Brennan, Hall earn top MWC football honors
San Jose State’s Brent Brennan is the Mountain West’s football coach of the year and Cade Hall is its defensive player of the year, the conference announced Tuesday.
Brennan, in his fourth season, has led the Spartans to their first 6- 0 start since 1939 and into the Mountain West championship game Saturday against Boise State.
Hall, a junior defensive lineman from Bellarmine College Prep, has 8.5 sacks and ranks fourth nationally in sacks per game (1.33).
“It’s a really huge honor,” Hall said. “All the guys on our side of the ball, both sides of the ball for that matter, worked really, really hard to get here. Being on a team that was 1-11 and then being where we’re at now feels really good be
cause we’ve been on both sides. We’ve put in the work to try and turn this thing around. It feels great.”
Brennan, in a statement, credited everyone from the school president and athletic director to his coaching staff and players.
“None of these things happen if every member of our program isn’t ‘all in’ and moving in the same direction,” Brennan said. “There’s
been incredible commitment over the last few years to build this thing and to go through the process.
“This team is so special, because of how everyone feels about each other and how willing they are to work and compete for each other. We had a bunch of all-conference awards — all those things are team awards. That just says we are moving in the right direction and we are climbing the mountain together. I couldn’t be more excited or happier about that.”
In voting done by the
conference’s 12 coaches, the Spartans had 11 players receive honors on either the first-team, second-team, or honorable mention list.
The San Jose State players who made the first team are Hall, defensive lineman Viliami Fehoko, linebacker Kyle Harmon, offensive lineman Jack Snyder and wide receiver Bailey Gaither.
The second-team selections from SJSU are wide receiver Tre Walker, quarterback Nick Starkel and safety Tre Jenkins. Tight end Derrick Deese, Jr., safety Tre Webb and kicker Matt Mercurio
received honorable mention recognition.
The Spartans also entered the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time, sitting at No. 25. Sunday morning, they entered the Associated Press poll ranked No. 24, their first time in the Top 25 since the 2012 season.
Brennan also landed the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Region 5 Coach of the Year honor.