By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Spear Reporter | Photo via Titus Wilkinson of The Spear
When SJSU football head coach Brent Brennan inked a three-year, $2.55 million extension in 2020, it wasn’t just a metaphorical pat on the back for leading SJSU to its first-ever Mountain West Championship. Rather, SJSU donors and brass looked him in the eye and told him, “We believe in you moving forward.”
Since then, Brennan guided SJSU to another bowl game. And if SJSU (4-5, 3-2 MW) can win two of its next three games, he will be the first Spartan head coach to make three bowl games.
But that hinges upon Brennan overcoming his inability to pull off big wins. After signing an extension that made him the highest-paid coach in the Mountain West, Brennan’s 0-4 in ‘big games’ and 2-12 against teams that currently have or finished with a record above .500.
With a win over rival No. 25 Fresno State (8-1, 4-1 MW) at home this Saturday night, Brennan, who’s 1-4 against the Bulldogs, can shift this narrative.
Beyond bragging rights, the Battle for the Valley is a lucrative opportunity for SJSU to improve its resources and NIL presence for two reasons. First, current SJSU donors place a premium on this rivalry game and use it as one way to determine how much – if at all – they’d like to donate. Second, it can motivate wealthy SJSU alumni who haven’t previously donated to start buying back into the program.
SJSU alumni and donor Kevin Swanson said the donor base is mostly graduates from the 1950s and 1960s. This is surprising because SJSU’s golden era was in the late 1980s. During that time, SJSU notched back-to-back wins over FSU – the 1986 rendition was Sports Illustrated’s Game of the Year – en route to making consecutive bowl games for the first time.
Swanson said that the problem, however, is SJSU’s administration did a poor job of staying in touch and building relationships. As a result, SJSU couldn’t capitalize when many of these grads enjoyed successful careers in Silicon Valley.
“As Peter Ueberroth [SJSU alum and successful sports executive] once said, ‘SJSU never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity,’” Swanson said.
But now, thanks to SJSU Director of Athletics Jeff Konya, newly minted school president Cynthia Teniente-Matson and Brennan’s unheralded success, many of these alumni are becoming reintegrated with their alma mater. Hence the $59 million Spartan Athletic Center that was unveiled this past August. The project had been talked about since 2006 but didn’t start coming to fruition until Konya arrived in August of 2021.
This was a massive step forward, but SJSU still needs help financially – chiefly its soft NIL presence.
Financial implications are important to note because it’s exactly why Brennan shouldn’t be criticized for losing to Power Five schools like USC and Oregon State. These schools have long had state-of-the-art facilities and an NIL presence. For example, USC quarterback Caleb Williams was given a NIL appraisal of $2.6 million in July, meanwhile, the SF Chronicle reported earlier this year, that SJSU’s roster, “isn’t believed to eclipse $100,000 in total NIL earnings.”
And Brennan shouldn’t shoulder all the blame for SJSU’s 2020 Arizona Bowl loss. COVID-19 robbed SJSU of eight players – including the 2020 Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year Cade Hall – and offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven and defensive coordinator Derrick Odom.
Now, the losses to Toledo (9-1, 6-0 MAC) and the Air Force (8-1, 5-0 MW) earlier this year are complicated. SJSU was up by double digits in both games, but should it be expected to beat a likely 2023 MAC Champion in Toledo on the road? Or topple the likely 2023 Mountain West Champion in Air Force on short rest?
But when it comes to SJSU’s 2022 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl loss, there’s little room for nuance.
SJSU entered as 3.5-point favorites to Eastern Michigan. And unlike the 2020 bowl game, all 10 Spartans who won All-Mountain West honors started.
Nonetheless, SJSU blew an early 13-0 lead and fell 41-27. At one point, the Spartans allowed 33 unanswered points after EMU took a blocked extra point to the house.
This is the biggest example, but the narrative has validity because of SJSU’s last two losses to FSU.
In 2022, SJSU went up 10-3 right before the first half, but was shut out in the second half, managed just one first down on its final four possessions and lost 17-10.
“I feel awful. I let our team [and] I let our school down,” Brennan said afterward.
A year earlier, SJSU hosted FSU for its final game of the year.
With a win, SJSU could have gone from 5-6 to 6-6, which meant bowl eligibility.
The Spartans lost 40-9.
“That’s a clear-cut definition of an ass whooping at our own place. It’s one of those games you can’t really forget about,” SJSU offensive lineman Jaime Navarro said. “You look in the mirror and you feel terrible about yourself.”
Being 0-4 in ‘big games’ doesn’t mean Brennan is a bad coach. Outside of Claude Gilbert, he’s the most successful skipper in Spartan history. Following the disastrous 1-11 2018 campaign, many would’ve read that sentence and said, ‘Yeah right’ or some variation of ‘That’s bologna.’
As the story goes, Brennan won just three games in his first two seasons. “My kids are in school like, ‘Dad, are you gonna get fired?’ I’m like, ‘God I hope not,’” Brennan told The Spear back in August. Many felt Brennan, who previously coached wide receivers at Oregon State, wasn’t ready to lead a program.
What followed was Brennan shepherding SJSU to its best era in three decades. And as Swanson previously told The Spear, did so on “one of the smallest budgets in the CSU [California State University] system.”
But confining Brennan’s success to wins and losses doesn’t capture his vast impact. He’s built post-career opportunities for players with Beyond Sparta and played a pivotal role in their development as people, too.
Before coming to SJSU, safety Tre Jenkins said he was too shy to ask for samples at Costco. But after spending six years with Brennan, Jenkins has shed his meek nature and grown into a vocal leader.
Something that he hopes will bode well for this Saturday. Jenkins has had to watch the Bulldogs hoist the Valley Trophy far too many times. Brennan, too.
“Coach [Dick] Tomey used to say all the time, ‘It’s not a rivalry if it’s so one-sided.’ And right now this thing is one-sided,” Brennan said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
Should Brennan lead SJSU to a victory over the Bulldogs, its aspirations of ascending from 1-5 to bowl-eligible rise exponentially. The Spartans would likely clinch it the following Saturday at home against San Diego State (3-6, MW 1-4). However, should Brennan lose and fall to 0-5 in ‘big games’, SJSU will be dealt a tall task of beating SDSU and upsetting UNLV (7-2, MW 4-1) on the road.
And despite having four fewer wins than FSU, the Spartans are favored to win this Saturday. Likely a nod to SJSU outscoring opponents 127-45 during its three-game win streak. Plus, oddsmakers are suspicious of how 8-1 FSU is. After all, according to college football sports reference, the Bulldogs have the 10th lowest strength of schedule in the FBS.
Which makes it easy to imagine the aftermath of SJSU winning this Saturday night. A flood of Spartan fans hopping rails and flocking to the field. Players hound one another relentlessly. And of course, Brennan hoisting that Valley Trophy.
But that can’t happen before Brennan shifts a nagging narrative first.