Meet the man who turned the Spartans into a social phenomenon
Can this team of San Jose State Spartans do it one more time? Can it bring more thrills to an expanding fanbase and end the season the way it started — perfect?
While the football team has emerged as the best story of the college season — one that can complete its undefeated journey at the Arizona Bowl today — another team has brought that story to life via social media and is aiming for its own perfect ending.
Cam Radford and his video production crew have prepared this week in Tucson just as the football team has, making sure nothing is left uncovered as San Jose State closes in on its first perfect season since 1939.
Radford, 33, is the director of digital communications for San Jose State football. He was the man behind the video that went viral in spring 2017, the one in which Alonzo Carter, the assistant coach whose previous career was as a dancer for MC Hammer, showed the team his stuff on the field one day at practice. The video of Carter dancing to “U Can’t Touch This” has 4.6 million views.
“I didn’t know what was about to happen,” said Radford, who had just started on the job. “I had a camera in my hand, luckily, and coach Carter was right there in front of me.”
Radford’s camera hasn’t stopped rolling through a 7- 0 season that will end today against Ball State.
Shor t documentar y? Go watch the behind-thescenes movie of the Spartans’ trip in early November to Southern California for their game against San Diego State, which included the bus ride to the stadium and coach Brent Brennan celebrating with the team in the locker room after the upset victory.
Laughs? Check out the GIF tweet after Fresno State couldn’t play a highlyanticipated game against San Jose State because of COVID-19 issues. The tweet depicts a lonely cartoon character playing frisbee by himself.
Payback? Look up the video after the Spartans beat Boise State in the Mountain West championship game on Dec. 19 in Las Vegas. Built around the OMC song “How Bizarre,” the video starts with the announcement of last month’s game between the teams being canceled because of COVID-19 cases and contact tracing within the Boise State program.
It moves on to a tweet claiming that San Jose State should be thankful that Boise State saved the Spartans from being exposed on national television — the video team saves such tweets in its “haters group” for the right occasion — and ends with San Jose State players singing “How Bizarre” as they hold the Mountain West championship trophy.
As of Wednesday morning, the video that was the brainchild of Radford’s teammate, Ryan O’Rorke, had 765,000 views. O’Rorke is an associate athletic director for marketing, digital media and licensing.
“Our best videos, those postgame videos everyone loves, a lot of those were Ryan,” Radford said. “People are like, ‘Cam, good job. You run social.’ I try to stress, it’s not me. It’s a team.”
But just as Brennan has led the football team to unprecedented heights, Radford has elevated a video crew that includes editors and a graphic designer to higher ground.
In November 2016 — the final month of the season before Radford arrived — San Jose State football had 110,000 digital impressions, defined as the total number that content could be seen. This month, the team has 22 million impressions and counting.
Brennan, hired in December 2016, needed players to turn around a program that has had just four winning seasons since 1993. But one of his biggest recruits doesn’t block or tackle or carry the football. Instead, he carries a camera.
“In order to change our program, we need to start with changing the perception,” Brennan said. “We have 280,000 living alumni and none of them are engaged.
“How do we engage people? The way to engage people now is through social media. How do we put out content that is impactful with our fan base, with our student population, and with recruits?”
To Brennan, it was such an impor tant position that he borrowed from the coaching salary budget to hire Radford.
Radford grew up in Myrtle Creek, Oregon (population 3,498) and was a double major at Oregon State. With degrees in education and psychology, he’d hoped to become a high school counselor and football coach.
But his plan changed when he volunteered for the Oregon State football team as an undergraduate, assisting in the video department. Brennan was on the coaching staff at Oregon State and took a liking to the kid with the camera. The feeling was mutual.
“I’ve always loved coach Brennan,” Radford said, “and I was like, ‘ Man, if there’s a guy I want to work for, that would be the guy.’”
So dream job, dream boss, dream season. Radford found his life partner here, too. He and Helina were married July 11.
“Can’t complain about how it turned out!” Radford said.