defensive standout travis johnson is continuing his strong year. he leads the nation in career quarterback sacks heading into this weekend's homecoming game. on top of burying opposing quarterbacks, johnson is collecting his fair share of national recognition. he was recently added to the watch list for the lott impact award which is given to the defensive player that best resembles the character of the iconic hall of fame 49-er ronnie lott. the last three players to win this coveted award have gone on to be standout defensive players in the national football league. travis johnson is not the only player receiving recognition for his hard work and good performances. tight end ryan otten seen here catching a pass......is statistically ranked the 5th best tight end in the nation according to cbs sports.com. otten caught his first touchdown pass of the season in the spartans game at san diego state. despite this attention otten remains focused on completing what is so far a successful season. ">>>"yeah i didn't know about that but uh, that's awsome and

">>>defensive end travis johnson says in order to get that respect they need to keep winning. "yeah i think it's going to take a continuous amount of wins, we're having a good year and we need to finish this off strong and keep getting wins." johnson believes this will be a long term project for the spartans because in previous seasons they have shown a lack of consistency. "if we can on the up, other teams and people are going to start noticing it. we'll start getting ranked more and things like that. so it's not going to be a one year thing it's got to be a two, three years in a row like the other teams have done." but with eight major professional sports teams in the bay area san jose mercury news sports writer mark purdy says....they get all the attention. "in the bay area the real problem for san jose state or really stanford or cal, is cutting through clutter of all the professional teams we have. we have more professional teams than any market in the united states except for new york city." purdy explains that even with a national ranking it would be hard to get any rec