Arizona moves Chuck Cecil to defensive scouting role to help Wildcats offense

The Arizona football program announced on Thursday that assistant coach and UA great Chuck Cecil will take on a different role under new head coach Brent Brennan. Cecil was named senior defensive analyst to assist the Wildcats’ offense.

In this role, Cecil “will provide in-depth analysis and analytics of opponents’ defenses” to Brennan and the offensive staff, in addition to exposing weaknesses on the other team’s defense to help Arizona’s offense with play-calling and strategy.

“In today’s college football model, with the demands of recruiting and NIL, we need a position that would increase communication, competitive advantages, and functionality,” Brennan said in a news release. “The senior defensive assistant, offense, position modernizes our traditional coaching hierarchy — without adding personnel count — and there is no better coach to fill that role than Chuck Cecil.”

Cecil held a similar role when he coached in the NFL with the Rams in St. Louis and Los Angeles from 2012-16 and worked with former head coach Jeff Fisher. Cecil also worked for Fisher as a defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach with the Tennessee Titans.

“A big thank you to Coach Brennan for the opportunity to stay at Arizona in this new role,” Cecil said. “Coaching the Wildcats, and being a part of the football program, continues to be a blessing for me and my family. My wife, daughter and I have made Tucson my home and staying with the Wildcats is ideally how I would like to end my coaching career, but not anytime soon.”

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Cecil, a College Football Hall of Famer, has coached at Arizona since the 2017 season under former head coach Rich Rodriguez, before becoming an analyst under Kevin Sumlin. Cecil was a senior defensive analyst, before serving as interim defensive coordinator in the final stretch of the 2019 season, when Marcel Yates was fired following the Wildcats’ road loss to Stanford. Cecil returned to his analyst post for the truncated 2020 season.

After Sumlin was fired and the UA hired former head coach Jedd Fisch, Cecil became the Wildcats’ safeties coach from 2021-23. This past season, Cecil coached the much-improved safety tandem of Dalton Johnson and Gunner Maldonado, whose 87-yard fumble return for a touchdown sparked the Wildcats’ come-from-behind win over Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl; both Johnson and Maldonado are returning this season.

“Chuck has done an incredible job recruiting and coaching the defensive backs for the past three years in Tucson, and it is hard to find another person who cares more about the Wildcats than him,” Brennan said. “He brings invaluable football knowledge from both the professional and collegiate coach and player perspectives, and we are excited to keep him home with the Wildcats in this new role.”