By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Spear Reporter // Photo via Titus Wilkinson
SJSU football fans have every right to be disgruntled at the moment.
The Spartans currently sit at a justifiable 1-4 and were steamrolled by Air Force in their most recent loss. Such results have led to some fans campaigning for major staff changes, like the dismissal of seventh-year head coach Brent Brennan, expressing that SJSU should be further along in the rebuild process.
Is there validity to this? Or are these fans wrongly impatient and narrow minded? Especially when factoring in how Brennan’s rebuilt SJSU – a historically abysmal program – with a lack of resources. Either way, with a win this Saturday against Boise State, SJSU can shift the course of its season which would quiet those eager to move on from Brennan.
“Spartans 4 Sanity”
Seven years.
That’s how long Brennan has been at SJSU. Which makes him the second longest tenured head coach in SJSU football history. During this time, he’s led SJSU to a Mountain West Championship (2020). Following last year’s bowl appearance, Brennan became the second SJSU head coach to reach two bowl games.
The last? Claude Gilbert. When? 1987.
Brennan joined rarified air just two decades after the infamous “Spartans 4 Sanity” movement. “Spartans 4 Sanity” was an academic collective led by SJSU professor James Brent – who still teaches at SJSU – that believed:
“Continued membership in Division I-A imperils the academic mission at San Jose State. The only reason to maintain Division I-A status is to retain a football program. But that program has been a failure both on and off the field for more than a decade. As a result, SJSU spends up to $3.5 million annually [more] than it should on athletics. And it does not deliver either the prestige or the external support that its supporters claim.”
According to a 2004 article from the Spartan Daily, “Spartans 4 Sanity” gathered signatures from “266 faculty members asking the Academic Senate to vote to leave Division I-A athletics.”
Although considered by SJSU’s academic brass, the movement eventually fell short and SJSU football kept its Division I-A status.
Still, “Spartans 4 Sanity” remains a window into SJSU football’s woes.
A donor weighs in
A movement like “Spartans 4 Sanity” and the program’s inability to build consistent success have modern-day ramifications: primarily, the program’s lack of donor funding. What SJSU alumni-turned-Silicon Valley millionaire wants to donate to a program that up until recently has been a living, breathing punchline?
It’s a central reason why SJSU head coaches either can’t succeed, or get poached immediately by a program with better resources. Like Mike MaCintyre who turned SJSU from 1-12 in 2010 to 10-2 in 2012, but departed for Colorado before the Spartans bowl game.
This is what’s made the Brennan era different. He stayed at SJSU despite receiving interest from the University of Arizona following the triumphant 2020 season. Moreover, he’s managed to cultivate one of the winningest eras in SJSU history without offering recruits lucrative NIL deals and up until last August, state of the art facilities.
Make no mistake, donor interest and fan engagement – SJSU notched its first home sellout since 2003 in its 2023 home opener – have drastically improved during Brennan’s tenure. But that tenure can be cut short if SJSU continues to lose.
“If coach Brent continues to not produce wins, when he should be, not against USC … that’s up to his boss, the athletic director [Jeff Konya], make a decision to end his contract and find someone else,” major SJSU Athletics donor Kevin Swanson said.
Swanson’s not pushing for a change, but laying down a potential reality. And if the Spartans continue to rack up losses, Swanson said it, “could make things very difficult for San Jose State moving forward.”
But Swanson shared why he has “a lot of respect” for Brennan and praised him effusively for rebuilding SJSU on “one of the smallest budgets in the CSU [California State University] system.”
Swanson added, “Coach Brennan is a pivotal person in the success of athletics at San Jose State … We haven’t had a person who expected everybody – donors, students, athletes, everybody – to show up and give 100% and I love that about him.”
The 2023 Gauntlet
And like donor funding, Brennan can’t entirely control who SJSU plays.
If he could, it’d be unlikely he’d choose to face two top-15 teams in USC and Oregon State, the reigning MAC Champion Toledo on the road and follow it up with Air Force on short rest. The Cadets are the nation’s only team rushing for 300 yards per game and are a favorite to win the Mountain West.
Fortunately, this week’s opponent in Boise State isn’t the conference favorite it was previously expected to be. The Broncos are under .500 and in the midst of a quarterback controversy. SJSU’s defense will see Taylen Green and Maddux Madsen, who’s gunning for Green’s starting job.
Although SJSU is flying to Boise, the Spartans are well-rested, coming off a much needed bye week.
Could more rest solve SJSU’s inability to close games? The Spartans’ gave up double digit leads to Toledo and Air Force and were dominated in the second half in both losses. Should SJSU make it three straight weeks of blowing leads – or never having one to begin with – the Spartans could sit at a staggering 1-5.
Christian Vieyra | The Spear
Brennan will then have to lead SJSU to win five of its next six to clinch a bowl game. Yes, it’s possible. SJSU’s competition in the back end pales in comparison to the front end. If Brennan leads SJSU to a bowl game, the same donors gearing up to move on will start figuring out how to rack up funds to prevent a bigger school from poaching him.
But at the same time, a loss to Boise State only exacerbates doubts about Brennan’s fitness for the job.
Such is the life of a man in a results-oriented business.
“I hope that he [Brennan] can pull together a winning season this year, but we’ll never know until we get to the end of it,” Swanson said.