San Jose State has L.A. connection

When San Jose State hits the Rose Bowl Saturday to take on its second consecutive Pac-12 opponent in UCLA, there will be a lot of faces familiar to Southern California fans.

 

San Jose State (0-1), which has always recruited heavily in the Southland, is hoping some of those with local ties can help turn its fortunes around when it takes on the Bruins (0-1) at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The Spartans were 57-3 losers to Stanford, while UCLA was falling at Houston, 38-34 in last Saturday’s openers.

 

Some of the key San Jose State players are sophomore wide receiver Noel Grigsby, a former Crenshaw High School standout, junior running back DavidFreeman, an Inglewood High grad who started his college career at Washington, and senior safety Duke Ihenacho, a Serra product. Ihenacho is one of the captains.

 

Grigsby caught a team-high eight passes for 82 yards, equalling a career-high achieved in the final game of last season against Idaho. Freeman netted 12 yards on nine carries against Stanford.

Ihenacho had two solos among his five total tackles against the Cardinal. He was held out of the second half after taking a shot to the head. Coach Mike MacIntyre said his safety showed no concussion symptoms when examined Sunday and is expected to be cleared to play against UCLA.

 

Also seeing action but not starting for the Spartans was sophomore safety  
Bene Benwikere (Serra), who had a solo and assisted tackle in the opener, and freshman defensive end Sean Bacon (Serra).

 

The roster also includes freshman quarterback Joseph Gray (Dorsey), junior 
cornerback Chris Hill (Carson), freshman defensive end Marcus Howard     
(Inglewood)  and sophomore defensive tackle Abasi Salimu (Crenshaw). None of    
them saw action  last week.

 

Turnover issues

San Jose State will have to take better care of the football than it did against Stanford. Quarterback Matt Faulkner fumbled four times and the running backs coughed it up on two more occasions, leading to some easy Cardinal scores.

Running start

UCLA junior tailback Johnathan Franklin (Dorsey) got off to a good start this season with 16 carries for 126 yards and a TD against Houston. He also caught two passes for 17 yards.

Franklin has 1,819 career rushing yards.

Shaquelle Evans, the Notre Dame transfer from Inglewood, had one reception for 19 yards in his debut as a Bruin.