Last week, Terry Leist, the head of the search committee helping Montana State find its next athletic director, said the Bobcats would bring four finalists to town for in-person interviews.
On Monday, Leist said in an email a fifth candidate would come to Bozeman and would be in town on Tuesday. That candidate is Kyle Brennan, the Deputy Director of Athletics, sources confirmed to Skyline Sports on Monday night.
Matt Whisenant, the Deputy Director of Athletics at Wyoming, interviewed for the position on Monday. MSU will also conduct interviews on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Peter Fields has served as Montana State’s AD since 2002. Earlier this year, MSU President Waded Cruzado announced Fields’ contract would not be renewed upon its expiration on June 30.
At Utah, Brennan is the supervising administrator for seven departments. Brennan supervises external relations and development, compliance, facility operations, event management, equipment, human resources, and football strength and conditioning. He is the administrative liaison for football and men’s basketball and the sport supervisor for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. He previously held the same role with the women’s basketball, men’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis teams.
Brennan was hired as the first Deputy Director of Athletics at Utah in 2014, his sixth year at the school. He was hired in 2008 as Utah’s assistant athletics director for compliance and was named associate A.D. for compliance in 2009. In 2011, he was promoted to special assistant to the athletics director, and in 2012, he was named senior associate A.D. for administration.
Brennan served as the director of compliance at TCU in 2005 and 2006. He held the same position at Ball State from 2006 until coming to Salt Lake City in 2008.
Before entering the realm of athletics, Brennan served as the state planning attorney in Denver. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Calvin College and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Denver in 2001.
He and his wife Beth — the academic coordinator for Utah’s football team — have three sons: Patrick, Mac and Murphy. Mac, who is nine years old, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2013 and has been enduring chemotherapy treatments at the world-renowned Huntsman Cancer Center on and off ever since.
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