Arizona defense ready to 'change history' under Danny Gonzales

In addition to being Arizona’s defensive coordinator, Danny Gonzales is also a football historian.

Following Arizona’s second fall training camp on Thursday, Gonzales moseyed into the Bear Down Lounge at Arizona Stadium, where the Wildcats hold their press conferences.

Normally, Arizona head coach Brent Brennan is the only UA coach who begins his media availability with an opening statement — and Gonzales, who was previously a head coach before his stint as an assistant at Arizona, so he’s accustomed to the opening-statement lifestyle.

Gonzales was candid about the outsiders’ expectations for an Arizona defense that finished 109th nationally in total defense, and said, “they don’t expect us to be worth a darn on defense.”

“I read the message boards,” Gonzales said. “I feel the vibe of the community of Tucson — and I got no problem with it whatsoever.”

Within two minutes, Gonzales reflected on the “two really good eras of Arizona football,” the Border Conference era in the 1940s and the celebrated “Desert Swarm” defense of the early 1990s.

Gonzales noted how Arizona’s “unbelievable defense,” which produced two College Football Hall of Famers in Tedy Bruschi and Rob Waldrop, finished nationally between 1991-95.

1991: 81st

1992: 2nd

1993: 2nd

1994: 10th

1995: 7th

“To create something like that, you have to be unbelievably special,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales also spotlighted the not-so-good eras of Arizona’s defense. Between 2013-24, Arizona has produced just one top-50 defense, which was the 10-win team that won the Alamo Bowl in 2023.

“That’s horrific,” Gonzales said.

Last year’s defense reverted back to when the Wildcats were riding a 20-game losing streak from 2019-21. A year after losing three games by a combined 16 points in 2023, the Wildcats lost eight games by a combined 191 points last season.

“The expectation around here, ‘God, you guys have been bludgeoned, so no one thinks we’re going to be worth a darn,’” Gonzales said. “That’s outstanding to me because all we get to do is talk about the end. ... All that talk in the spring about numbers is great, but now we actually get to play games and statistics show up on Saturday. We have a great opportunity. The (recent) history hasn’t said it, but that’s our job, to change history.”

Gonzales said he’s “trying to recreate that” Desert Swarm defense at Arizona with the current rendition of the UA defense.

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“How do you do that? One, you have to have enough talent,” Gonzales said. “Two, you have to have a coach that wants to be here. Continuity is going to play a big factor in the building of this program in the Big 12. We put pieces together and I think as a staff, we’ve got great pieces.

“In anything you do, you have to believe in yourself and be willing to throw yourself if you think you’re a bad ass, if you think you’re good at something, because if you don’t have that belief, then you don’t have a chance.”

Arizona’s defense is far from being in the same conversation as a defense littered with Hall of Famers and NFL players, including current Arizona defensive line coach Joe Salave’a. But Gonzales is instilling that belief in his players.

“I believe in what we do, I believe in myself, and I believe in the 17 or 18 guys that are going to play 90% of the snaps on Saturday,” he said. “You do not need to have the most talent, but you have to have enough. If you don’t have enough, it doesn’t matter what we do schematically on either side of the ball. But if you have enough, now you can take advantage of some things by giving people some pictures they might not understand or do something different with different personnel groups.

He added: “We’re not static, we’re hard to prepare for in three days and if you have enough talent, it could be similar to that group. ... Everybody talks about Desert Swarm and all that stuff, but that’s not who we are right now. We’re not good enough to be that right now. Let us prove that on Saturdays.”

Gonzales, who has a gift of gab, talked for nearly 30 minutes on Thursday. Here are other items he discussed.

How much has the leadership grown with the linebackers?

A: “I told Taye Brown back in January, ‘I’m going to do everything I can to out-recruit you.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Go ahead, you ain’t.’ He was right. ... The leadership skills in that room is something special between Taye, Riley (Wilson), Max (Harris) and Chase (Kennedy), which creates competition and creates value in that room. That’s another room that no one thinks is worth a darn, so those guys have a chip on their shoulder, which is fun.”

West Virginia transfer Ayden Garnes has thrived in that slot cornerback (Field Cat) role. When Treydan Stukes is full-go this upcoming week, are you planning on shuffling the secondary?

A: “We made that shift at the end of spring. ... Ayden has been out at (cornerback) since the end of the spring ball, and he’s competing his tail off to take a starting job from one of those guys. It’s really hard to shift inside, not as hard to shift outside because we ask our ‘Field Cat’ to do a lot.

“He’s an outside linebacker, has to cover like a corner, he’s got to be in the post, so (Garnes) had to develop those skills during spring ball. We knew Treydan Stukes was coming back. If I had to move Ayden Garnes inside, simple, because he has proved he can do it. Gavin Hunter has done a phenomenal job in the last two days running with the (starters), which gives us added depth right there to have a rotation if Stukes needs a break. Hopefully, Stukes will play 75-80 plays.”

The last time you were a defensive play-caller was at Arizona State in 2019. What have you learned between then and now?

A: “I’m a hell of a lot better assistant coach than I was prior to my opportunity of being a head coach. I can do a lot of things and take a lot of things off (Brent Brennan’s) plate that I know he has to deal with and I can keep him from having to deal with it. ... We have a great responsibility in getting Brent Brennan a second contract and keeping Brent Brennan here as long as he wants to be here; that’s the job of the assistant coaches.

“If a head coach gets fired, it’s because the people he hired screwed him. That’s the reality of it and that’s how I feel about. It’s our job to get Brent Brennan an extension here and our job to create his legacy. You have to be a great leader, and he’s a great leader of men.”

If everything clicks for junior free safety Genesis Smith, what does that look like?

A: “If everything clicks for Genesis Smith, he’ll have a chance to be Big 12 Player of the Year, he’ll be first-team All-Big 12 and he probably won’t be here next year, unfortunately. That’s how talented he is and that’s the opportunity that the position creates for him. It’ll be a good and bad problem because trying to replace that guy will be really hard. He’s a special human being.”

Photos: Arizona fall football training camp begins