By Austin Turner – Staff Writer
It’s homecoming weekend at San Jose State, and that means the football team (0-3) will begin Mountain West Conference play as it hosts the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at CEFCU Stadium on Saturday.
The Rainbow Warriors (4-1) come into San Jose touting the ninth-ranked passing offense in all of college football, averaging 252.4 yards per game through the air.
Sophomore quarterback Cole McDonald has established himself as one of the top passers in the conference in his first season as the starter. He leads the nation in passing yards with 1,759 and passing touchdowns with 20.
What sets McDonald apart is his ability to make plays with his feet. He’s rushed for 200 yards and two touchdowns, adding another layer to the deadly run-and-shoot offense.
“He’s a really great dual-threat player,” said SJSU Coach Brent Brennan of Cole McDonald. “Obviously that’s a great challenge for us. But, what they’ve been doing looks exciting and they’re putting up points and moving the football.”
Containing the nation’s leading passer is a tall task for the Spartan defense, but they’ll be up for the challenge.
Two weeks ago they held potential Heisman candidate Justin Herbert of the Oregon Ducks to his worst game of the season. He completed just 47% of his passes and threw two interceptions to the ball-hawking secondary of SJSU, which ranks 12th-nationally with six picks thus far.
The Spartan defense was able to disrupt the Ducks high-powered offense by getting to the quarterback, something that they have improved on with every game this season.
Their pass-rush only has three sacks so far, but they excelled at putting pressure on the quarterback and forcing poor decisions. It will be massively important for the Spartans to put pressure on McDonald on Saturday.
On the other side of the ball, the spotlight remains on SJSU’s QB situation.
Through three games the Spartans have maintained a rotation between Josh Love and Montel Aaron.
Love played in most of the game against Oregon and played his best game of the season so far, throwing for 238 yards and a touchdown. He has started two of the three games this season, but sat out the game against Washington State with an apparent concussion.
Aaron came in midway through the third quarter against UC Davis and put on a show, with 254 yards and two scores and almost leading the Spartans on a big comeback. However, Aaron has seemed to disappear since then. He failed to throw over 100 yards against Washington State, and only threw for 29 against Oregon.
During his weekly press conference this week, Brennan stated that they will keep a rotation of the two QB’s this week, but it’s unclear who will get the start, and who will play more.
If one thing is for sure, it’s that at least one of these QB’s has to step up and put on a solid performance and keep turnovers to a minimum for the Spartans to get that elusive first win on Saturday.
For Brennan, this game is more than just homecoming. Brennan got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Hawaii in 1998. Current Hawaii head coach, Nick Rolovich, was a QB for the Rainbow Warriors at the time. The two formed a great friendship that Brennan says lasts to this day.
“It’s a friendship I cherish,” said Brennan. “We’re both hyper-competitive and when you’re going against someone that you respect like I respect Nick, there’s a little something extra to it I think.”
The Spartans and Rainbow Warriors will kick-off at 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 29 at CEFCU Stadium.
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