Dave Fipp, fifth-year special teams coach with the Philadelphia Eagles, started at safety for Arizona in the 1990s.
Possibilities: Dave Fipp, Joe Salave’a
Scuttlebutt: Fipp played on special teams and started at safety for Arizona in the mid-1990s. He began his UA career as a walk-on and played for Dick Tomey, who has the ear of Heeke.
Fipp, 43, is in his fifth year as the special-teams coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, who face Atlanta in the NFL divisional playoffs Saturday. His boss, Doug Pederson, and Eagles players have touted Fipp as a future head coach. Whether he’s ready to make that leap now remains to be seen.
Timing could be an issue. If the Eagles reached the Super Bowl, their season wouldn’t end until Feb. 4. It’s hard to imagine the UA job remaining open that long with National Signing Day on Feb. 7.
Salave’a earned all-conference honors as a standout defensive tackle for Arizona, where he was Fipp’s teammate from 1994-97. Salave’a coached at his alma mater in 2011 but was not retained by Rodriguez. He served as the D-line coach at Washington State for four seasons before joining the staff at Oregon a year ago.
Salave’a, 42, has proved he can recruit and coach up defensive linemen and has been particularly adept at landing talented Polynesian pass rushers. Former Cougars pupil Hercules Mata’afa is entering the NFL draft after an All-America campaign in which he set a school record with 22.5 tackles for losses.
Salave’a doesn’t have coordinator or head-coaching experience.
Salave’a and Fipp would have Tomey’s blessing, and they know what it takes to put a winning program together in Tucson. The question — which only Heeke can answer — is whether these ex-Wildcats are the right fit for the current Cats.
