Arizona to hire San Jose State's Brent Brennan as next head coach

The Arizona Wildcats never expected to find themselves looking for a new coach in 2024. However, after the Washington Huskies hired Jedd Fisch, that’s exactly what happened.

Alas, the Wildcats have pivoted in a new direction, and they’ve hired a tremendous option, as San Jose State’s Brent Brennan will be taking over as the new leader of Arizona, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

“Source: Arizona and Brent Brennan have agreed to a 5-year deal to make him the school’s next football coach,” Thamel posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday.

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic originally connected the dots regarding Brennan and Arizona earlier in the week. When asked which coaches the Wildcats could go after to replace Fisch, Brennan was first on the list for the college football insider.

“The obvious choice to replace him is the person Arizona nearly hired last time: San Jose State coach Brent Brennan,” Feldman wrote. “The 50-year-old former Arizona grad assistant was coming off his best season at San Jose State in 2020 when the job came open last time, as the Spartans went 7-1 and finished No. 24. Brennan stabilized the SJSU program and continues to impress at one of the toughest jobs in the FBS. 

“The Spartans have had back-to-back winning seasons despite the additional new challenges that have come from the new era of the transfer portal. Brennan is well respected both among his peers and around Arizona. I suspect he will be the favorite this time around.”

As Feldman explained, Brennan now comes to the Wildcats with a highly-respected record, after narrowly missing out on the gig when Fisch was originally hired. Now, he’s going to have his chance to lead Arizona after all.

He’ll have big shoes to fill in Fisch, who spent the past three seasons coaching the Wildcats. They went just 1-11 in his inaugural season before improving to 5-7 in 2022. This past year, however, was the true breakthrough. 

Arizona finished the season 10-3 and earned a trip to the Alamo Bowl, where it defeated Oklahoma by a score of 38-24. Not only was it the Wildcats’ first bowl victory since 2015, but the 10 wins is the most they’ve reached since the 2014 season.

Arizona’s offense ranked No. 8 in the country in passing yards per game (308.3) and No. 18 in points per game (34.6). Receiver Jacob Cowing set a single-season program record with 13 touchdown catches, while his teammate Tetairoa McMillan led the team with 1,402 yards.

Time will tell if Brent Brennan can continue Arizona’s level of success, but it’s time for the Wildcats to get to work as they move to the Big 12 in 2024. He has his work cutout for him.