Brent Brennan isn’t going anywhere. At least not now.
The University of Arizona has confirmed to the Tucson Star that the Wildcats head football coach will be back for the 2025 season. Columnist Michael Lev first reported on X that UA athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois said, “Coach Brennan deserves a fair chance to be successful.”
Arizona joined the Big 12 for the 2024 season and was picked to finish 5th in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, even receiving three first-place votes. They were ranked No. 21 in the Preseason AP Poll and won three of their first four games. But the season quickly went off the rails.
The Wildcats went 4-8 in Brennan’s first year, including a 2-7 mark in Big 12 Conference play. Arizona lost seven of their final eight games. The season ended with an embarrassing 49-7 loss to their in-state rival Arizona State. And to rub more salt in the wound, the win helped punch the Sun Devils’ ticket to the Big 12 Championship Game.
After taking over a team from Jedd Fisch, who bolted for the Washington job, Brennan had arguably the best quarterback-wide receiver duo in the Big 12 in Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan. But the Wildcats were lacking on the offensive line and on the defensive side of the ball and it showed all season.
Brennan took over Arizona after he turned around an awful San Jose State program, where he went 1-11 in his first season in 2017, to winning seven games in each of his final two seasons.
On the recruiting trail, Brennan will now need to step it up, or hit the transfer portal. Arizona’s 2025 class is ranked 10th in the Big 12, according to 247Sports, and No. 53 in the country.
