Arizona officially announced the hiring of Josh Bringuel as linebackers coach and Craig Naivar as special teams on Tuesday. Bringuel comes to Arizona after five seasons at San Diego State. The hiring of Naivar as special teams coach had been previously widely reported.
Bringuel and Naivar both replace Danny Gonzales who has been elevated to defensive coordinator in 2025. Arizona has remade its defensive staff for 2025. Defensive line coach Joe Salave'a is new to Brent Brennan's staff entering his second stint at Arizona as a coach and third counting his time as a player in the 1990s.
Bringuel played at San Diego State from 2016 through 2019 before he was forced to retire due to injuries. While still in college, Bringuel was a student assistant football coach from May 2020 through January 2021. Syracuse hired Bringuel as a graduate assistant primarily working with linebackers and special teams from 2021-2023.
After two seasons at Syracuse, Bringuel moved on to Nebraska as the assistant linebackers coach for two years. Bringuel was hired by Florida State in January as a graduate assistant coach. Arizona will be the first opportunity for Bringuel to be a full-time position coach.
Per his Arizona biography, Bringuel was promoted to a full-time assistant as LBs coach for Syracuse's 28-20 Pinstripe Bowl loss to Minnesota in 2022. Linebacker Kadin Bradley was second on Syracuse in the loss to Minnesota with six tackles and added 1.0 tackle for loss and 1.0 sack.
Syracuse was in the top 30 defensively in his two seasons on the Orange staff and had the most improved defense during his first season in 2024. Syracuse had the 112th-best defense in 2020 and 19th in 2021. The Orange was only one of eight teams to finish in the top 30 nationally in pass and run defense in 2021.
As previously mentioned Naivar began his coaching career as the special teams coach at Division III Hardin-Simmons in 1994. Naivar was the defensive coordinator at Coastal Carolina for the last two seasons and has had 11 other stops that include Power Five jobs at Kentucky, Texas and USC.