Photo credit: @AnaKieu

By: Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE, Calif. — While the Mountain West Conference continues to innovate by combining modern music and high-end technology, the San Jose State Spartans are simply looking to pick up more than two wins in 2018.

Like I’ve mentioned many times before, San Jose State has no choice but to Spartan up and give it all they’ve got to prepare for this coming season. SJSU held their second (and final) scrimmage of this year’s Fall Camp at CEFCU Stadium, and although there wasn’t a sold out crowd, there were plenty of positive things to say about the current Spartans’ roster.

College football is just around the corner, and the Spartans embodied the City of San Jose’s character and temperament with their grit and toughness. The best is yet to come for the generally young Spartans, who hope to prove the know-it-alls wrong.

Both the Spartan offense and defense looked pretty good on the field. The offensive line moved the ball in an exceptional manner, while the defensive line did a decent job in stopping the runs, going after opponents and coming up with turnovers.

Here are the post-scrimmage questions I asked Spartans head coach Brent Brennan after the scrimmage.

1. The Spartans have a lot of cornerbacks, but do they have starting-caliber cornerbacks?
I think that group is coming along. I think they’ve been doing some work. Obviously, Dakari (Monroe) is a good player and he’ll continue to show great leadership and great play. He didn’t play today, but the other guys that are starting to come along in that group like Zamore Zigler, who has made some plays, but I think some of this is going to have to be battle-tested before we know who the other cornerback is. But those guys are ready.

2. How are the Spartans going to replace the position and leadership of Frank Ginda last year?
Ethan Aguayo was off to a great start and I think the senior class is really taking the respective leadership and they’re the ones that are really driving the team right now, which is the way it needs to be. They’re the ones that are playing the games, and anytime you get great leadership from your senior class–and the guys that have been here the longest and invested the most–it gives you a great chance.

3. What’s the thought process on kickoffs right now?
Well, the new rule…I think it’s going to change the way people return kicks and kick the ball. It’ll be interesting to see what people say about that. You know, there’s all kinds of schools of thought out there, so everyone is going to have their own theory on it. But it’s definitely an interesting rule because now you can fair catch the ball anywhere inside the 25 and you get the ball on the 25. So if you have a strong-legged kicker, you can still kick it out of the end zone, and if you don’t, you can try kicking it for some time, and hopefully a fair catch.

Notes
The male and female Spartans spent some time Friday voluntarily helping out students with moving into their dorms on the San Jose State campus.

33 youth football teams held their under-18 scrimmages prior to the Spartans’ scrimmage of the offseason at 5 pm PDT.

Senior cornerback Dakari Monroe celebrated his birthday Saturday.

Up Next
San Jose State has two much-needed day offs on Sunday, August 19 and Thursday, August 23. SJSU has practices from August 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29. SJSU will kick off the 2018 season with a home opener versus UC Davis on August 30 at 7 pm PDT.