Wednesday, November 3, 1999
Spartans are happy
to be back home
After a month of losing in Texas,
they couldn't wait to get back to
San Jose ... and get running back
Deonce Whitaker healthy1999 season special By Paul Arnett
Star-BulletinEven Dave Baldwin wasn't sure he knew the way to San Jose after spending the last month of the season in Texas.
The San Jose State head football coach took his team on three road trips to Fort Worth, Houston and El Paso only to lose successive games to Texas Christian (42-0), Rice (49-7) and UTEP (42-26).
"And the one game we had at home," Baldwin said of the homecoming matchup with Southern Methodist, "was postponed because of a power outage. So, it's finally nice to be back in California after spending the whole month of October in Texas."
Baldwin is also pleased to see it isn't a team from the Lone Star State. Instead, it's Hawaii coming to town Saturday, a team Baldwin has knocked off twice since being named head coach in 1997.
And the historical precedent doesn't end there. The Rainbows haven't beaten the Spartans since 1988 and haven't won in San Jose since 1958. It's enough to make a coach believe this is an automatic victory.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, wins have been hard to come by for a team that held so much promise early on. After losing a pair of road games to Louisiana State and Colorado, San Jose State rallied to beat St. Mary's, Stanford and Tulsa.
An ankle sprain to all-everything performer Deonce Whitaker made October a dark one for Baldwin. Only now does Baldwin believe Whitaker is 100 percent.
"To show you how tough he is, he had the flu in the game with UTEP and still played all four quarters," Baldwin said. "He is our Pied Piper. We just haven't been the same without him."
Whitaker carried the football 24 time for 97 yards in the loss to the Miners. He scored two touchdowns and also caught two passes for 80 yards.
With him hobbled, the San Jose State offense couldn't help the defense stay off the field, resulting in the current three-game slide. The defense also lost top end Samson Sherrod who recently had surgery to repair a broken finger.
He is listed as questionable for this week's game. Defensive tackle Steve Kapphahn sprained his knee in the loss to Rice and won't play Saturday. Cornerback Kevin Boyer didn't play last weekend against UTEP because of a bruised shin, but is listed as probable against the Rainbows.
"Every team is going to have injuries, but the ones we've had, have certainly hurt us," Baldwin said. "The injuries on defense contributed to some of the lopsided scores we've had.
"And it's kind of scary to think we're not at full strength on that side of the ball for Hawaii. They are a fine football team that poses a lot of problems because they throw the football so well.
"We're not playing very well on defense. The last couple of weeks we haven't been able to stop anybody, so it's going to be a huge challenge for us to stop their passing game."
San Jose State doesn't have a bad passing game, either, led by quarterback Chris Kasteler, and wideouts Casey LeBlanc, Waking Bailey and Steve Pulley.
Kasteler has hit 152 of 271 passes for 1,750 yards and eight touchdowns. His top target is Pulley, who has caught 43 passes for 658 yards and four touchdowns.
LeBlanc and Bailey have combined to catch 47 passes for 532 yards, but neither has found the end zone.
That's Whitaker's role. He has scored 10 rushing touchdowns to lead the Western Athletic Conference in scoring. Despite the nasty ankle sprain, Whitaker has still rushed for 717 yards and is always a threat to score from anywhere on the field.
"He played well last week in El Paso and he was probably about 95 percent for that game," Baldwin said. "He's a tough kid. I think he'll be 100 percent for this game, which is very good news for us.
"We want to win this game because it's probably our last one at home. We're 2-0 at home this year, so it would be good to give our fans a victory this weekend."
UH at San Jose State
When: 10:30 a.m. Saturday
