By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Spear Reporter // Photo via Titus Wilkinson
It was around Christmas time in 2018.
San Jose State football head coach Brent Brennan said he was stressed and “probably miserable to be around for my family.”
The Spartans just finished 1-11. Brennan was now a lowly 3-22 his first two years as SJSU’s head coach. “I’m like, ‘Damn, if we don’t start playing better football, they’re gonna find someone else to coach this team,’” Brennan said.
Then he had an epiphany. Five years later, Brennan sees it as “a super clear line of demarcation” for SJSU’s historic rebuild. He enters the 2023 season with a chance to become the first head coach in program history to reach three bowl games. “Like, super specific day [and] time,” he said.
Before Brennan was preparing to face USC quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy Award winner Caleb Williams for tomorrow’s season opener, he was coming off a one-win campaign in 2018.
But he wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of it. “My kids are in school like, ‘Dad, are you gonna get fired?’ I’m like, ‘God I hope not,’” Brennan said.
So he spent Christmas time reevaluating each facet of himself and the Spartans. Hoping to uncover a solution before it was too late.
Then came his epiphany: “I had to be better if we were going to be better as a team.”
It started with having a structured morning routine.
“I would talk to other successful people that I was meeting through my network here, our donors [and] a lot of them had routines,” Brennan said. “That gave me a chance to, like, feel great about going forward. And so just trying to really be super focused on one day at a time, and not so worried about what’s 10 months away.”
Around this same time, a few of Brennan’s former teammates passed away, too. “I was like, ‘these guys are great athletes, they weren’t taking care of themselves.’ And so I was like, ‘Okay, well, I need to start taking care of myself,’” he shared.
Those realizations came to Brennan via meditation. It’s something he’s ‘fallen in love with’ since trying it in 2010 during his first stint at SJSU as a position coach. Back then, his mind oscillated between the stresses of coaching a 2-10 squad and the angst of being away from his young family.
“I felt like I needed something to help me just kind of clear my head and kind of get back into a good headspace where I was excited,” he said. “It just became really good for me … I felt better when I took a little bit of time took some deep breaths and kind of got control of my biology.”
It played a pivotal part in helping Brennan navigate the pressures of coaching wide receivers at Oregon State from 2011-16. “Big program, small town, lots of eyes, a lot of intensity to that experience,” Brennan said.
All of it culminated into that fateful winter day in 2018.
That following spring, Brennan “dove hard into morning routine” and SJSU improved to 5-7 in 2019. One game shy of making a bowl game.
The next season, when the COVID-19 Pandemic took place, Brennan had SJSU partner up with a guided meditation app he’d been using since 2010 called Headspace. Hoping it could help players get through “an impossible time.”
Prior to using Headspace, SJSU’s senior offensive tackle Jaime Navarro had trouble falling asleep. So he began using the app’s sleep function called “sleepscape” which plays an endless loop of the same sound.
“The one I like to pick is ‘cat lodge,’” Navarro said. “It’s like literally sounds of cat’s meowing. You’re at a cabin and there’s fire crackling. And then there’s someone with a soft voice just talking about cats lying around. It’s the most peaceful thing ever.”
When SJSU regrouped in 2020, Brennan said the Spartans “leaned really heavily into connection and team building.” He began holding team meetings on nights before the game where players opened up about their lives to one another. It played a role in SJSU ripping off a 7-0 season and winning its first Mountain West Championship in school history.
SJSU lost its bowl game to Ball State, but it was clear Brennan’s epiphany was revealing tangible results. The Spartans were ranked for just the second time since 1975.
“Some of the best ideas I’ve ever had have come out of meditation time, quiet time,” said Brennan, who’s now tied with Robert Bronzan as the second longest-tenured head coach in program history (seven seasons).
The 2021 season was a step back. The Spartans finished 5-7, but Brennan’s positivity and infectious energy remained. Which helped him land former Hawaii quarterback Chevan Cordeiro in the transfer portal that offseason and later succeed that fall.
“He’s hard to not like,” said Cordeiro, who enters 2023 as the Mountain West’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. “When I come home all my family members talk about how he’s always smiling in the game and he seems like a nice guy and that’s how he really is.”
Brennan’s positivity, key transfer portal additions like Cordeiro and Nevada wide receivers Elijah Cooks and Justin Lockhart, plus a slew of veterans rising to their potential, coalesced into SJSU reaching the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The appearance marked the first time since 1987 where SJSU reached two bowl games in the span of three years.
While SJSU suffered a disheartening defeat, it was another example of Brennan’s epiphany yielding unprecedented results. Of the 19 head coaches in SJSU history, Brennan can become the first to guide SJSU to three bowl games in the span of four years.
But 2023 will be Brennan’s most difficult test yet.
SJSU’s out-of-conference schedule features No. 6 USC at the Coliseum and surging programs in No. 18 Oregon State and Toledo. SJSU will then face five of the highest-ranked teams in the Mountain West’s preseason poll.
And it’s his first year without foundational members of the rebuild.
Moreover, with the recent realignment saga, the stakes to succeed are extremely high.
While SJSU survived this round, it might not in the next couple of years. A stellar season can significantly boost SJSU’s chances of reeling in the donor interest and fan engagement necessary to make itself a valuable conference member.
The roughly $6 million the Mountain West offers SJSU is crucial to funding its athletic department. If SJSU was relegated to a lower conference and received a smaller payout, it could axe athletic programs.
While he’s no longer on the hot seat, the pressures from work life and family life haven’t gone away. But thanks to his epiphany, Brennan has the morning routine to balance both worlds. He exercises and in his office, which now resides in SJSU’s newly unveiled $60 million facility, he meditates and journals.
“I journaled about my daughter’s leaving for college on Saturday. My oldest one is going to be a junior, but my, my middle one, she’s gonna be a freshman,” said Brennan following practice last week. “I was reflecting on the fact like, how fast it goes, and how much time coaches put into this. I think, depending on your circumstance, I would assume a lot of coaches have some little guilt or regret about what they missed to do this job.”