Photo credit: sjsuspartans.com

By: Ana Kieu

We have some good news to share with you on the San Jose State Spartans football department.

San Jose State football head coach Brent Brennan has been filling out his coaching staff. Brennan filled in three assistant coaching positions, assigned new responsibilities to four assistants from last year’s coaching staff, and added a Bay Area football coach to the Spartans in an analyst position.

Fred Guidici, SJSU’s quality control coach in 2017, was promoted to the Spartans’ special teams coordinator position on a full-time basis.

Kevin McGiven and Aric Williams join the SJSU coaching staff as the offensive coordinator and defensive backs coach, respectively.

Also, Terry Malley, a SJSU assistant coach from 2009 to 2014, returns to the Spartans as an offensive analyst.

“We’re really excited about the additions we made to the staff. Obviously, when you lose somebody you keep moving forward and improve the staff,” said Brennan.

Guidici is in his second coaching tenure at SJSU. He was the Spartans’ special teams coordinator from 2012 to 2014, and the running backs coach in 2012. Giudici is a 1989 SJSU graduate with over 25 years of college and professional football coaching experience.

McGiven joins the Spartans after serving as Oregon State’s offensive coordinator during the 2017 season. McGiven was named the Beavers quarterbacks coach in 2015, added the responsibilities of co-offensive coordinator in 2016, and promoted to offensive coordinator in 2017.

Besides Oregon State, McGiven was Utah State’s offensive coordinator at Utah State in 2013 and 2014, Montana State’s offensive coordinator in 2012, Weber State’s offensive coordinator in 2007 and 2008, and Southern Utah’s offensive coordinator in 2005. In 2014, FootballScoop.com named McGiven its Quarterbacks Coach of the Year.

“Kevin McGiven has a lot of experience and has called thousands of football plays in big stadiums in real football situation. I worked with Kevin (at Oregon State) and he is incredibly detailed and meticulous. The combination of his experience as a coordinator and calling plays and having a tremendous amount of success in the Mountain West before at Utah State is exciting adding him as a football coach and a person,” said Brennan, who gushed about McGiven.

Williams spent the last three seasons as the University of Idaho’s defensive backs coach. Williams is a 2005 Oregon State graduate who worked as the University of Montana’s assistant coach from 2010 to 2014, and worked as a graduate assistant coach at Arizona State in 2009. Williams played for the Philadelphia Soul and Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Williams also played for the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe in 2006.

“His knowledge of Southern California and the recruiting world, his technique and knowledge will add a lot to the corners (CB) group. When he came for his interview, he did a fabulous job going over the details of his technique. He blew the competition out of the water in the interview process,” Brennan said about Williams.

In his first stint with the SJSU football program, Malley had various assistant coaching roles ranging from offense to recruiting coordinator responsibilities for head coaches Dick Tomey, Mike McIntyre and Ron Caragher.

Malley’s Bay Area coaching roots date back to 1976 at Leland High School in San Jose, California. He was the head coach at Santa Clara University and led the Santa Clara Broncos to a 47-39-1 win-loss record in a span of eight seasons. Malley was the San Jose Sabercats offensive coordinator for 15 seasons, whom he helped win four Arena Bowl championships.

Brennan also announced added roles for four returning coaches from last year’s staff. Defensive coordinator Derrick Odum adds the title of associate head coach. Running backs coach Alonzo Carter will serve as the team’s recruiting coordinator. Offensive line coach Joe Bernardi also will be run game coordinator. Quarterbacks coach Ryan Gunderson adds the title of passing game coordinator.

Transactions
SJSU — Promoted Fred Guidici to special teams coordinator; named Kevin McGiven, offensive coordinator, Aric Williams, defensive backs coach, and Terry Malley, football analyst. Added responsibilities to Joe Bernardi, now offensive line coach and run game coordinator; Alonzo Carter, running backs coach and recruiting coordinator; Ryan Gunderson, quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator; and Derrick Odum, associate head coach and defensive coordinator.

What’s Next?
Spartans head coach Brent Brennan will conduct a news conference on Wednesday, February 7, at 1:00 pm PT to discuss the start of the National Letter-of-Intent signing period. The news conference will take place in the Simpkins Stadium Center Gold Room at 1:00 pm PT and will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.