Arizona Football: Jedd Fisch to hire Wildcat legend, Ricky Hunley

Hunley has a ton of experience that he can use to translate to success in Tucson:

• As a player with HS Coach Norman Jenkins, he won a State Championship.
• Played at Arizona for Coach Larry Smith, became a Hall of Fame Player.
• The Denver Broncos drafted Hunley in the first round of the NFL Draft, coached by Dan Reeves, the team went to two Super Bowls after winning two AFC Championships.
• He played for Gene Stallings on the St. Louis (now Phoenix) Cardinals, who was “The most respected coach I ever had”.
• He played for Art Shell and Mike Shanahan with the Raiders.
• Regrouped with Larry smith while attending USC, and Smith tricked him to volunteer and he fell in love with coaching.
• Then he coached under John Robinson at USC.
• After USC he went to Missouri (6 years), he was back with Larry Smith once again and became Associate head coach & linebackers coach where he coached Barry Odom.
• Odom became his best player at linebacker, he became a HS coach, a Grad Assistant, then Ricky was hired by him in 2014 at Memphis where he was head coach. Odom is now a coach in the SEC (currently at the University of Arkansas).
• After Memphis, Hunley was hired as the Defensive Line coach at the University of Florida and connected with Coach Spurrier and that is where he met Coach Fisch.
• Continued to coach with Steve Spurrier with the Washington Redskins as the Defensive Line coach.
• Coached with Marvin Lewis for five years with the Cincinnati Bengals as the Linebackers coach.
• Coached in the UFL as a Defense Coordinator for two years with Dennis Green.
• He then entered the private sector and sold LED lights.
• Memphis had a terrible record, so he went back and the team went on to have a winning record.
• Came back to LA and re-entered the private sector selling digital media.
• Now he is currently the Defensive Line Coach at his Alma Mater, the University of Arizona (Yes, Wikipedia is already updated).

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Ricky after rattling off his illustrious career, “All those years of doing camps, coaching kids, going to Italy and teaching young men over there, teaching coaches in Africa… It’s truly a dream a come true.”

How about preparing players for the NFL? That’s something that has been missing lately, being able to prepare and help get players to the next level after college.

“Here’s the thing. Any time that you want to be considered for the NFL, you have to have the right resume,” explained Hunley, “What is the right resume? What you do on the football field and what you do off the football field, are both important. You have the character piece and the athletic piece. Everything is about production and tolerance. ‘I will tolerate you as long as you are producing.'”

Players who are going to play at a high-level are going to see it as an opportunity to play and produce now, only if they want to buy into the culture. Doing the hard work, doing the heavy lifting, doing their job. That’s doing their job in the classroom, that’s doing their job in the weight room, and that’s doing their job on the football field. Because in life and your football field,” Hunley explained.

As far as keeping Alumni involved, Ricky feels like Fisch will do a great job at that, “Jedd has pledged to be inclusive. I think guys are going to feel welcome, they’re going to feel special and they are going to feel like they are a part of this program.”

Age isn’t an issue either when it comes to coaching Hunley feels, especially in his case. “There are a lot of people that can connect to younger people, you don’t have to be young to connect with younger people. I love to be around my kids, I love to be around ball players, they could be 10, I can get the same out of them as if they were 40.” It’s lovely when you find out someone you are cheering for in life gets their dream come true, and when it’s my friend Ricky, it’s even more special.