ESPN gave Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales a B+ as a new hire, "Grading college football's new coordinators" in 2025. Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege also received a grade that Zona Zealots will examine in another post.
Arizona had one of the worst defenses nationally in 2025. Under Gonzales, Arizona has made a lot of progress defensively. The aggressive defense Gonzales prefers was exposed at Iowa State. The Cyclones had seven completions of at least 19 yards and five or 27 or more.
The Arizona defense had been good at limiting explosive plays before imploding at Iowa State. Arizona is tied for 31st nationally, allowing only 10 completions of 20 or more yards in 2025. The challenge for Gonzales going forward is to combat what Iowa State exposed in the Arizona defense.
Getting healthy should help Arizona. Defensive back Treydan Stukes played his first complete game against Iowa State and had an interception. In limiting playing time, linebacker Riley Wilson had three tackles and two sacks.
"When coach Brent Brennan's...first season at Arizona flopped, he...promoted Gonzales... Gonzales had defensive coordinator experience...Adam Rittenberg, ESPN
Despite Saturday's reality-check loss at Iowa State, Arizona has made some progress on both sides of the ball.
The Wildcats have gone from 108th in scoring defense in 2024 to 25th, and from 105th in total defense to 17th.
"I've had to coach against Danny Gonzalez defenses for lots of years, so there was zero hesitation about what I thought he was capable of doing," Brennan told ESPN. "Everybody's on the same page. The standard is extremely high for how hard we play and how people execute.""
The 39 points and 399 points Arizona allowed to Iowa State on Saturday were the most this season. Arizona allowed 290 total yards to Hawai'i and 17 points to Kansas State as previous highs in 2025. The Wildcats forced five turnovers against the Rainbow Warriors.
The porous defense Arizona played in 2025 was a big reason they finished with four wins and eight losses in their first season under Brent Brennan. After the poor performance in the loss at Iowa State, Gonzales needs to adjust the aggressive approach that allowed too many explosive plays.
Brennan and Gonzales coached against each other from 2020 through 2023. Brennan was the head coach at San Jose State from 2017 through 2023 and Gonzales was in the same position at New Mexico from 2020 through 2023.
Our @CBSSports conference coordinators of the week: pic.twitter.com/zrlrmNz7Yp
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) September 15, 2025
San Jose State won 38-21 in 2020 and 52-24 in 2023. Brennan and San Jose State clearly had a lot of success against Gonzales' defenses. Before becoming the head coach at New Mexico, Gonzales was the defensive coordinator at San Diego State in 2017 and Arizona State in 2018 and 2019.
Gonzales is a native of Albuquerque and played at New Mexico before entering coaching. In his final season playing for New Mexico, the head coach for the Lobos was Rocky Long. Gonzales became a protege of Long, serving on his staffs at New Mexico and San Diego State.
The grade for Gonzales is solely based on how Arizona has played through the first four games. Iowa State is one of the best teams in the Big XII and should be one of the toughest games for Arizona in 2025. How well Arizona plays for the remainder of the 2025 season will determine what grade Gonzales earns.