The Palms doesn’t do subtle. Neither does a league that just stitched “Built Bold” onto everything from the podium backdrop to the lanyards. So when four San Jose State Spartans settled into their media day rotations in Las Vegas last week, the setting practically demanded a performance.
They didn’t give one. That was the interesting part.
Linebackers Naseri Danielson and Ethan Powell, both preseason all-Mountain West selections, sat with the ease of guys who’ve already heard every version of the same question. Offensive linemen Joseph Harbert and Tyler Chen worked their table with Chen doing most of the entertaining and Harbert doing most of the anchoring.
Four different personalities, one identical undercurrent: 2025 isn’t forgotten and 2026 is the answer all onto its own.
The same question, asked twenty ways
Media days are a strange invention. Players fly in, dress up and spend hours fielding the same handful of questions rephrased by every outlet in the room. What happened last year? What’s different now? What does the new league feel like?
The tell isn’t in the polished answers. It’s in what keeps surfacing without being asked. Nobody had to bring up last season to these four. Though Danielson wasn’t with the Spartans last season, he’s seemingly already internalized the redemption. In all, it was clear that 2025 team was a completely different team.
Built Bold lands different after a season like that
Commissioner Gloria Nevarez opened last week with a state of the union anchored by the two words the league now wears on its sleeve. She led with the tangible: record revenue distribution of $118 million to member schools, a six-year media package with CBS, Fox and The CW kicking in this fall and a streaming platform the league owns outright. Nevarez didn’t promise stability because nobody honestly can anymore.
For the schools, Built Bold is a business posture. For a locker room coming off a season like San Jose State’s, it reads more like a dare. The conference wants its athletes to talk like the brand and these four didn’t need the memo.
Two linebackers, one standard
Powell knows exactly what his preseason nod comes with and he didn’t dress it up.
“It brings a big responsibility, pressure and excitement,” said Powell. “Because we’ve got a lot of new guys and it’s fun to see what they bring to the table. But it pushes us as linebackers to lead that group and set a strong standard.”
Danielson arrived through the portal and found something that didn’t feel like a transition at all.
“It was really smooth for me,” said Danielson. “Really good coaches, plus me being Polynesian, coming into a staff where most of the coaches are Polynesian, it feels like family.”
Same palm trees, different campus. The scheme adjustments under the new defensive staff drew the least drama of any topic all afternoon.
“Obviously there are differences, but it honestly is nothing we can’t adjust to,” said Powell. “Basically, we’re going to do it coach Bojay’s way and we trust him.”
Then he offered the line that quietly explained the whole table: “We believe nobody’s bigger than the program. That keeps us family-oriented and builds our culture.”
The big men keep it loose and Ramsen keeps it honest
Cross to the other side of the Palms’ ballroom and the temperature changes.
Chen is the interview reporters circle back to twice, quick with a story and quicker to pull his linemate into it. Harbert plays it straighter, friendly but measured, now on his third offensive line coach and treating that as an education rather than a hassle.
Both landed on the same word for new O-line coach Ramsen Golphashin: intensity.
“He brings a level of intensity I haven’t had with the other coaches,” Harbert said. “He really cares about every player in the room. He’s consistent with his message and he brings it every day.”
Chen went further. “Ram is the definition of attention to detail. He doesn’t let things slip. He’s definitely the most intense coach I’ve had too, but it’s really needed. He calls us, asks about stuff that’s not only football. It’s a connection.”
Chen, a well-traveled transfer himself, has a personal thread to nearly every 2026 newcomer. He’d crossed paths with two of the incoming linemen before they ever committed, hosted both on their official visits and now plays next to the third; New Zealander Brian Tapu who he jaws with daily. Harbert just grinned at the reunion tour. “All the competition is great. It keeps pushing us, where everyone just wants to get better.”
Somewhere in there Chen flinched at a sudden move from the recorder side of the table and laughed it off, as maybe inside jokes synapsing behind his eyes. Linemen carry losses first, so they’ve earned the levity.
Redemption without the speech
Ask them directly about redeeming 2025 and both linemen politely decline the framing.
“We can’t try to fix last season by winning the first game or winning every game by 50,” Harbert said. “You’ve just got to attack every day and try to be your best self every day. We’re not going to say we’ve got to go 9-3 or 13-0 to be successful.”
Chen finished the thought. “It’s not necessarily about redeeming yourself. It’s learning from the mistakes we’ve made and building off them. We’re not last year’s team. We’re a whole new team. Until we snap that ball, we’re not going to know. It creates not pressure but a sense of urgency. That’s how the business of college football works. You’ve got to perform.”
Nevarez gave the Mountain West a platform, a media deal and a mantra. These four gave it something the league can’t manufacture: composure with a purpose underneath. Bold better be more than a backdrop and in that ballroom it sounded like it already is.