Arizona Football has hired its next Head Coach, according to multiple sources. The Wildcats have hired former San Jose State Head Coach Brent Brennan to a five-year deal. The announcement came less than 48 hours after former Arizona Football HC Jedd Fisch announced that he would be accepting the same role at the University of Washington.
Source: Arizona and Brent Brennan have agreed to a 5-year deal to make him the school’s next football coach.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 16, 2024
Who is Brent Brennan?
Brent Brennan goes much further back than just being a head coach. Since 1996, Brennan has been in the following positions:
- Wide Receiver Coach
- Tight End Coach
- Run Game Coordinator
- Offensive Line Coach
- Co-Offensive Coordinator
- Head Coach
Brennan has been the Head Coach of San Jose State since 2017 with a 34-48 overall record. The record may not look good, but in the past four seasons, he has led the Spartans to a 26-19 record, including three bowl game appearances. Considering the Spartans have only been to six FBS bowl games ever, having half of them is an impressive feat.
Arizona Football has already gone through the rebuilding stage, but Brennan may still need to build up the current roster to meet the expectations that fans now have.
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A Good Hire for Arizona Football?
Unless Arizona Football went out and got a home-run hire, it was going to be really difficult to appease fans. Jedd Fisch literally resurrected the program and brought it from being the laughingstock of the Pac-12 to a real Big 12 contender next year.
Everyone knew Nick Saban or Bill Belichick weren’t about to walk through the front door ready to coach the Wildcats, but fans still hoped for someone with a bigger name and success either at the P5 or G5 level.
Despite what fans think, this actually is a really good hire. Brent Brennan brought San Jose State from one of the worst teams in the nation to a decent team in the Mountain West. In the era of the transfer portal, Brennan was able to keep most of his roster intact the past two seasons. The average team in the nation has 16 players who have entered the portal; San Jose State had 10. Last year, they only had eight.
That is the kind of coach Arizona Football needs right now. There will be a lot of players who leave and follow Coach Fisch to Washington, but if Brennan can keep 50% of the productive players from transferring, he may just keep Arizona as a bowl-eligible-level team next season.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this is a grand slam hire, but Arizona Football didn’t hesitate to hire Brennan, showing they got someone they actually wanted.
The Dominos Continue to Fall
With San Jose State now losing their head coach, the transfer portal now reopens for the entire San Jose State team for the next 30 days. If you’ve been following any of my other stories, you know that I’ve been following the domino effect that Alabama started when Nick Saban retired.
For review here is how it now looks:
- Nick Saban retires
- Kalin DeBoer moves from Washington to Alabama
- Jedd Fisch moves from Alabama to Washington
- Brent Brennan moves from San Jose State to Arizona
All four teams have 30 days for players to now enter the transfer portal. According to Pete Thamel, there will likely be another domino fall as SJSU is seeking a current Head Coach as well.
San Jose State officials have been told of Brent Brennan's departure to Arizona, per a source. SJSU is ready to execute a swift and targeted search where head coaching experience will be a preferred trait that they are looking for.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 16, 2024
The dominoes aren’t just with the four teams mentioned. As players transfer, many of them are going to end up at schools that have other players who transferred before the Jan 2nd deadline. Many of these players no longer will have a starting spot and are now either stuck, or will have to get a waiver and transfer again in April, sending off a whole other domino effect.
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