Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Football Beat Reporter
Welcome to “Coach’s Corner,” a safe space for three ridiculous observations made by beat reporter Matt Weine from SJSU head coach Brent Brennan’s weekly press conference. You will find yourself immersed in a splattering of Spartan football-related thoughts. Some intelligent, some well…we’ll let you figure that one out yourself.
Time For A Change
The rivalry between San Jose State and Fresno State checks all the boxes: history, proximity and ‘friendly disagreement’.
Well, maybe every box but one: an iconic trophy.
This is the hardware given to the winner of the Battle for the Valley:
There are specialized engravings on it, but it sorely lacks a unique, memorable flavor. It pales in comparison to the Paul Bunyan’s Axe trophy given to the winner of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
This is just one of many.
Naturally, I asked Brent Brennan if he had any suggestions.
“That’s a good question. Shoot, I don’t know … I think you have to figure something out that encompasses all of it.”
“Encompasess it all” you say?
Look no further:
Matt Weiner has no background as a graphic designer, in case you couldn’t already tell
It still follows the current design of the trophy where one side of the V is dedicated to Fresno State and the other side to San Jose State. Instead of engravings though, it’s a real prop vis-à-vis the Bunyan Axe.
The Bulldogs’ slant would be a single rack of ribs to honor Fresno’s agriculture, while the Spartans’ slant would just turn the original computer chip engravings into an actual computer chip.
People may doubt this will play.
But guess what? People also doubted the Spartans would bounce back from a lackluster 2021 campaign and we’ve seen how that turned out.
Fife Dawg
Fresno State enters the matchup in borderline crisis mode. Not only are they 1-4, but they’re a brutal 1-4. They became UCONN’s first FBS win since 2019 and suffered a 40-20 defeat to Boise State after getting outscored 20-3 in the second half.
Their last hope for a respectable season is backup quarterback Logan Fife.
The sophomore, who came into 2022 with 13 pass attempts, is filling in for Mountain West first-team quarterback Jake Haener who’s been sidelined since the third quarter of their matchup against USC with an ankle injury.
“You can see him getting more comfortable with the reps that he’s getting and that’s going to be a challenge for us,” said Brennan.
Fife showed promise when he relieved Haener, going 11 for 12 for 140 passing yards. But his passing yards and completion percentage has dropped since his debut. In his last game against Boise State, he went for just 134 yards on 25 passing attempts while throwing two picks.
Nonetheless, Brennan is treating Fife with the same intensity and preparation that he would if it was Haener because he knows that a quarterback can get hot at the drop of a hat.
“As Logan gets more and more comfortable with that, he becomes more and more dangerous because of his arm talent and his ability to get out of trouble and extend plays,” said Brennan.
Fife turned what would’ve been about a 16-yard loss following a botched snap into a head-spinning dime for a first down.
Can’t Drive Looking Backwards
Discourse about the Spartans running away with the Mountain West is full speed ahead.
As it should be.
In their three-game winning streak, they’ve outscored opponents 107-29 and quarterback Chevan Cordeiro has won back-to-back Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Brennan is happy with the results, but you won’t see him publicly reminisce about the good days like he was Uncle Rico from “Napoleon Dynamite.”
“Looking backwards does nothing for you,” said Brent Brennan. “We talk about that a lot with our football team. Let’s look out the windshield and not the rearview.”
Full disclosure, sometimes press conferences can feel stale.
Brennan’s never going to come out as Macho Man Randy Savage, stand on top of the ropes and drop some outlandish quotes about how the Spartans are going to go 11-1 and win a New Year’s Six bowl.
That ain’t happening. Unless it’s learning from a miscue, he’s not focused on anything from the past or future.
“We have seven games left and nothing really matters,” said Brennan. “All that other stuff is in the past. It’s in the rearview what’s ahead is what matters.”
Having the right mentality and saying the right things isn’t always entertaining for fans.
What is entertaining, however, is being able to stand atop the Mountain West after six weeks.
“We’ve played five games. We got seven games left and we are not even halfway through the season. There is so much football left to play.”
We as a staff apologize to anyone who made it this far. Consider yourself a trooper for making it past the whole trophy thing. Seriously what was that?