Michael Lev: Brent Brennan will have more support at Arizona than SJSU — and more scrutiny

Brent Brennan nearly teared up multiple times during his introductory news conference. But he never lost his composure.

Two days later, in our first sit-down interview with the new head coach of Arizona football, he seemed to be caught off guard. At least that’s what I thought at first.

But the more I reflected on what Brennan said — and how he said it — the more I respected him.

“How would you compare San Jose State to Arizona from a resource standpoint?” I wondered.

Pause.

“That's a tough question,” Brennan replied. “I don't think those things are similar in any way, shape or form. It is what it is.”

His voice trailed off as he uttered those last two sentences; he was barely audible. My interpretation: Brennan desperately wanted to avoid saying anything negative about SJSU. He worked there twice, for a total of 13 seasons. The school clearly holds a special place in his heart. He wasn’t about to disparage it.

But Brennan couldn’t sidestep the reality of the situation. He had no incentive to do that.

Yes, he conceded, the setups at Arizona and SJSU are “so different.” They’re so different that he said it twice.

Arizona’s is so much better.

Brennan will have more resources and support here than he had there. By multitudes.

Arizona spent almost three times as much in football operating expenses in 2022 than San Jose State did. Big 12 schools receive about $31.6 million apiece in the media-rights deal Brett Yormark secured in fall 2022; Mountain West schools get $4 million apiece.

It’s hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison of support staffs because some schools (Arizona) list everyone who has anything to do with the program while others (SJSU) are more selective. Excluding strength coaches and trainers, I counted 31 support staffers in the UA’s 2023 preseason media guide. SJSU listed nine.

The Wildcats had four times as many analysts — off-field coaches who break down film, crunch numbers and provide scouting reports. They had four people who had the word “recruiting” in their job title. The Spartans had one — who also happened to be their running backs coach.

SJSU basically had a personnel department of one in Fletcher Kelly, who likely will join Brennan in Tucson. With the approval and support of the UA administration, Brennan’s predecessor, Jedd Fisch, built an entire NFL-style front office.

Brennan said he has the go-ahead to keep that going. That’s consistent with UA athletic director Dave Heeke’s pledge to “continue to invest in our primary revenue sports.” Football is one; men’s basketball is the other.

It’s not optional in today’s day and age. If you want to compete at the highest levels, you have to engage in the so-called arms race.

It used to be all about facilities; the UA’s are better than they’ve ever been, ancient Arizona Stadium notwithstanding.

Now, it’s about staffing and NIL.

How many personnel guys will Brennan have here?

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“Most staffs in college football have, at a very minimum, double digits,” he said. “There's now this transfer-portal thing, and there's this whole different group of players that you weren't evaluating before.

“There's a lot of funky stuff that's happening in that space. I had two coaches at big schools call me last week and say, ‘Six of your guys are on our board.’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, but they're playing for me right now.’ They were just giving me a heads-up. That’s how those things are operating.

“It's really important. ... The way recruiting is starting to shape up with NIL and the transfer portal, all those things, having the right people in those seats is really, really critical.”

Here’s the thing about having more resources, though: It also means more scrutiny ... and more pressure.

Brennan pushed back at that notion.

“It doesn't matter what that is. Everyone still expects you to win, and you still expect to win yourself,” he said. “Whether you have a high budget or a low budget, at the end of the day, the goal is to play good football, bring quality young people to your campus and help them grow and develop as men. So it doesn't matter if your budget is the highest or the lowest. The expectations are the same.”

Budget be damned, Brennan turned around a floundering SJSU program. The Spartans posted seven wins in three of his final four seasons there, including back-to-back winning records for the first time since 1991-92. Heeke might have been the only non-SJSU alum who noticed.

In Northern California, San Jose State competes for eyeballs with an NFL team, two MLB teams (for now), two NBA teams, an NHL team, an MLS team and two colleges that lack recent revenue-sport success but have much richer histories. Media coverage of the Spartans is sparse. Their average home attendance for football games last season was 16,804 — which was actually 92.3% of capacity.

Here, UA football is the second-most popular game in town — behind UA men’s basketball.

“In terms of the game of football, we're not sharing that space with an NFL franchise; in the Bay Area, we're sharing it with one of the sexiest NFL franchises,” Brennan said. “We're also sharing that space with a pretty attractive major-league team. With the Giants and the Warriors and Stanford and Cal, there's just so much competition for that discretional dollar or recreational family time. I love the fact that Saturdays in the fall, the best place to be is right there in Arizona Stadium.”

The good news if you’re the head coach of UA football: People really care.

The bad news if you’re the head coach of UA football: People really care.

Brennan’s mentor, Dick Tomey, is remembered fondly as a caring person who emphasized “the team, the team, the team” above all else. But the UA wouldn’t have named its practice field after him if he didn’t win a ton of games.

Tomey has more victories, 95, than any coach in program history. If you’re talking about the “modern era” — say, after World War II — no one’s even a close second.

Tomey had a .583 winning percentage. That translates to an average season of 7-5.

If that’s the norm under Brennan — with more resources than Tomey ever had and more than San Jose State has, by multitudes — will that be good enough to keep the people who really care happy?

Here’s what I envision: More resources, more scrutiny, more pressure ... more success.

The superior infrastructure here will only enhance Brennan’s strengths. He and his staff will acquire better talent. They’ll continue to develop those players.

That part won’t change a bit.