After Jedd Fisch left Arizona for Washington a few days ago, the university has already identified the future leader of its developing football program. Three years ago, the Wildcats were on the verge of hiring this exact individual in place of Fisch.
Arizona announced on Tuesday that new head coach Brent Brennan has accepted a five-year contract.
After seven seasons as the head coach of San Jose State, 50-year-old Brennan is moving to Tucson. Brennan guided the Spartans to a 7-1 record in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, capturing the Mountain West title, following three straight losing seasons to begin his tenure. Then, once Arizona parted ways with Kevin Sumlin, he was a finalist for the position.
After falling to 5-7 in 2021, San Jose State made a little comeback to 7-5 in 2022. In 2023, the Spartans finished 7-6 and shared the Mountain West regular-season championship. (They were not included in the conference championship game because of a computer-generated tiebreaker.)
Brennan’s job at Arizona will be to continue Fisch’s success, who oversaw a three-year turnaround of the team. The Wildcats had their first 10-win season since 2014 after two losing seasons. A knock-on effect of Nick Saban’s retirement was Fisch’s departure. The Huskies hired Fisch within two days of Kalen DeBoer’s departure from Washington last week to take over as head coach of Alabama. During his seven seasons in San Jose, Brennan led the program to three bowl games while finishing 34–48 overall.
A number of Arizona players, notably outstanding running back Jonah Coleman, have already accessed the transfer portal in the wake of Fisch’s decision. Noah Fifita, a redshirt freshman quarterback, is worth keeping an eye on after his breakthrough campaign even though he hasn’t accessed the portal yet.
Throughout his coaching career, Brennan has primarily worked in the Pacific Islands and on the West Coast. In 1999, Brennan worked as a graduate assistant and tight ends coach at Washington. He then worked as a graduate assistant at Arizona under the great coach Dick Tomey the following season. Brennan then spent six years as an offensive assistant at San Jose State before taking over as wide receivers coach at Oregon State in 2011.
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