team attempted to recover.
Nevens was the star of the game for the Spartans, ending the game with his career best of 152 yards and 2 touchdowns on 16 carries.
“Just having that opportunity to showcase not only your talent but to go out there and have fun with the brothers right next to you, there’s no greater feeling than that,” Nevens said after the game.
After starting off strong, SJSU struggled to get past Hawaii’s defense until late into the third quarter when running back Kairee Robinson scored a touchdown off of a 2-yard run to boost his team heading into the final quarter of the game.
Both Hawaii and SJSU scored 7 points in the third quarter, bringing the Spartans to a 28-17 lead. The pattern continued into the fourth quarter as each team strived to gain leverage over the other.
SJSU secured its victory when quarterback Nick Starkel threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to receiver Tre Walker and a kick return from Matt Mercurio that left the Spartans with a 35-17 lead with three minutes left.
Starkel, in a post-game Zoom conference, said the team studied Hawaii’s strategy against other opponents and used it to counter them.
“Our coaches have instilled that in us, we've been switching our game plan,” Starkel said. “It wasn't like we had three weeks to prepare for Hawaii, we had a normal week to prepare for Hawaii.”
He said Hawaii used a quarterback-passing attack against Nevada, and his team was prepared for the strategy heading into the game.
“We knew that they were going to do that against us,” Starkel said. “And so we decided, we're going to get into a passing formation where people normally pass out and we're going to run the ball, that's exactly what we did.”
Nevens said one of the most important factors in the team’s win against Hawaii was their running game and their work to improve in that area.
“We knew this was going to be the ultimate challenge for us,” said Nevens. “If we were going to establish our run game, I had to establish [it] this week as this week was more important than the other four games we had in terms of just running the ball and showing that physicality upfront.”
In addition to training and switching game strategies to prepare for the challenges Hawaii presented, the Spartans braved through hot and humid weather in Honolulu.
“This one was burning, and our players just battled through it right,” Brennan said in the post-game conference I thought we did a really good job keeping them hydrated, but it's still hard to drink enough water.”
Brennan, who is on his way to his first undefeated season at SJSU, applauded the team for their hard work defensively.
“I think it was just containment of their quarterback for our defense,” Brennan said. “I thought our defense played really well … a lot to be excited about.”
The Spartans have not beat Hawaii in the last 15 years, but this year’s team was able to secure a victory and reach its fifth consecutive win this season.
“We just know how to finish games and close out games strong,” wide receiver Tre Walker said in the post-game conference.
He said the team’s strong chemistry and winning attitude are what have made this year’s team so invincible.
“I think that showed tonight as shown in this game, especially in the second quarter when we weathered that they're their little momentum shift,” Walker said.
