Arizona Wildcats officially add Dino Babers as offensive coordinator

Arizona officially announced the addition of offensive coordinator Dino Babers to its staff on Thursday.

Babers, the final on-field addition to new head coach Brent Brennan’s first staff at the UA, 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 in 2018.

The 62-year-old Babers was fired towards the end of the Orange’s 5-6 2023 season that included a 1-6 record in ACC play.

The San Diego native played running back and defensive back under former Arizona coaching icon Dick 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.

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.

“(Babers) is a special man to me because he was my running backs coach at first and then became our offensive coordinator,” said former UA running back Kelvin Eafon, who rushed for 1,037 yards and 21 touchdowns from 1996-98. “Great motivator, great teacher and a good man. He has a high IQ for offensive football. ... He’s got a running back, two quarterbacks and a tight end in the Ring of Honor, so you know what type of guy you’re dealing with. He develops players.”

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Ex-Arizona wide receiver Dennis Northcutt holds the UA single-season receiving yards record (1,422 yards) from the 1999 season and is second in career receiving yards behind current Arizona receivers coach Bobby Wade.

“We were spreading the ball around, using Trung, throwing to Dennis, a lot of big things,” said Jenkins. “(Babers) spread the ball and made sure we utilized the talent that we had. I see him doing the same exact thing and being explosive. You have a quarterback who’s efficient and understands the offense, understands his players, makes plays, very smart, and then you have guys who are explosive on both sides of the ball. I would guarantee he’s going to stay explosive with it, mix it up a little bit and keep it rolling.”

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, who set the program’s single-game passing record with 527 yards in the Wildcats’ dominant win over Arizona State. Arizona also returns four of its five starting offensive linemen: guard and tackle Raymond Pulido, guard and tackle Jonah Savaiinaea, center Josh Baker and left guard Wendell Moe.

“Babers has always been one of my favorites. One of the guys that taught me a lot of things,” Jenkins said. “He’s one that will hold people accountable. We had a great time in Tucson, lighting it up with the offense. The beautiful thing is this team has been able to keep the guys intact with notable guys like (Fifita, McMillan and linebacker Jacob Manu), but you also have to think about that (offensive) line. Just being able to keep four out of the five guys coming back is outstanding.”

Learning Babers’ system “will take time,” Jenkins added, “but these guys are dynamic, man, and they’re smart, they’ll pick it up.”

“Knowing coach Babers, he’s not going to make it to where it’s like opening up a brand new book of things, because that’s depending on what they have going on,” he said.

“I think it’ll be easy for the guys to pick it up and move forward.”