By Ernie Gonzalez (@superego1012):
When it comes to recruiting, San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan chooses to reinvent the wheel—not with actions, but with footwear.
It’s safe to say there’s much more that goes into committing to a program that has the potential to bridge high school to the NFL than being a fan of a head coach’s special shoes, but Brennan might have other thoughts.
Take Charlie Bostic for example, one of the four 2018 San Jose State commits. Bostic is a neighborhood cornerback who played his high school ball at Valley Christian, 10 minutes south of CEFCU Stadium.
“I’m excited,” Bostic said. “A lot of hard work went into it. It just feels good knowing that I’m about to get to the point I’ve been trying to get to my whole life.”
As of Nov. 20, seven Mountain West schools had at least ten commits, but the Spartans are the only other team along with New Mexico to have had fewer than five.
Throw in what you want about where the Spartans stand currently in the 2018 Mountain West recruiting ranks, but to Brennan, the shoes do play a factor.
It’s something that began back in Corvallis for Brennan as a wide receiver coach for Oregon State, where he coached from 2011 to 2016.
“It started with me thinking how am I going to be different than any other college coach that walks into a high school,” Brennan said about his custom-made eye-catching FootJoys.
Although Brennan has experienced major first-hand differences between Corvallis and San Jose, it’s been what he’s rocked on his feet that’s similar.
“Corvallis Oregon, where Oregon State is, there’s 50,000 people,” Brennan said. “There are 50,000 people on [SJSU’s] campus right now. It’s just a way different community.”
The leathered golf shoes feature an all black sole and midsole, a half-inch heel, and a shiny blue upper overlapped with a stippled spartan yellow tied together with fine blue laces.
They used to be black and orange, but now they’re Spartan-themed.
“I’ve always been a shoe guy,” Brennan said. “But when I started having kids, my wife made me stop buying them.”
If you thought that stopped Brennan from showing off his expensive hobby, especially when it comes to recruiting, think again.
“There’s kids on our team now that remember me coming to their school with the Oregon State shoes on,” Brennan said.
True freshman running back Tyler Nevens, who set a number of Los Altos High School records, remembers when Brennan made the visit home.
“I was in my Moccasins,” Nevens said. “He was in I don’t know what, but they looked fresh.”
There’s only one Brennan, so he can’t go around criticizing other recruiting tactics because know one else does it with the swagger he does.
It’s a confidence thing, or so he says.
“I’m worried about me,” Brennan said. “I don’t care what other people think.”
Yes, there are times where Brennan is laughed-at about is kicks, but his response was a little inappropriate to print. Let’s just say if he’s heckled at about them, he wouldn’t like it. And that’s an understatement.
The custom shoes even have their own Twitter account @TheShoes6 with nearly 140 followers, most of them by the San Jose community.
The account keeps its audience entertained by tweeting things like “I’m doing work. Do something” with a photo of his shoes next to other shoes taken from an eye view. Not one of the account’s 42 tweets to date have shown the pairs’ owner, but my money’s on the head coach.
Sure, the Spartans are in the final stretch of a nightmare 2017 season, one filled with mistakes, injuries and blowouts—something that doesn’t look attractive.
But it’s hard to say Brennan’s shoes don’t either.