Brennan: Spartans ‘well aware’ of challenge Beavers present
Former Oregon State assistant Brent Brennan is in his seventh season at the San Jose State helm (courtesy San Jose State sports information)
After falling 56-28 to Southern Cal in its opener, San Jose State opens at home Sunday against Oregon State with arguably as much on the line.
The Spartans have another chance at their first victory over a Pac-12 opponent since a 35-34 win at Stanford in 2006 with an upset of the 17-point-favorite Beavers. It will be the season opener for 18th-ranked Oregon State, a 10-3 team a year ago and forecast to be a top-five club in the Pac-12 this season. A near-sellout at the 30,000-seat-capacity CEFCU Stadium is expected.
There is an additional carrot: It will be the first time the Spartans have played a regular-season game on CBS since 1982.
“We are playing a great team on Sunday,” San Jose State coach Brent Brennan says. “I’m well aware of that. Our guys are well aware of the challenge we face. It’s impressive to see the program Jonathan (Smith) has built in Corvallis.”
Brennan’s name is familiar to Beaver fans, who will recall he was an Oregon State assistant from 2011-16, coaching wide receivers for Mike Riley and, the final season, for Gary Andersen.
“That was a great time in my life, a great time for my family,” Brennan told me Friday after the Spartans’ practice at San Jose. “We loved our time there — the players, the people, the town of Corvallis, the university.”
Brennan, 50, was one of my favorites among the men who coached under Riley during his 14 years at the OSU helm, bright and personable. He was in charge of a receiver group that, over a period of six years, included Biletnikoff Award winner Brandin Cooks, Markus Wheaton, James Rodgers and Victor Bolden.
“People forget about Victor,” who has had stints with six NFL clubs since 2017, Brennan says. “His brother is playing good football for the Beavs. Silas was a little kid when I had Victor. Now he is all grown up, doing great things on a big stage.”
Brennan is in his seventh season on the job at San Jose State. He, wife Courtney and their three children — daughters Blake and Casey and son Scott — are now a fixture in the South Bay Area community. It is familiar territory for Brent, a San Jose native. His father, Steve, played for San Jose State. Brent was an assistant there from 2005-10 under Dick Tomey and Mike McIntyre.
Brennan’s Spartan staff has a decidedly orange tint. Former Oregon State assistants Kevin McGiven (offensive coordinator), Derrick Odum (defensive coordinator), Joe Seumalo (defensive line) and Josh Oglesby (offensive line). Ex-OSU quarterback Lyle Moevao is an offensive analyst.
“I had the good fortune to work with a lot of very good coaches who were also great people there,” Brennan says. “I always thought extremely highly of Oregon State coaching staffs under Mike and Gary. Joe and I have worked together for 14 years. He has been a mainstay.”
Brennan reminds me that former Beavers Ryan Gunderson (now quarterbacks coach at UCLA) and Kevin Cummings (receivers coach at Arizona) were also on his Spartan staff.
“It has been a great thing for us here to have some continuity in our football family, knowing who these guys are and what they are about,” Brennan says.
Brennan remains close friends with Oregon State defensive coordinator Trent Bray.
“My kids call him ‘Uncle Trent,’ ” Brent says with a chuckle. “We spend time together at Donner Lake every summer. I worked with Jake Cookus, who does a fantastic job with their special teams. And I feel like I have a great relationship with Jonathan. I have incredible respect for him as a person and the way he has put together that program.
“(The Beavers) are outstanding. They were a great team a year ago. They have done a great job recruiting to who they are, playing the kind of football they want to play. They are very well-coached, and you can tell it is an extremely hard-working group.”
Brennan has mixed feelings about the Spartans’ season debut against sixth-ranked Southern Cal.
“We had some good moments and some not-so-good moments,” he says. “It would have been fun to keep that thing close and make it a four-quarter game. I’m disappointed we were unable to do that. (The Trojans) made some great plays. (Quarterback Caleb Williams) is a brilliant player. They have some real skill guys. (Freshman Zachariah Branch, who scored on a 96-yard kickoff return and a 25-yard reception) is one of the most explosive players I have ever seen at the college level. The Beavers have some guys like that, too.
“There were some fun moments in that game, and also some stuff we have to get better at if we want to be a good football team.”
Chevan Cordeiro completed 21 of 38 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 80 gross yards (52 net) against the Trojans. The 6-1, 195-pound senior transfer from Hawaii threw for 366 yards and two TDs in Oregon State’s 45-27 win over the Rainbow Warriors in 2021. Cordeiro, the Mountain West preseason Offensive Player of the Year, ranks eighth on the all-time conference list with 71 career touchdown passes.
“Chevan is awesome,” Brennan says. “He is popular with his teammates, a great kid, an incredibly hard worker, super competitive. He has been a great addition to our football family since he showed up 18 months ago. We feel fortunate he is here. He has a good arm and, with his legs, he can get out of trouble and create things for us.”
Southern Cal amassed 501 yards total offense against the Spartans.
“We didn’t tackle very well,” Brennan says. “There was some first game kind of stuff. Some of the things (the Trojans) did with their talent put us in tough spots. But I have a lot of faith in (the Spartan defense). Coach Odum is a great defensive coach. We have played some very good defense in recent years. I’m optimistic we can get back to doing that.”
I tell Brennan it is hard to believe he has been in San Jose for seven years. He took over a down program and started with seasons of 2-11 and 1-11, but improved to 5-7 in 2019 and got the Spartans to bowl games in 2020 and ’22, the first coach to lead them to two bowl games since Claude Gilbert in 1986 and ’87.
“It has gone really fast,” Brennan says. “We love where we’re at. We have been fortunate to have the support of the administration. They have helped us build it the right way. We are trying to get to sustainability — consistency in winning, bowl games every year, playing for conference championships.”
In August, the $70 million Spartan Athletics Center opened. It is along the lines of the Valley Football Center at Oregon State, housing coaches offices, meeting and locker rooms, a sports medicine facility, VIP suites for football games and also space for men’s and women’s soccer.
“We haven’t had that facility piece here, so it’s really exciting,” Brennan says. “There are so many things about this institution that have been positive. That we have been able to keep our coaching staff intact and have been able to build things in progression gives us a chance to be playing good football in the future.”
Brennan — who played at UCLA — sighs when I ask him about the demise of the Pac-12.
“It’s sad that one of the best conferences in the history of college sports is going through what it’s going through,” he says. “It’s disappointing for me. I have loved the moments when we had early games and I was able to get home and watch the Beavs play USC or Washington or Cal. The conference has incredible history, great athletic teams, great institutions. It’s sad to see things happen this way.”
Where does he think the Beavers will land?
“That’s a decision,” Brennan says, “that people way above me have to make.”
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