Arizona hires Brent Brennan: The long game, risk reduction and a chance for sustained success

Arizona didn’t come to a fork in the road with its coaching search so much as it faced divergent timelines: Hire with the long view in mind or make a play for the short term?

The Wildcats wisely chose the former and hired Brent Brennan from San Jose State on Tuesday as the 31st coach in program history — and the fourth in the past six-and-a-half years.

In the tumultuous aftermath of Jedd Fisch’s departure to Washington, the Wildcats could have opted for Johnny Nansen, their former defensive coordinator who helped Fisch orchestrate a remarkable turnaround in the 2023 season.

Nansen had the support of current players considered essential to Arizona taking its momentum into the Big 12 next season and, potentially, competing for a berth in the expanded College Football Playoff.

But Nansen has zero experience running a program, whereas Brennan has taken San Jose State to bowl games in three of the past four seasons.

He has won consistently at a difficult place to win.

He has 82 games of head coaching experience; Nansen has zero.

Brennan has a coaching staff in place; Nansen does not.

Brennan understands how to run a program … how to navigate competing interests and complicated issues … how to manage 100 players and dozens of staff members … how to interact with donors, and how to prepare for game day.

It would have been easy for Arizona President Robert Robbins and athletic Director Dave Heeke to be swayed by the internal support for Nansen.

Instead, they recognized the Wildcats are in risk-reduction mode.

Sure, Fisch was a first-time head coach when Arizona hired him (over Brennan) back in December 2020. But the program was facing a multi-year rebuild in the midst of COVID. The Wildcats could afford a coach with a learning curve because salvation, even in the best of circumstances, was several seasons away.

Fisch’s first-rate work has changed the dynamic. There can be no learning on the job after a 10-win season — and with the transition to the Big 12.

The Wildcats needed to hire the best coach available, not the coach with the best chance to keep the 2024 core together. After all, nothing was guaranteed on either side — that Nansen would retain all the key players or that Brennan would lose them.

And even if the core frays, Fisch’s success has positioned Arizona to reload through the portal.

In this era of dizzying player movement, presumptions about roster construction are hazardous.

But one aspect has not changed: Everything flows from the head coach.

Arizona needed to minimize the risk of a bad hire … of taking a major backslide … of relinquishing momentum to Arizona State and sinking to the bottom of the Big 12.

Brennan gives the Wildcats a better chance than Nansen to achieve sustained success in a conference that lacks a heavyweight program.

There is no Oregon or USC in the Big 12. If the Wildcats have a strong foundation — the right coaching staff, the right NIL game, the right processes for talent evaluation and development — they can compete for the conference title frequently.

Central to sound infrastructure: Stability at the top of the org chart.

Brennan provides that, as well.

He has Arizona football in his blood as a former graduate assistant under Dick Tomey and with a brother, Brad, who played for the Wildcats.

Meanwhile, Nansen had the DNA of a short-timer. We say that because he already left once, accepting an offer to join the Texas staff earlier this month.

Our view: Nansen’s tenure would not have lasted more than three years. Success would have led to him accepting a job elsewhere (like Fisch), whereas failure would have resulted in his dismissal.

Brennan is more likely to succeed because of his experience running a program and less likely to leave because of personal feelings for Arizona. He reduces the risk level on both fronts.

Bottom line: The Wildcats didn’t have a perfect candidate available; programs with Arizona’s modest tradition and limited resources never do.

But not all risk is created equal. Brennan was the smart play, the play for the long haul, the play that gives Arizona the best chance to be consistently relevant in its new conference.

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