Brent Brennan leads SJSU to Mountain West Title, Arizona Interview up next

With the Mountain West Championship secured, Wildcats fan’s eyes now turn to Brent Brennan after he led leading San Jose State to a dominant win over perennial power Boise State on Saturday night.

It’s no secret that Brent Brennan has been at the top of many fans’ holiday wish lists after the departure of Kevin Sumlin last Sunday. Perhaps now more than ever as Brennan led the San Jose State Spartans to a flat-out dominating win on Saturday.

Brennan may very well have just put himself in the driver’s seat to lead the Arizona Wildcats Football program into the future, especially after directing that program to a 7-0 record, and MWC Title, and are heading to their first bowl game since 2015.

Arizona Wildcats

While Brennan’s career record is currently a mere 15-29, one just needs to take a simple look at the yearly record growth to see just how remarkable a turnaround he has led the Spartans through. Going from 2-11 in his first season, to 1-11, to 5-7, to now 7-0!

For Wildcats fans that tuned in to watching Brennan and the Spartans for the 1st time, especially since he has become one of the main targets to follow Sumlin. It was exciting to watch a defense that was not vanilla and showed varying stunts, blitzes, and other looks that provided some very unique challenges to Boise State’s offense.

Overall, the energy, effort, and variety was too much for the Broncos to overcome. In bringing different looks and keeping control of the game, they should have likely won by larger. Either way, Brennan gave quite the final audition leading up to his expected interview with Dave Heeke in the coming days.

Tomey Ties and Prior Wildcats Experience add to the Allure of Brennan

Having previously served with the Wildcats as a Graduate Assistant in 2000 under beloved and legendary Arizona Head Coach Dick Tomey, they reunited in 2005 at San Jose State and he worked for the Spartans for the entire duration of Tomey’s time in San Jose, rising up to Co-Offensive Coordinator and Special Teams Coordinator.

After one season under Mike MacIntyre, Brennan moved on from the Spartans heading on to Oregon State where he served as Receivers Coach. After six seasons in Corvallis, Brennan returned to San Jose State where he assumed his role of Head Coach in 2017.

Additionally, Brent’s wife Courtney graduated from the University of Arizona, and Brent’s brother Brad played at Arizona from 1996-00. His ties here are deep!

Would Brennan Come to Arizona?

Building up a program that is among the most unheralded in FBS football to become ranked is nothing short of remarkable, and with that being said, Brennan’s stardom has never been brighter.

This may also Brennan’s best chance to get a Power 5 head coaching job, as with much of any regression from San Jose State, he may drift back into backup candidate status, no matter the fact he could build up and become a top coach in the Pac-12.

Why Wouldn’t Brennan Come to Arizona?

Brennan did go to UCLA, and with questions regarding Chip Kelly’s future, he may opt-out to wait and see if that spot opens up and try for that spot. You could also make a case for San Jose State giving Brennan another raise to try and sway him to staying in Northern California and continuing to build the Spartans Program.

Being about 25 miles from where he grew up and likely still having family ties is another benefit that San Jose State provides to Brennan as well, he may be comfortable where he’s at.

At Zona Zealots, we will see how this coaching search plays out, but after yesterday, there is a lot of intrigue for Brent currently. As always, Bear Down, Arizona!