Nick Starkel: sound familiar? Every San Jose State football fans should recognize the name.
Last September, SJSU celebrated one of its biggest wins in program history, upsetting the University of Arkansas 31-24. It was a high for SJSU but a low for Starkel as the then-Razorbacks quarterback threw 5 interceptions in the game.
He was at rock bottom.
The emotions he experienced – anger, frustration, disappointment – were feelings that the Spartans knew all too well.
But not Starkel.
The former four-star recruit took “full blame” for the Razorbacks’ defeat.
To many people, it appeared as if the highly touted signal-caller was about to fall off the map.
Shortly after the dust settled on the Razorbacks’ 2-10 season and head coach Chad Morris had been fired, Starkel received a surprise text from none other than former SJSU quarterback Josh Love.
“[Love] said ‘Hey look, I’m graduating . . . we got a really talented receiving corps, really talented offense. It’s all veteran guys in there,’ ” Starkel said.
Love and Starkel were counselors at the 2019 The Quarterback Retreat, Steve Clarkson’s training camp for quarterbacks in Los Angeles. Workouts were followed by games of Spikeball on the beach, and the pair remained in touch. The endorsement from Love was all Starkel needed to hear. “[Love] recruited me there,” Starkel said. “He sealed the deal and it was just on the coaches to back up what he was saying.”
Love set Starkel up with SJSU quarterbacks coach Ryan Gunderson.
After a successful phone call, SJSU head coach Brent Brennan spoke with Starkel’s parents to gain their approval, which was important to him. Brennan made quite an impression
on Starkel.
“He was so cool,” Starkel said, referring to Brennan. “It’s like a ‘bro’ or a ‘dude’ every-other sentence . . . You can tell he probably has a really good relationship with his players.”
Starkel paraphrased the recruiting pitch from his new coach as, “Yeah dude, you’re going to love it out here, bro.”
Starkel committed to SJSU as a graduate transfer less than five months after the Spartans shocked his Razorbacks.
A couple of weeks after committing to SJSU, Starkel “announced” it with a simple Instagram post. It was a selfie of him in a ski mask captioned “Mood all 2020 knowing God got me,” with the location tagged “San Jose State University.”
The shocking nature of his decision doesn’t escape him. Starkel knows it was a surprising move. But what blew him away was the fact that the Spartans saw something in him.
“I never would have thought that a team that I threw 5 interceptions against would want me,” he said. “But they saw, ‘With the right coaching, this kid could be pretty special.’”
Starkel adds that the coaching staff didn’t even bring the game up during any recruiting pitches, but he realizes his new teammates might have something to say.
“I swear if those [defensive backs] start chirping in practice, it’s going to get real serious,” Starkel said.
The coaching staff looked past the rough game against SJSU and instead looked at the potential shown over his entire body of work as a college quarterback.
“It’s funny because I know he didn’t have a great day against us,” Brennan said in a February news conference. “But I’ve seen what he can do and I know how talented he is, what kind of character he has. I love the fact that he has a big-time football background . . . He’s played in really big games and big situations and so he knows what to expect in those things.”
The 6-foot-3, 214 lb. QB catapulted out of the gate as a redshirt freshman at Texas A&M.
Despite an opening day injury, Starkel started five games for the Aggies, throwing for 1,793 yards, 14 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions. In the Belk Bowl against Wake Forest, he set Texas A&M freshman records with 499 passing yards and 4 scores.
The future was looking bright for the young gunslinger in the Lonestar State.
However, after a heated position battle, he lost the 2018 starting QB job to Kellen Mond. Looking to play his final two years of eligibility, Starkel chose the University of Arkansas, but it wasn’t the right fit.
“In my first decision to transfer, I was really insecure about getting out of the spotlight,” he said. “I was like, ‘I need to go to another big school . . . [but] in the end, you want to go to a team that you are going to be successful at and that just wasn’t happening at Arkansas.’”
Starkel comes to SJSU in search of a football resurgence. After seeing the team’s massive improvement from a 1-11 record in 2018 to 5-7 in 2019, SJSU was the program he thought he could lead to success.
“The Mountain West is wide open,” Starkel said. “I think you can ask anybody on the team and they think we can [win it] this year, and I do too, or else I wouldn’t be going there.”
Starkel spent his high school years in the Dallas area, but with a military father, he moved around a lot, including a three-year stop in San Francisco.
His first challenge out of the gate is to simply land the starting job.
As a grad transfer, you might assume Starkel would have the position locked up, but Nick Nash might have a say in that.
Nash, a QB heading into his sophomore season, had a breakout year in 2019. He made a dynamic difference by throwing for 133 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 255 yards and three scores before an injury cut his season short after playing 6 games.
Starkel said he knew the job wasn’t going to be handed to him on a silver platter.
“I don’t just see [this season] as my last year of eligibility. I see it as my last year of football because nothing is guaranteed,” Starkel said. “I’m not guaranteed a single snap. I have to work for that. I have to earn that . . . I do want to be the starting quarterback and I know that’s not going to just be handed to me.”
With spring practice canceled after the coronavirus outbreak, Starkel is possibly going to have to wait until fall camp to compete for the starting job.
“I want to fall in love with the game again,” he said. “And not the aspects of what football can give me, but literally just falling in love with the practices . . . and the games, the bus rides to the game, the plane ride back.”
Upon arriving at SJSU, Starkel knows the pressures of playing in the media frenzy of the Southeastern Conference are gone.
Starkel came to SJSU as a QB seeking redemption.
He said him being on an up-and-coming football team like SJSU seems like the perfect conclusion to his collegiate career.
