Another Dick Tomey disciple has joined Brent Brennan's staff at Arizona — and it's one with head coaching experience.
Arizona is expected to hire Dino Babers as its offensive coordinator, a source told the Star Thursday morning; Rivals was the first to report Babers' hiring.
Babers joins Arizona's staff after spending over a decade as a head coach at Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green and most recently Syracuse.
As a head coach, Babers has a 78-71 record and produced six winning seasons over his three stops.
At Eastern Illinois, Babers mentored current NFL quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who won the Walter Payton Award — the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. Babers went 18-9 in two seasons at Bowling Green and won the MAC East championship twice, before leading Syracuse from 2016-23; he was named Associated Press ACC Coach of the Year for leading Syracuse to a 10-3 record.
Syracuse coach Dino Babers yells to an official during the second half of a game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta in November 2023.
The 62-year-old Babers was fired towards the end of the Orange's 5-6 season that included a 1-6 record in ACC play.
The San Diego native played running back and defensive back under Tomey at Hawaii from 1979-83, then became a graduate assistant under Tomey at Hawaii one season after graduating. Following multiple assistant roles at Eastern Illinois, UNLV, Northern Arizona, Purdue and San Diego State, Babers joined Tomey's staff at Arizona as a wide receivers coach in 1995, then coached running backs for a season, before serving as the Wildcats' offensive coordinator from 1998-2000.
Arizona playerr Ortege Jenkins, Keith Smith, Dennis Northcutt, Jeremy McDaniel and Trung Canidate in 1998.
As the offensive coordinator of Arizona's 12-1 season in 1998, Babers coached the Wildcats to finish Top 20 nationally in scoring offense (15th) and total offense (18th). Arizona utilized two quarterbacks in the '98 season: Keith Smith and Ortege Jenkins, who is known for the "Leap by the Lake" against Washington, one of the most celebrated plays in program history.
Former Arizona star running back Trung Canidate rushed for 3,824 yards, the second-most in program history, under Babers' tutelage. Canidate is the last offensive Wildcat to get selected in the first round of the NFL Draft; he was taken No. 31 overall by the St. Louis Rams.
Dino Babers, pictured during his tenure as Arizona football's offensive coordinator in 1998, is back with the Wildcats and back in the same role ahead of the 2024 season.
After Tomey was fired in 2000, Babers went on to have offensive assistant roles at Texas A&M, Pittsburgh, UCLA and Baylor before becoming a head coach.
Babers will lead an Arizona offense that returns seven starters from last season, including AP Third-Team All-American in wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan and Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year in quarterback Noah Fifita, and four offensive linemen.
