Chabot Football Preview: ‘Bigger, Stronger, Faster’

The Chabot College football team appears poised to take a big step forward in the second year under head coach Brett McMurray.
The Gladiators, who will open the season at 1 p.m. Saturday against Cabrillo at Mt. Eden High in Hayward, have spent the offseason building a foundation for success.
They have about 76 active players and another 20 grayshirts, putting the numbers overall in the mid 90s, a positive sign, especially with so many quality players in the mix.
Chabot struggled numbers wise in McMurray’s debut season, starting with just eight guys in late April and winding up 1-9 overall and 0-5 in conference.
But that was then. McMurray, a blue-collar guy, likes the culture of toughness and discipline he is seeing today.
“We kept some receipts and we’re not going to have sympathy this year either way, for who we play either,” McMurray said last week. “We’re feeling really good about the numbers that we have, we recruit really hard. I would say we did the better recruiting job in probably all of NorCal, as far as where we started and where we are."
McMurray has the benefit of a full recruiting season under his belt. He is pleased to have over 30 players returning and a good group of freshmen. They now have the ability to sit players down and grayshirt them.
“It’s been a real grind-of-an-offseason, we did it like that on purpose,” he said last week. “… We’ve cut a lot of fat. I told the guys that made it through — we had our last day of fall camp yesterday — ‘if you made it through fall camp then you’ve earned the right to be here.’”
Returning sophomores got “bigger, stronger, faster in the offseason, which was really clutch,” he said. “Overall, it’s always gonna be continuous work to get where you want to be.”
He hired a new offensive coordinator and associate head coach, John Kocurek, who has improved the system after spending the past four seasons successfully coaching the offensive line at Feather River under head coach Nick Goulet, a former Chabot coach. Kocurek knows his craft and the Bay Area well after over 16 years of coaching. Feather River broke several offensive records during his time there.
He also coached at Montana State-Northern and Black Hills State University, James Logan High, Encinal, Santa Rosa, and Menlo College.
“I think he just brings a very, very structured system,” McMurray says of Kocurek’s style. “He has things that he has developed and learned over his time working as an assistant and an OC (offensive coordinator). He just utilizes a lot of the right pieces in space really well. He does things that makes the defense have to adjust on the fly and have really clean eyes and feet. He puts defenses in bad spots with formations and motions and shifts and things like that.”
The Glads offensive line struggled last year without depth and a full-time coach, so McMurray made it a priority to upgrade that area on staff. Kocurek’s an offensive line guy.
On offense, the receiving group is one of the biggest strength areas with talent top to bottom, the head coach says.
Sophomore returner Sefa Stephens (America Samoa, Valley Christian High), who is 6-foot-4, 165 pounds, is a key target. After playing the 2024 season, he suffered a broken collar bone in Week 1 last season and is back off a medical redshirt.
“He’s a very fluid player with a bit of a skinny frame, but he can run really, really well,” McMurray said of Stephens. ‘He’s pretty dynamic at receiver.”
Freshman wideout Joseph Tarin (Salesian) is also looking good as a big-body guy. Returner Jalen Frenchwood (Washington-Fremont) is back off an all-conference season, and the Glads plan to put the ball in his hands a lot. Elaia Malafu is a “really dynamic player in the slot,” McMurray said.
The running backs are big-body types who can move the chains but probably won’t hit a lot of home runs. Freshman Inoke Stotler was a quality back out of Hayward High a couple of years back and is ready to play college ball. “He’s an exciting back, a big back, bruising back,” McMurray said.
The offensive line has better depth with 12 guys, five more than last season, with some solid returners. McMurray was impressed by the unit’s physical play in the scrimmage last week. Returner JohnnyRay Stephens, Sefa’s brother, is looking good at left tackle. Returning guard Beau Fukafuka (6-3, 325) out of Tennyson, is also solid. Freshman newcomers have good size and promise.
At quarterback, starter Deontae Faison, a Berkeley High graduate, redshirted last year at Laney after grayshirting at Diablo Valley.
“We feel really good about him as well as our backup AJ Rich (Capuchino). Those are two guys who have come in and done a really good job of learning our system and taken the lead of the offense. Both of those guys will play,” McMurray said. “We have a returner, Mason Silbaugh, who’s also in the mix.”
On defense, the Gladiators have a stout group, including returning all-conference stalwart JJ Sporleder, a sophomore DE out of St. Francis, returning captain DE Esaiah Vavao (St. Francis), and captain MLB Gerardo Zavala-Rangel (Newark Memorial,) and returning captain LB Salesi Moala (Tennyson). Returning all-Region LB Leki Vaka (Newark Memorial) and returning all-conference S Kali Moa (St, Francis) are key players.
They have excellent depth on the defensive line, boasting newcomer DT Osana Vaeao-Saga, who played all 10 games last season at Laney, and Samoamoni leremia (Newark Memorial), a “great returner,” who sat out for a season as a grayshirt.
“I think our front seven will have the most experience and is our strength. We’re really, really deep on defensive line. We have returning all starters in our linebacking corps,” McMurray said.
In a revamped secondary, freshman safety Jayden Buckalew (6-3, 190), a freshman from Yakima, Wash., has stood out in camp.
Terry Wilson, Jr. has stepped in as special teams coordinator, taking something off the plate of McMurray.