Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Spear football beat reporter
SJSU had yet to play their first down of football and I had already landed myself in head coach Brent Brennan’s dog house. Perhaps asking him, “What will it take to reach the heights you reached in 2020?” was a bit too straightforward.
Brennan, who typically responds to questions immediately, took a painstakingly long handful of seconds to throw his hands up, chuckle and gather himself.
“Honestly, we don’t even think that way. We aren’t even talking about that season around here right now.”
My question was valid. More than that, it’s been something on the minds of SJSU football fans everywhere.
Seriously, how can a team win a conference championship, have multiple pieces of that squad return, only to go 5-7 the next season en route to missing a bowl game?
For Brennan, the answer to this conundrum was equally cliche as it was truthful.
“We are just focusing on this game. You only get to play one game a week and they all mean the same in the final tally. All we are worried about is playing our best football against Portland State Thursday night at CEFCU stadium at 7:30.”
Somewhere over the horizon, Bill Belichick subtly nodded his head and tipped his navy blue hoodie.
I wasn’t there last season so it’s difficult to decipher the specific events that led to the response.
However, the overarching theme became quite clear-
“We are all about our process over outcome.”
Focusing more on the “outcome” rather than the “process” is a cardinal sin that will have you excommunicated from the church of winning.
Later on, Brennan made it quite clear that it was an infection that spread throughout the entire program.
“I think everybody around here. Not just myself, every person got so caught up in the final tally and what that was coming off 2020. It was unhealthy for us, it wasn’t good and we didn’t handle it well.”
When Brennan regrouped with his coaching staff after the season to identify and correct what went wrong, a result-oriented mindset was a commonality.
“We feel like that became too much of the conversation, was what happened at the end.”
A few moments later, the all-encompassing, 2021 season summarizing hammer was dropped.
“We are one week at a time, one day at a time, one practice at a time, that’s all that matters to us because when we start thinking of things outside of what’s happening right now, we get our asses kicked and it wasn’t fun.”
That response did more than just ease my worries of starting out 2022 in his doghouse.
It gave Spartan fans a glimpse into why the encore was so disappointing compared to the original concert.
At the same time, 2021 provides a Pacific Ocean-sized wealth of knowledge for SJSU football.
Why not double down on the cliches and let Matthew McConaughey see us out.