San Jose State football coaching job pluses, minuses and candidates after Brent Brennan

San Jose State needs a new head coach. The ripple effects of Nick Saban’s retirement have reached SJSU, which lost Brent Brennan to Arizona, which lost Jedd Fisch to Washington, which lost Kalen DeBoer to Alabama.

Brennan’s run at SJSU was incredibly impressive. Although he went 34-48 overall, that’s weighed down by a 3-22 record in his first two seasons in charge. He was above .500 otherwise and had three seven-win seasons in the last four years, leading the Spartans to the 2020 Mountain West championship in a 7-1 year, with a Top 25 finish.

But now the job is open in January as the coaching carousel continues to spin.

So how good is the San Jose State job? What names could get in the mix? Here are the factors to keep in mind.

You can win here

For a long time, SJSU was in contention for toughest job in the country, but that has changed over the last decade or so. Each of SJSU’s last four coaches has taken the Spartans to a bowl game, after a 15-year bowl drought from 1991 to 2005. The program has two Top 25 finishes since 2012. Two of the last three coaches have turned SJSU success into a Power 4 job (Brennan at Arizona and Mike MacIntyre at Colorado).

Sustaining has been tough, however. Under Dick Tomey, the winningest coach in Arizona history, the Spartans won nine games in 2006 but slipped to two wins by 2009. SJSU won 11 games in 2012, but MacIntyre left after that season. Ron Caragher had two six-win seasons in 2013 and 2015 but followed each with losing seasons.

Brennan’s run over the last four years raised the bar for what’s possible, both winning and sustaining.

The resources are improving

The Athletic’s Antonio Morales spent a week embedded with the SJSU team ahead of its 2023 opener against USC for a look inside the program and the hurdles it faces. As of last August, the team only got breakfast in its athletic center — no lunch or dinner. The practice field is shared with the men’s and women’s soccer teams. Historically, this has been one of the lowest-resourced programs in the FBS, but that’s changing.

The Spartan Athletics Center finally opened last year, a $60 million, 55,000-square-foot building that houses football and soccer. It includes coaches’ offices, meeting rooms, a nutrition station, dining facilities and more. It was long needed. The program is making those strides in nutrition.

Brennan’s $2.3 million salary was second in the Mountain West, just $7,000 from the top of the list. That’s the kind of salary that can pull in a bigger pool of candidates than the job would have otherwise.

The school does make limited Alston payments to athletes for charity work. There is a collective, Blue & Gold Unlimited, but it’s not robust. SJSU’s lack of history makes it hard to build out a fan base. But the 2023 season brought record ticket and corporate revenue.

SJSU remains behind in some aspects, but it is slowly and steadily taking steps forward to improve the infrastructure.

Will California ties be needed?

Brennan was a California native with previous experience as an SJSU assistant. Caragher was the head coach at San Diego before taking the SJSU job. Both played at UCLA. Before them, MacIntyre had no experience out west, but Tomey was a Pacific coast staple.

Now that the Pac-12 has scattered to the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC, changing recruiting opportunities, the Mountain West is the only truly western FBS conference now. The footprint for talent will remain the home state; 86 players on the 2023 team were from California.

So what names could get in the mix?

Based on conversations with industry sources, here are some potential names to keep in mind.

Starting internally, the Spartans could have a few options. Running backs/associate head coach Alonzo Carter is beloved in the Bay Area and has been a rock of the program since he arrived in 2017. Before SJSU, he went 47-27 as the head coach at Contra Costa College, winning four conference championships. He also spent more than a decade as a high school head coach in the Bay Area. He knows the region, he has been SJSU’s recruiting coordinator and he has head coaching experience. He has also hosted a weekly Zoom with hundreds of Black coaches over the last few years to talk ball, issues and how to become a head coach.

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The Spartans also have offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven and defensive coordinator/associate head coach Derrick Odum. McGiven has been an offensive coordinator in every season but one since 2005, coaching at places like Oregon State, Utah State and Montana State. He has been on staff for six years. Odum, who has been there for seven years, produced two Mountain West Defensive Players of the Year in Cade Hall and Junior Fehoko.

Georgia defensive backs coach Donte Williams is one of the best West Coast recruiters in the country and just recently joined the Bulldogs from USC. Williams coached at SJSU from 2013 to ’15 and as recruiting coordinator was the driving force behind most of the classes. He went 3-7 as USC’s interim head coach in 2021 after being thrust into a difficult position and was retained by Lincoln Riley. Williams has also coached at Oregon, Arizona, San Jose State and Nebraska.

UCLA tight ends coach Ken Niumatalolo was in the mix for the San Diego State job and would bring plenty of head coaching experience. He went 109-83 at Navy, with nine seasons of at least eight wins, but his tenure ended after three consecutive losing seasons. Niumatalolo has said he can move beyond the triple option if he gets another head coaching job. He joined UCLA as director of leadership last year and was recently promoted to tight ends coach.

Former Boise State and Auburn coach Bryan Harsin would also bring head coaching experience and western ties. Harsin went 69-19 as Boise State’s head coach from 2014 to ’20. He won the Fiesta Bowl and finished with a top-15 team in his first season but never quite reached that level again, though he did go 45-8 in Mountain West play and won three conference championships. Harsin was fired less than two years into his tenure at Auburn, a place that never made sense from a fit or culture perspective. But back out west, he could be a good fit again.

UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion was impressive in his first season with the Rebels. UNLV led the Mountain West in scoring, played for the conference championship and finished 9-5, the program’s best record in four decades. In 2021, Marion coached Biletnikoff Award-winner Jordan Addison at Pitt, and in 2022 he coached Xavier Worthy as Texas’ wide receivers coach. Marion has moved around a ton as a coach since 2011, only spending more than one season at a place once, but he has continued to move up the ladder with his unique offense.

Oregon State offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson just returned to his alma mater after spending the past three seasons at UCLA. Before that, he was SJSU’s quarterbacks coach from 2017 to 2020, coaching Nick Starkel in that Mountain West championship season.

Arizona State offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo is a former SJSU quarterback (1998-2002) and assistant coach (2005-08). He also set some of the foundation for what UNLV did this year. Arroyo went 7-23 as UNLV head coach from 2020 to ’22, but his yearly records improved from 0-6 to 2-10 to 5-7 at arguably the worst program in FBS. He spent last year out of coaching and just recently joined ASU. He has coached at Oregon, Cal, Oklahoma State and in the NFL, he has head coaching experience and he knows SJSU.

Arizona Cardinals offensive line coach Klayton Adams is a Sacramento native who coached SJSU’s tight ends in 2011 and ’12, including that 10-win season, before following MacIntyre to Colorado. He moved up to the co-offensive coordinator role in 2018 and has been in the NFL since 2019, working with the Colts and Cardinals.

Arizona State running backs coach Shaun Aguano spent most of 2022 as the Sun Devils’ interim head coach after Herm Edwards was fired, and he was retained by Kenny Dillingham. He’s a longtime Arizona guy, leading Chandler High School (Ariz.) from 2011 to ’18 before joining the Sun Devils. He’s a really strong recruiter who could bring a lot of energy.

Idaho head coach Jason Eck has turned the Vandals from a losing team into a top FCS program, finishing 9-4 and ranked No. 8 in Eck’s second season. He’s 16-9 in two years with two top-25 finishes. He was previously at South Dakota State, including three years as offensive coordinator.

(Photo: Stan Szeto / USA Today)