Arizona Football closing in on San Jose State's Brent Brennan as next head coach

After just a two-day search, former San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan seems poised to be the 31st head coach of the Arizona Football team. The news broke on the evening of Jan. 15 that Brennan was offered the job. While it isn't set in stone yet, it appears that an announcement (and acceptance) are to be expected by Tuesday.

What happened?

He was picked over Cal head coach Justin Wilcox, who had received interest, and former defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen, who appeared to be the players' choice after left to become the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Texas

Brennan is familiar with Arizona; he interviewed for the vacant position after Kevin Sumlin's firing coming off a 7-1 showing in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. Though 2021 was uninspiring, given that the Spartans finished 5-7, Brennan responded by rattling off two consecutive seven-win seasons in 2022 and 2023. In the last four years, Brennan has amassed a 26-16 regular season record and led San Jose State to three bowl game appearances.

How did we get here?

Brennan has received interest from other schools: he was a candidate for the Oregon State job this offseason before the Beavers decided to make an in-house promotion and he interviewed for the Stanford job after David Shaw stepped down. He does have some ties to Arizona, but they aren't very deep: he was a graduate assistant under Dick Tomey in 2000.