JJ Arcega-Whiteside was just too darn big, fast and physical for San Diego State defensive backs to guard. Once Stanford figured that out, the host Cardinal rode the arm of K.J. Costello to a 31-10 non-conference football victory in the season opener for both teams.
It might be slightly different when USC visits next Saturday in the Pac-12 opener for a 5:30 p.m. kickoff.
Arcega-Whiteside caught six passes for a career-high 226 yards and three touchdowns. Costello threw for 332 yards on 21-of-31 and added a fourth TD pass to Colby Parkinson.
“It’s a combination of trust and feel,” Costello said. “There’s not a lot of wideouts that I’ve come across that have his knack and ability to position themselves properly countless, countless times in between the corner, outside the corner, sometimes slipping inside but still staying wide away from the safety. He’s a basketball player; he’s taking the ball off the rim.”
The Aztecs threw everything they had at stopping Bryce Love, who once rushed for 301 yards in a game, and they had pretty good success. Love was limited to 29 yards on 18 carries and Stanford rushed for 50 yards.
“We tried to stay with them as long as we could,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “And in doing so they left JJ Arcega-Whiteside, in particular, one-on-one. So we came back at halftime and said, okay, let’s just stop being stubborn; let’s go take advantage of it. The bottom line is if it’s one-on-one, we’re going to give him a shot to make a play.”
Thank goodness for the 6-3 senior receiver and Costello’s ability to thread passes into his waiting hands.
“That’s nothing new,” San Diego State coach Rocky Long said. “He made those plays last year if you just watched film of his last five games. He’s as fast as we are and quicker than we are.”
Receiver Trent Irwin (five catches for 31 yards) made the play of the game by morphing into a defensive player and smartly turning a bad luck interception into a recovered fumble.
Noble Hall intercepted a deflected pass for San Diego State but then lost the ball when Irwin came back and knocked it loose.
“Probably the play of the game,” Shaw said. “The play Trenton made, ball is deflected, intercepted. He took off full speed coming back there. He saw the ball. He got it out and he got on it. Got the ball back and went down and scored.”
Three plays later, Costello and Arcega-Whiteside connected on a 38-yard TD pass that gave Stanford a 9-7 lead at the half.
“The biggest momentum change came with the interception and we fumbled it back,” Long said. “All of a sudden they score and completely took away our momentum.”
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The final score was 31-10……not 34-10