San Jose State Spartans football headed to the Cure Bowl

Photos by Kavin Mistry

The San Jose State Spartans football team is headed to its first bowl game since 2012, when quarterback David Fales led them to the Military Bowl.

The Spartans will take on the Georgia State Panthers in the AutoNation Cure Bowl on Dec. 19 at 9 a.m. in Orlando, Florida.

SJSU boasts an all-time record of 6-3 in bowl games, including victories in its past three appearances. This will be the first bowl game for head coach Ron Caragher.

This will also be the first bowl game for the Georgia State program that began in 2010.

Scoring wise the Spartans and Panthers are nearly identical in their per game output on offense and defense.

The Spartans averaged 28.0 points per game on offense, while its defense surrenders 28.2 points per game.

Meanwhile, the Panthers averaged 27.8 points per game, and surrender an average of 28.4 points.

However, the offensive identities of the two teams are vastly different; the Spartans offense runs through senior running back Tyler Ervin, while the Panthers offense flows through the arm of quarterback Nick Arbuckle.

Ervin, who earned First Team All-Mountain West honors, rushed for 1,469 yards and managed 2,410 all-purpose yards for the season, ranking him second in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Arbuckle finished the season with 4,160 passing yards, 32 total touchdowns (26 passing), and averaged 346.7 passing yards per game for Georgia State.

As a compliment to their quarterback, Georgia State’s wide receivers Penny Hart and Robert Davis propel Georgia State’s aerial attack.

Hart led the Panthers with 71 receptions for 1,095 yards and eight touchdowns, including seven receptions for 129 yards and a touchdown in the team’s regular season finale against Georgia Southern on Saturday.

Davis added 60 receptions for 979 yards and six touchdowns.

The matchup to focus on will be the explosiveness of the Panthers receivers against the grit of the Spartans secondary.

SJSU’s defense held opponents to 153.6 passing yards per game this season, second fewest in the FBS.

Jimmy Pruitt and Cleveland Wallace III lead the Spartan secondary with three interceptions a piece.

The Spartans path to the Cure Bowl was unconventional; they were surprised that they were even being considered for a bowl after their final loss to Boise State clinched a losing season.

However, there were only 75 teams in the FBS that had at least six wins this season (which is the minimum to be considered for a bowl game) and there needs to be 80 teams to fill all the bowls.

Georgia State’s path to the Cure Bowl was through their emphatic upset victory over their rivals Georgia Southern in the final game of the season that propelled them to a 6-6 finish. Which was surprising because they started the season 1-5, but then hit their stride and won five of their last six games.

The inaugural AutoNation Cure Bowl will take place in the Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

Roger Goodell, there is still an issue

SPORTS OPINION

An estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions, whether they’re related to sports or recreation, occur each year in the United States according to protectthebrain.org.

Most of the sports teams here at San Jose State have the risk of a student athlete suffering from a concussion.

Concussions or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) are becoming a much larger issue and are putting athletes in serious life-threatening situations on the field.

Whenever a player during a game suffers a blow to the head, or any other head or neck injury, they are taken to the team doctor and put through the “concussion protocol.”

This consists of a baseline determination diagnosis during a neurological exam performed by a doctor, a gradual exercise program on the sidelines (such as stationary bike, light aerobic activities and before being allowed to check back into the game, they must be cleared by a doctor and an independent neurological consultant.

Today more than ever we see reports of plays showing “concussion-like” symptoms during football games and the NFL is not taking this issue seriously enough.

According to an article on pbs.org, in 2007 NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called for the first ever concussion summit, which included league doctors and outside sources.

The outside sources presented their findings about the dangers of concussions and were promptly dismissed by the league officials. In a press conference following the summit, Goodell sold to the media the “accomplishments” that have been made by the NFL doctors with this issue despite the fact there were none.

St. Louis Rams receiver Wes Welker, who was signed to the team a few weeks ago, was absent from the field for the past 10 months because of multiple concussions.

Welker has suffered three concussions in the NFL which made his comeback to the field all the more puzzling, as he is putting his life in danger and the league is allowing this to happen.

“I don’t think you’re courageous. Or tough. I think you’re f—ing stupid,” said prominent sportswriter Jeff Pearlman in an ESPN article. “Wes, you’re a young guy, and you need to retire right now.”

The NFL is not doing anything to stop him from continuing his career. There needs to be a rule implemented to stop players from re-entering the game after multiple concussions, it is just stupid that they are condoning this.

The other problem is the issue of playing for a paycheck. Football players have stated that if they notice they have a concussion, they will try to hide it because they need to make money and put food on the table for their families.

Clearly the concussion protocol is either not implemented enough, or it needs to be improved, because these players should not be putting their lives at risk to play a game.

According to an article on concussions by CNN, 87 of the 91 former NFL players who donated their brains after death to science, tested positive for CTE.

San Francisco 49ers player Justin Smith said in an ESPN report that players know what problems can occur by playing with a concussion, yet would risk further damage for the money.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out if (you have) a concussion … Yeah I’d still play through it, It’s part of it. It’s part of the game,” Smith said in the ESPN article.

The most frustrating thing Smith said was when he talked about how the NFL handles these concussion situations.

“I think if you are noticeably messed up, yeah, they’ll take you out. But if you’ve just got some blurry vision, I’d say that’s the player’s call. And most guys – 99 percent of the guys in the NFL – are going to play through it,” Smith said.

After hearing these professional players speak about the danger they are putting themselves in just to play football, it makes you step back and look at the big picture.

We are here at SJSU, we have a football team and it almost beckons the question, are they doing everything in their power to protect these athletes?