By Austin Turner — Columnist
Nick Starkel is a name all San Jose State football fans should recognize.
While the Spartans celebrated one of the biggest wins in program history, the former Arkansas quarterback was at rock bottom. The emotions he experienced —anger, frustration, disappointment — were feelings that the Spartans were used to. Not Starkel.
He threw five interceptions in the Razorbacks’ 31-24 upset defeat to the Spartans on Sept. 21. The former four-star recruit took “full blame” for the result.
To many people, it looked like the highly touted QB had fallen off the map.
Shortly after the dust settled on Arkansas’ 2-10 season and head coach Chad Morris was fired, Starkel received a surprise text from none other than the newly graduated SJSU QB Josh Love.
“[Love] said ‘Hey look, I’m graduating … we got a really talented receiving corps, really talented offense. It’s all veteran guys in there,’” Starkel said.
Love and Starkel were counselors at the 2019 Steve Clarkson Quarterback Retreat.
Workouts were followed by spikeball matches on the beach, and the pair remained in touch. The endorsement from his friend and former Spartan was all he needed to hear.
“Josh recruited me there,” Starkel said. “He sealed the deal and it was just on the coaches to back up what he was saying.”
Love set Starkel up with QB coach Ryan Gunderson. After a successful phone call, head coach Brent Brennan spoke with Starkel’s parents to gain their approval, which was important to him. Brennan made quite an impression on the young QB.
“He was so cool,” Starkel said, referring to Brennan. “It’s like a ‘bro’ or a ‘dude’ every-other sentence … You can tell he probably has a really good relationship with his players.”
Starkel’s recruiting pitch from his new coach?
“Yeah dude, you’re going to love it out here bro.”
Starkel committed to be a Spartan as a graduate transfer less than five months after they shocked his Razorbacks.
A couple of weeks after committing to the coaching staff, he “announced” it with a simple Instagram post. It was a selfie of him in ski goggles captioned “Mood all 2020 knowing God got me,” with the location tagged “San Jose State University.”
“[The announcement] was kind of on accident,” Starkel said with a chuckle. “I was going to kind of just move [to San Jose] in silence but it’s whatever.”
The shocking nature of his decision doesn’t escape him. Starkel knows it was a surprising move. But what blew him away even more was the fact that the Spartans saw something in him.
“I never would have thought that a team that I threw five interceptions against would want me,” he said. “But they saw, ‘with the right coaching this kid could be pretty special.’”
Starkel adds that they didn’t even bring the game up during any recruiting pitches, but he realizes his new teammates might have something to say.
“I swear if those [defensive backs] start chirping in practice it’s going to get real serious,” Starkel laughed.
The coaching staff looked past the rough outing and instead looked at the potential shown over his entire body of work as a college quarterback.
The 6-foot-3, 214 lb. QB blasted out of the gates as a redshirt freshman at Texas A&M. Despite an opening-day injury, Starkel started five games for the Aggies, throwing for 1,793 yards and 14 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions. In the Belk Bowl against Wake Forest, he set A&M freshman records with 499 passing yards and 4 scores.
The future was looking bright for the young gunslinger in the Lonestar State.
Except after a heated competition, he lost the 2018 starting job to Kellen Mond. Looking to play his final two years of eligibility, Starkel chose the University of Arkansas. It wasn’t the right fit.
“In my first decision to transfer, I was really insecure about getting out of the spotlight,” he said. “I was like, ‘I need to go to another big school … In the end, you want to go to a team that you are going to be successful at and that just wasn’t happening at Arkansas.’”
Now he comes to the Spartans in search of a football rebirth. A renaissance of sorts. He wanted to play for a winning program, and after seeing the team’s massive improvement in 2019, SJSU was the program he saw himself being the most successful with.
“The Mountain West is wide open,” Starkel said. “I think you can ask anybody on the team and they think we can [win it] this year, and I do too, or else I wouldn’t be going there.”
Starkel comes to SJSU not only as a fit for football but for the Bay Area lifestyle. He spent his high school years in the Dallas area, but with a military father he moved around a lot, including a three-year stop in San Francisco.
And now, the easy-going Texas kid is ready to return to The Bay. He plans to drive his truck from his Dallas-area home to San Jose shortly before the spring semester begins.
After his arrival, among the first items on Starkel’s agenda will be to meet up with his deadliest weapon on the offense, senior receiver Tre Walker. Walker is coming off an impressive breakout season where he torched opposing defenses for 79 catches and 1,161 receiving yards in just 10 games.
Against Starkel’s Razorbacks, Walker stole the show with 12 receptions and 161 yards. Starkel hasn’t forgotten.
“I’m so stoked,” he said. “The dude just went off against us. This kid’s amazing.”
After a couple of rough years behind center, Starkel comes to SJSU simply in need of a fresh start.
He has talent, that much is clear. But the game of football is as much about the mental as the physical, and that thought brings Starkel to his personal goal for his final season of eligibility.
“I want to fall in love with the game again,” he said. “And not the aspects of what football can give me, but literally just falling in love with the practices … and the games, the bus rides to the game, the plane ride back.”
And that’s what makes Starkel so relatable. He just wants to love what he does.
Gone are the pressures of playing in the media frenzy of the SEC. No need to live up to the sky-high expectations of rabid southern fanbases.
Next stop: San Jose State
Follow Austin on Twitter @AustinTurner_