Report: Brent Brennan ‘picking up traction’ for Arizona job
Dec 20, 2020, 8:38 PM
San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan speaks with players during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Boise State for the Mountain West championship, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
(AP Photo/John Locher)
San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan continues to be linked to the Arizona Wildcats.
The head coach’s name has been reportedly “picking up traction in the Arizona search,” Yahoo! Sports’ Pete Thamel said Sunday.
Brennan has been a top name linked to the Wildcats’ head coaching job since the team fired Kevin Sumlin following a 70-7 loss to the Arizona State Sun Devils. The Territorial Cup would end up being the final game of the season for the Wildcats, and Sumlin’s last as their coach.
It would be a homecoming of sorts for the San Jose State coach, who had a stint on Arizona’s staff as a graduate assistant in 2000 under Dick Tomey and brings with him experience building a program on the West Coast.
RELATED STORIES
It further adds to the criteria Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke and Wildcat alumni are looking for in their next head coach.
“Someone who will embrace what has made Arizona football great. That’s passion, that’s toughness, that is believing in our history and our tradition and our past,” Heeke said via Zoom last Friday. “It’s a little bit different of a place, you really have to believe in it here.”
Brennan led the Spartans to 7-0 this season, winning their first Mountain West Conference championship in program history.
The Spartans’ victory, in a way, provides the Wildcats the chance to get a much closer look at the head coach.
Coincidentally, Brennan will be coaching his team’s final game of the season at Arizona Stadium in Tucson when the SJSU takes on Ball State in the Arizona Bowl. The game is slated to be played on New Year’s Eve.
