OPINION: Arizona Football needs longevity, not a flash in the pan

With Arizona Football bringing in Brent Brennan as the new head coach, the Wildcats desperately needed longevity, not a flash in the pan.

It is officially a new era for Arizona Football! In what was a whirlwind of events this past weekend, the Wildcats introduced Brent Brennan as the program's 31st head coach on Tuesday afternoon.

Accompanied by his wife (Courtney) a UofA alum, and brother (Bradley), also a UofA alum by his side, the longtime head coach at San José State casually strolled down Cherry Avenue and into Arizona Stadium as 'Bear Down, Arizona' echoed as the Pride of Arizona played on.

Coach Brennan's arrival to Tucson comes after much anticipation, and for Brent, this is a move that has been in the making for quite some time!

For those who may not know, just a few, short years ago, Coach Brennan narrowly missed out on the head coaching opportunity at Arizona. As fate would have it, Brent would be presented with the same opportunity yet again, and this time he would be the Wildcats' guy!

While Brent's hiring may not be sexy to everyone, nor is he the smooth-talking salesman who says all the right things that you want to hear, he is; however, hire that Arizona desperately needed at a time with so much uncertainty.

An understudy of the late great Dick Tomey, Brent Brennan is the perfect embodiment of Arizona Football of tradition, culture, and loyalty!

Over the past 25 years, Arizona has now had nine different head coaches (two interims included). That's an average tenure of 2.7 years per coach!

How do you build any stability or develop a culture with that sort of tenure? For Arizona, perhaps Brent can be that guy to change that.

Tradition

If you were wanting an 'Arizona man', well, this is the closest thing you are going to get to it. Brent's ties to the University of Arizona run deep! He understands the importance of Arizona Athletics, what they mean to the Tucson community, and more importantly, the history and tradition behind Arizona Football.

A former grad assistant at Arizona (2000) and associate to the late great Dick Tomey, Brent already has the buy-in, and he doesn't have to give us the coach speak. The guy gets it and wants to build on the success of Arizona Football.

Culture

The guy gets it! In order to have a good program, you need a great culture, and at San José State where it isn't the easiest place to win at, Brennan was a big part of their recent success, helping guide the Spartans to a 26-19 (21-10) record and three bowl appearances over the last four seasons. That doesn't happen without a good culture.

Stepping into the head coaching role at Arizona, a great foundation has been laid to be successful early on. Using the mantra of "Family", Brennan will be able to quickly establish a great culture and continue to foster a lot of the same principles he instilled at San José.

Loyalty

Unlike his predecessor, Brennan's tenure as a coach has been solid. Aside from bouncing from 1996-2010, looking to get his footing, Coach Brennan has been quite stationary for some time. Coaching at Oregon State from 2011-16, Brennan was at San Jose State from 2017-23.

Assuming he has any modicum of success at Arizona, there's a good likelihood, we could see Brennan in Tucson for quite some time. That kind of longevity has been desperately needed in Tucson!

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