ALUMNI IMPACT:
Brent Brennan ’91
Head football coach, San Jose State University
I
n early 2020, Brent Brennan ’91 didn’t expect a nearperfect season (7-1) for his San Jose State University (SJSU) Spartans or that they’d win the Mountain West football championship, SJSU’s first football title in 29 years. Being the 2020 Lombardi Foundation National Coach of the Year certainly didn’t cross his mind.
He was hopeful entering his fourth year as SJSU head football coach. The 2019 season (5-7) included several close games, but his first two seasons with SJSU had been dismal. In 2018, the team finished 1-11 for SJSU’s worst season in more than 80 years. “The climate of college football has unrealistic expectations,” says Brent, who was a Lancer wide receiver and a walk-on player for the UCLA Bruins. “I had been an assistant coach at SJSU for six years, so I had an idea of what was missing. But when you’re losing games, the hardest part is keeping players and coaches moving and looking forward.” Before the pandemic sent his players and coaches home for five months, his “We’re closer than you think” team mantra was beginning to get some traction. “I believed in the kids and believed in the process,” he says. “It’s never just about football. We are a family. Coaching and teaching are ways to move toward the greater good. I learned that from Saint Francis’ Holy Cross mission.” His approach was honed by his Saint Francis coaches: retired football coaches Ron Calcagno, who remains a mentor, and Mike Mitchell and basketball coaches Bill Delaney ’67 and Steve Filios. “They knew a lot about us,” he recalls. “They would see us in class and at lunch and would talk about school and life.”
Brent Brennan ’91
The mountain got steeper when the season was pushed back before starting on Sept. 24. “Santa Clara County wasn’t allowing any sports practices or games, so Mary Papazian, SJSU president, negotiated with Humboldt State University for us to live and practice there for two weeks before our first game,” Brent explains. Soon, the Spartans’ mountain-climbing agility started paying off. The team won every regular-season game to clinch the conference title. (“Home” games were played in Hawaii and Las Vegas.) The team’s only loss was to Ball State in the postseason Arizona Bowl. In addition to National Coach of the Year honors, Brent is the 2020 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year and American Football Coaches Association Region 5 Coach of the Year. He is widely recognized for the devotion he has to his players’ character development. In 2016, he founded the SJSU Beyond Football program to inspire achievement and share values and social responsibility. “Saint Francis planted the seed for our program,” Brent says. “We talk with players about treating women and each other with respect, and we get the team involved in meaningful service on campus and in the community.” Pre-COVID, the Spartans regularly read to and mentored students at a local elementary school.
By March 2020, with the season in jeopardy, Brent changed his mantra for the team. During shutdown, he hiked the Santa Cruz Mountains with his kids, singing “Climb Every Mountain” from “The Sound of Music” to them. During the team’s weekly Zooms and for daily check-ins on a team Facebook page, he told his players, “We’re climbing a mountain.”
Humble about the team effort it took to reach the mountaintop, Brent quickly credits family, friends, players, coaches and the City of San Jose, which started sporting Spartans’ gear as the team began winning. “Our success brought together our community especially when they needed it most,” he adds. “People started telling us how good we were, but my players would reply, ‘No, we’re still climbing mountains.’”
Last summer, the words reverberated as he and his staff led the team on issues of social injustice. And he repeated the mantra in July when the Spartans quarantined on campus in preparation for the fall season.
“This is an incredible lesson for young people and all of us — as long as you keep believing and moving forward, you will find a way,” says Brent. “We never gave up.” Spring 2021 PROGRESS
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