Photo credit: sjsuspartans.com

By: Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE, Calif. — San Jose State football released its 2019 schedule on Monday, but Wednesday was all eyes on head coach Brent Brennan and one member (Alex Galland) of this year’s recruiting class inside the Simpkins Stadium Center. All two took questions from the local media on the first day of the traditional start to the National Letter of Intent signing period.

If you’re a San Jose State football fan, then this update was written with you in mind. Here’s my question and answer session with Brennan and company.

1. Better health is an obvious priority for the current roster. Talk about a few other solutions to continue turning potential into production.
I think Josh Love demonstrated when he’s healthy, he can be a really effective quarterback. So, in terms of our offensive production, it’s important that Love has the playmakers surrounding him, but that’s more so easier said than done because we play against a lot of teams with more improved defensive and offensive lines.

2. The Spartans trailed in Rushing S&P+ and Opportunity Rate, but Tyler Nevens is a different figure as he has been leading the backfield and showing a good amount of ability to be a grinder. Do you feel like the Spartan running game has nowhere to go but up?
Absolutely, and obviously, Quinn (Oseland), (Scott) Breslin and Jelani (Newman) will be guys that we hope will give us a boost. When it comes to the offensive line, we have guys who know that it all starts with them. So I’m hopeful and that was one of the reasons why we identified Quinn and we’re excited that he has seen the felt the love from California and saw the opportunities in the Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, and most of all, San Jose State as an academic institution; but he’s also here to play football and to help us grow and play better up front.

The running back thing got shot in the arm last year. There were a couple of guys we signed who just enrolled with us at the mid-year, so you’re going to see Kairee Robinson from De La Salle, a fantastic player, and also Lorenzo Birch from Carmichael Jesuit; and we really feel like those guys will give us a boost.

There are guys who weren’t on our roster last year who are going to help our running game. And, of course, we’re going to see the maturing from Tyler Nevens and DeJon Packer. We’re going to have a good mix of youth and maturity, so let’s see if we can run the football better because that’s what we need to do.

3. The Spartan offense has showed some glimpses of promise. Just how important do you think the offense will play a role in the Spartans’ success in 2019?
Yes, I think the offense will play a pretty big role in the Spartans’ success. It’s also a reflection of me, the offensive coaches, and the rest of Spartan Athletics as a whole.

4. What are some things the recruits could bring to the table that fans may not know about?
The track prowess of Dominic Mazotti, the fact that Jackson (Canaan) is a big-time swimmer–a totally legit swimmer, despite being a tight end, Isaiah Thomas is more of a crossover guy for us and we’re planning to make him one this coming season, and Malikhi Miller–who’s the stepson of (running backs) coach (Alonzo) Carter–but that’s a turning point as he has relationships with the other coaches and had to have a reason to join the (football) program. So that has been a positive. He’s a big 6’4″ kid, he’s got this big body and he’s going to grow into a monster wide receiver; but he’s still a little young, so he needs to grow into that big body.

Jamar Simpson…there’s a great video of him on YouTube of him and Adoree Jackson at the USC camp for their opening and they were having the fastest man competition and Adoree–who didn’t bet–but he said that this guy had it. So they were in all these camps all over Southern California and Jamar won every single one of them.

Jamar caught our eye at a USC camp and also some other catches. He had a lot of speed, so much that I wondered if his dad clocked his 40-time.

5. The mix of the younger and older players can help improve the team, just as long as they stay healthy and are willing to put in the work. Is the youth movement still important in this program?
Absolutely. I think there’s a real delicate balance there, and the real balance is how we fill our roster; but the last two years, we’ve seen a lot of young players playing on a significant level, and the best thing is about freshman is that they become sophomores, sophomores become juniors, and you hope that those reps they get in the game will help them improve and stack up to round out their learning experiences because they’ll be playing at a young age, but over time, they’ll be better prepared to handle things when they’re confronted with issues.

This is the time where I’m putting in time to develop the energy that helps us all form a bond that will be unbreakable when the college football games are underway on Saturday.