Photo credit Jackson Moore of 247 Sports
By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Football Beat Reporter
For the first time in his life, SJSU quarterback Chevan Cordeiro is doing his own laundry.
All it took was a blend of maturity and an escape from a place he’d been calling home for his entire life.
A mass exodus took place within the University of Hawaii football program this past offseason. The impetus was then head coach Todd Graham’s reported abrasive and uninviting coaching culture.
Cordeiro threw his hat in the transfer portal ring despite being the starting quarterback and leading the Rainbow Warriors to a bowl game. However, a half-decent box score can only hide so much.
One anonymous player told SF Gate, “Me and a lot of others [players] can truthfully say Graham has killed our love and passion for football.”
Graham would resign on Jan. 8 after a meeting between former Hawaii players, parents and state senators where they criticized the coach in a Senate hearing .
The explosive and bitter ending spoiled a story that had all the makings to be passed down from one Rainbow Warrior generation to the next.
Growing up 10 minutes away from the UH campus, Cordeiro fell in love with the program through weekend tailgates and watching a QB whose statistics and success make him more mythical than human.
From 2005-07, Colt Brennan propelled June Jones’ crafty and iconic Run and Shoot offense to heights the program hasn’t been able to sniff since. When it was time to hang up his cleats, Brennan held the NCAA’s all-time leading record for touchdown passes in a career (131) and the most in a single season (58) in 2006.
“In Hawaii, we have no professional team so the University of Hawaii was our professional team. That’s all we cheered for football-wise,” said Cordeiro.
“To me watching him play quarterback was like watching Steph Curry,” said SJSU head coach Brent Brennan who’s the cousin of the late Colt.
Colt’s heroics softly nudged Cordeiro on a track that saw him attending the football powerhouse Saint Louis High School.
If the name doesn’t sound familiar, surely the two Heismans it produced would: Marcus Marriota and Tua Tagoviloa.
“I looked up to Marcus … he only started his senior year, too and I started my senior year, and what he did and he just showed that anything is possible.”
“I followed him and I kind of want to go on the same path as him.”
The path was similar but differed in distance. Mariota traveled hundreds of miles over the Pacific Ocean to the University of Oregon. Meanwhile, Cordeiro could slingshot a rock through the window of his ECON 101 class from his front porch.
Being so close to UH’s campus looked to be a fortuitous opportunity in his freshman season.
Down 21-13 in 2018 against UNLV, Cordeiro took over for Cole Mcdonald behind center and led Hawaii to a 35-28 comeback win behind his three passing touchdowns in the fourth quarter. The Rainbow Warriors followed up the miraculous win by dropping four straight. When Wyoming came in looking to make it five-straight, Cordeiro curbed the losing skid by throwing two touchdowns, helping propel UH to a 17-13 win.
Over his next two seasons, Cordeiro played his way into becoming a Mountain West honorable mention in 2020.
With steady improvements shown each year, 2021 was the year for Cordeiro to grab the bull by the horns. Few stories write themselves, like a quarterback leading the team he grew up rooting for to the same prominence when he was watching them.
But for Cordeiro, the 2021 season is a realization that seldom is life as straight as a Chad Owens go-route down the sideline. It’s a windy scramble molded by blitzes you don’t see coming, forcing you out of the pocket.
Cordeiro has full confidence that transferring to San Jose State is how he’ll navigate this foggy abyss that lies between the hashmarks and sidelines.
“This is the best decision that ever could have happened for me,” said Cordeiro. “Whether it’s sports or outside of football.”
These monumental words are built on the ancient, but eternally relevant idea of doing things you don’t want to do.
“Back home I was getting spoiled. I didn’t even do my own laundry. I didn’t do anything,” Cordeiro said.
Playing hooky on monotonous house chores carried over onto the gridiron.
Cordeiro admits to not watching “extra film” and spending time alone studying while attending Hawaii.
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kevin McGiven notes that Cordeiro’s commitment to bland, minute tasks has “been able to foster a lot of relationships with guys on the team.”
One common misconception about hard work is that if you’re not constantly miserable and white-knuckling, then you’re not doing it right. Which can’t be further from the truth in Cordeiro’s case.
“I feel like if you’re having fun playing football that’s when you start doing good.”
“I give props to Coach Brennan and all my coaches for making football fun, that’s what it’s supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be a grind.”
The first time I spoke to Cordeiro, I asked about the difference in practice culture between San Jose State and Hawaii, expecting broad lip service to avoid the subject.
What I got was a direct, simple, and insightful answer.
“Compared to last year I feel like it’s fun,” later added, “I get to go to practice with a smile on my face, last year I didn’t want to practice.”
Rising from the ashes of Todd Graham’s morally non-compliant culture, is a free-spirited kid from Honolulu, just looking to have some fun again.
Instead of the pillow-soft sands of Hawaii, it’s under the palm tree fronds of San Jose.
