I’m going to start with some wisdom from Ted Lasso:
The Arizona Wildcats are set to announce Brent Brennan as their new football coach, and the instant-take wizards on social media have a whole lotta judgment about a coach they really know nothing about.
For further reference on how well those hot takes work out, feel free to enter the Twitter time machine and check out the reaction when Arizona hired Jedd Fisch.
But now Fisch is gone after three seasons including the 10-3 thrill ride of the 2023 season, poached by the Washington Huskies, and the Wildcats quickly have responded by hiring Brennan, the 50-year coach at San Jose State. He was a leading candidate after the 2020 season when the Wildcats hired Fisch, and the Arizona administration was impressed with at that time.
Let’s be curious.
But, first, watch this:
If your first reaction is to look at Brennan’s record, you will not be in awe. Brennan went 34-48 in seven seasons at San Jose State, but I can’t write this loudly enough: YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO WIN AT SAN JOSE STATE.
The Spartans, who moved from the now-defunct WAC to the Mountain West in 2013, are one of the worst-resourced programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, including no real NIL (name, image and likeness) money to boost recruiting.
San Jose State had two winning seasons in 16 seasons before Brennan was hired. He took over a mess of a program, and after going a combined 3-22 in his first two years, has gone 31-26 since then, with three winning seasons in the past four.
For what he has done with the Spartans, Brennan is quietly one of the college football’s most respected coaches.
A big selling point: Brennan is from the Dick Tomey coaching family. Brennan was a grad assistant under Tomey in 2000 and later served as an assistant coach for Tomey at SJSU from 2005 to 2009. Brennan’s brother, Brad, was a receiver for the Wildcats in the late 1990s.
If you liked how Fisch strengthened alumni relations in ways that his predecessors did not, you might just love what Brennan will do.
Brennan has strong ties to the Polynesian community and recruiting pipeline, another area in which Fisch (and Tomey) excelled. Spartans defensive end Viliami Fehoko was a fourth-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys just last year.
Can he use those connections and years of goodwill to keep Noah Fifita, Tetairoa McMillan, Jacob Manu and others in Tucson for 2024? We’ll see.
But what Arizona is getting is a professional head coach with some excellent assistant coaches that he figures to bring along, a guy who knows how to do more with less (important at Arizona), the ability to engage the community and a connection to Wildcats history that makes him the Guy Who is Likely to Stay.
Assuming he wins.
We’ll have more at PHNX Sports later, but, for now, let’s wrap up with this:
This might not have been the sexiest head coaching hire of all time. Arizona isn’t necessarily taking the Homecoming King to the prom. But let’s give Brennan a few dates. Who knows, we might even end up falling in love.
Required reading on Brennan
The Athletic: An all-access look inside San Jose State’s game week
Tucson.com: Brent Brennan, SJSU continue legacy of Arizona Wildcats football great Dick Tomey
East Village Times: (Story focuses on how he built San Jose State)
Spectrum News: San Jose State football feels right at home for Hawaii Bowl week
Top photo: New Arizona Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan watches game action during San Jose State’s game against USC last season.(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
