Friday, November 6, 1998
Spartans seek
turnaround
in Hawaii
San Jose State hopes to end
By Paul Arnett
a three-game WAC losing streak
tomorrow against UH
Star-BulletinDave Baldwin sees disaster behind every palm tree and on each grain of sand in Waikiki.
Not only did the second-year head coach for San Jose State spend the week trying desperately to convince his players to take Hawaii seriously, now he has to combat the inherent distractions of the island chain.
So don't tell him about Hawaii's 0-8 record or 14-game slide. That's not island music to his ears.
"They're a whole lot better team than that, let me tell you," Baldwin said last night after San Jose State touched down at Honolulu International Airport.
And don't remind him of the recent success the Spartans have had over the Rainbows. He has been around for only one Western Athletic Conference victory.
"And probably the only reason we beat them so badly last year was because of a rainy field and a delayed start that I'm sure took the edge off their performance," Baldwin said.
And whatever you do, don't ask him why San Jose State can go out and beat Stanford one weekend, and lose to Idaho the next.
"That's been our recent history, hasn't it?" Baldwin said. "This is what I've been trying to teach our guys, that if you want to be a good team, you don't play hard in one game and relax the next. You go hard all the time."
Things haven't been going well lately for the Spartans. Since stunning Rice, 20-10, a month ago, San Jose State has reeled off three consecutive league losses to UTEP (28-21), Brigham Young University (46-43) and Utah (49-17).
Last year, the Spartans finished 4-4 in the WAC and 4-7 overall. Baldwin wants to improve on those numbers, and to do that, the Spartans can't afford to stumble tomorrow night at Aloha Stadium.
"We're already 2-3 in the WAC with only three games left," Baldwin said. "So this is important to the development of our program.
"We want to win a league game on the road because we haven't done that this season. We want to finish 5-3 in the league, so we have to win out from here."
This could be the easiest stop of the three remaining games. This decade, San Jose State is 2-0-1 against Hawaii and is a 71/2-point favorite this weekend.
Last year, Baldwin's offense carved up Hawaii for 38 points and 405 yards. Wide receiver Oliver Newell caught eight passes for 194 yards and three touchdowns.
He is the leading receiver for the Spartans this year as well with 34 receptions for 517 yards and five touchdowns. In all, San Jose State has seven receivers with at least 11 receptions.
The star of the show is quarterback Chris Kasteler, who has thrown for 1,144 yards and nine touchdowns this season. The passing game is grounded in the running attack. Carlos Meeks has 429 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Deonce Whitaker has 418 yards and five scores.
"We need to be able to run to help shake our guys loose in the passing game," Baldwin said. "We've been basically a one-back, three-wide set all year. The only time we ran two backs was against Stanford and that was a special deal."
What hasn't been particularly special is the San Jose State defense. The Spartans are only two from the bottom nationally against the run, yielding 267 yards a game.
And they're last in the league in total defense (448.9 yards) and tied for last in scoring defense, yielding 34.4 points a game.
"I was disappointed with our defensive intensity last week in our loss to Utah," Baldwin said. "We didn't have any, so I threw it open this week.
"Whoever gave me the most in practice will start in the game. This is an important game to see where we are mentally as a team. Quite frankly, this kind of game scares me to death."
San Jose State also has struggled in some phases of the kicking game, although the Spartans do lead the nation in return yards on kickoffs with 1,188.
Place-kicker David Silberstein has connected on 8 of 12 field goals and made all 24 of his PATs, but San Jose State is last in the league in net punting (31.5 yards), worse even than Hawaii.
"This game is a shot at redemption for both teams," Baldwin said. "We need to win and so do they. It should be a good game."
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
