Thoughts on the Stanford Game

First, I do have one dirty little secret I must reveal before I go on with this post:


I'm a Stanford fan. I'm one of those people who roots for two teams almost equally. Eleven games each year, I root for the Cardinal. That one remaining game? I betray my favorite college team for the one I attend.

When I bought this shirt at the game today, this was the excuse I gave the man at the counter when he asked me if I would be putting the new one on over the one I was wearing (the shirt I'm pictured wearing.)

This being said, the play calling must change if the Spartans are going to have a shot against any of its tougher opponents the rest of this season.

Hand off to Yonus Davis. Quarterback sneak up the middle. Bubble screen to one of the wide receivers on third and long. Punt the ball and pray for rain. Repeat on the next offensive drive.

If I can follow the play calls and tell my friend Nate what's coming up, Jim Harbaugh and his coaching staff can too. The game was lost at half time when Stanford made defensive adjustments, and San Jose didn't make changes to its offensive calls to match.

Fans of the San Francisco 49ers can vouch for awful play calling derailing a team. Yes, the personnel last year for San Francisco was bad, but the anemic offense could have at least put some points on the board if it wasn't for conservative running call after conservative running call. Marcus Arroyo's choices were reminiscent of the same bad calls the 49ers made last year.

Something needs to change in advance of the Hawaii game, because San Jose State can't go to Aloha Stadium and play a team as down as the Warriors are with this strategy.

When a road game isn't really a road game

The Mercury News has been really into the Walsh rivalry game. College football columnist Jon Wilner compared ripe golden delicious apples to moldy granny smiths in terms of quarterbacks earlier this week. Mark Purdy also wrote about the game, wondered out loud why Stanford Stadium is only half full usually for the annual match up between the Spartans and the Cardinal.

Neither columnist really mentioned it, although Purdy danced around the subject, but there is no road team for this game. The projected attendance is around 30,000 fans, and a considerable number of those people will be rooting for the Blue and Gold.

The two schools are, as Spartan Daily sports reporter Joey Akeley said, about 30 miles apart. That means no time zone changes for the Spartans. No hours logged on the plane. No climate changes. No legions of unfriendly fans without the Spartan Squad to drown them out.

This is a road game on the Spartan’s schedule that isn’t really a road game. The team needs to remember that the only difference in the scenery are the miles of empty red seats and the word “Stanford” spray painted in each end zone.

The Spartans have been far better at home than on the road in the Dick Tomey era, and have been just short of awful on the road during that same timeframe. The team hasn’t been this consistently average since the 1980s, and its refreshing to know we as fans can be guaranteed the team will show up and play week in and week out.

But taking advantage of these types of games is key to taking the next step from team in the gutter to potential division winner.

Spartan defense's first real test - Stanford

Last year, Stanford halfback Toby Gerhart tore up the Spartan running defense before he tore up his knee in the same game, accumulating 140 yards and averaging more than a 11 yards per run before ending his season with a torn ACL in the third quarter.

This year could be different.

San Jose State’s run defense is ranked 10th nationally after three games, a stat that is a combination of reality and aberration. The team’s two starting defensive ends – senior USC transfer Jeff Schweiger and junior Carl Ihenacho – have filled in the gaping hole the Spartans’ defense had last year with run defense (which ranked 77th in 2007 and 108th in tackles for loss of yards), and pass rush (96th in sacks.)

Ihenacho is already close to tying all of his numbers from last year just three games into the season. Schweiger’s numbers are equally impressive this year.

Both will be put to the test by Gerhart and Cardinal back up halfback Anthony Kimble, who picked up an additional 80 yards on 19 carries in last year’s game. Both players are under the radar for the Cardinal, since neither one completed the season healthy.

The big indicator that this defense is legitimate could be based on its performance against Nebraska. The Spartans held the Cornhuskers rushing attack to 99 yards total, a small number for a team that is moving back to a traditional running based offense.

Keep in mind, Nebraska put up 138 yards against Western Michigan the week before, and a week later would tally more than 300 rushing yards against New Mexico State the following week.

The doubt of the Spartans' defense comes from the competition. UC Davis is an FCS (formerly Division 1-AA) team with a pass-centered attack. The team’s running back, Joe Trombetta, didn’t achieve 100 yards rushing for the season until the third week of the season.

San Diego State is a woeful team. The team’s rushing attack is weak, achieving just 98 yards in the season’s first two games on 38 rushing attempts.

There is something to be said, though, that the Spartans handed San Diego State its worse loss so far this season, which is worth noting because the Aztecs played Notre Dame close the week before.

The Aztec's freshman quarterback, Ryan Lindley, was hounded all day, and his offensive line and back field did him no favors. The Spartan defense was merely exploiting an already bad offense when it embarrassed the Aztecs on Sunday. There’s a reason San Diego State has been on ESPN’s Bottom 10 list every week this year.

This week will be the first challenge for the Spartans’ defense. Toby Gerhart is ranked in the top 50 nationally in average rushing yards. We will know whether or not the tenth overall ranking is earned.

(This post originally made for the Spartan Daily's Sports Blog for today.)