San Jose State football had about as awful a season opener as it gets, taking a 57-3 shellacking at Stanford. Adding injury to insult, the Spartans’ quarterback, Matt Faulkner, was battered to the point that he missed the following game last Saturday—a 27-17 loss at UCLA—due to concussion-like symptoms. (Don’t you just love that? Faulkner had “concussion-like symptoms.” Because coming out and saying he had a concussion would require, what, a trained medical professional who isn’t scared to hedge their bets?)
Anyway, SJSU is hoping Faulkner makes a speedy recovery in time for the Spartans’ home opener at 1pm Saturday against winless Nevada, a program that is known as the Wolf Pack—minus one Zach Galifianakis. Looking at the improvement in their margins of defeat, let’s give the Spartans the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re improving each week under second-year coach Mike MacIntyre.
If that’s the case, SJSU could be poised to earn its first victory since topping Southern Utah 364 days ago. That’s not a typo. The Spartans won one game last year, and it happened almost exactly a year to the day of Saturday’s game. With that in mind, we raise our glass and wish the valiant Spartans luck in their quest for victory.
This is college, after all. No one should have to go through a full year of Sunday morning hangovers without getting lucky one Saturday.
Queens of the Court
When I was kicked out of college for the second time and had to get a real job or join the military, I chose a real job and started working for a ceramics company just outside of Sacramento. (My hands were never meant for war; they’re better suited for writing and nursing baby chicks back to health.) Almost every weeknight, after the company’s 86-year-old owner spent eight straight hours telling me my generation wasn’t worth a damn and the Chinese were taking over the world, I would get home to find my roommate sitting on the couch, watching sports.
His particular game of choice featured a dozen women, whose height suggested they were of Amazonian descent, wearing lovely short shorts and taking turns viciously smacking a white orb over a net. “Pac-10 women’s volleyball, bro,” he’d say, smiling before taking a rip off a bong. While times have changed—my former roommate is off the couch, off the pot and on his way to becoming a lawyer—the world of collegiate volleyball on the West Coast continues to be strong talentwise, on and off the court.
The Stanford Cardinal women’s team was ranked No. 2 in the country entering Tuesday’s battle royale with Cal, which the Cardinal narrowly lost in four sets. The team will be back home this weekend to take on Utah and Colorado at 7pm on Friday and Saturday, respectively. In addition to checking out one of the best teams in the nation, taking in a Stanford game gives fans a chance to see one of the nation’s best young players and a Silicon Valley native—sophomore outside hitter Rachel Williams. The Archbishop Mitty grad won two state championships in high school and is quickly earning a reputation as one of the best players in the nation.
