Arizona’s Danny Gonzales named semifinalist for top assistant award

Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales was named a semifinalist for the 2025 Broyles Award, which recognizes the top assistant college football coach in FBS.

Gonzales joins 14 other assistants who will have a chance to advance to the finalists round, which will determine the final five nominees for the award.

Gonzales, along with Arizona State defensive coordinator Brian Ward, were two of 63 assistants named as nominees for the honor last week. Ward did not advance to the semifinalists round.

Other Big 12 assistant coaches up for the award are BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick and Texas Tech defensive coordinator Shiel Wood.

Fans can cast a vote once every 24 hours and each round the coach that gets the most votes will receive one collective vote by the award selection committee. The two remaining rounds of fan voting will be from now to Dec. 7 and Jan. 20-26.

The Broyles Award will be announced in February 2026 during a ceremony in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Danny Gonzales’ case for the 2025 Broyles Award

In his second season with Arizona and first as DC, Gonzales coached a defense that ranked first in the Big 12 in pass defense (155.9 yards allowed per game), eighth in rush defense (145.7 yards per game) and second in total defense (301.6 yards per game).

Arizona is coming off a 23-7 win against Arizona State in the Territorial Cup on Friday where the defense forced five turnovers and limited the Sun Devils to just seven points on 214 total yards.

The Wildcats more than doubled their win total from 2024, going from 4-8 to 9-3 this season and became bowl eligible for the first time under head coach Brent Brennan.

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