The next chapter for a someone who recently lost a college football head coaching job: usually, it’s either accept a job somewhere else — even if it’s an assistant role or coordinator position — have a year-long vacation or delve into broadcasting. (Or, if you’re Kliff Kingsbury, you luck your way into an NFL gig.)
Dino Babers took option A — for Arizona — and the longtime offensive guru who was let go from his post at Syracuse after eight seasons at the helm, couldn’t resist a return to Tucson as the offensive coordinator of the Arizona Wildcats.
When Babers was officially hired in February, the Arizona football social media accounts posted a “how it started versus how it’s going” video of Babers (then offensive coordinator), Arizona head coach Brent Brennan (when he was a graduate assistant in 2000), and defensive coordinator Duane Akina side-by-side in their roster pics from when they coached under Dick Tomey, the winningest coach in program history and a fixture for Arizona football in the 1990s.
Dino Babers, then the head football coach at Syracuse, speaks during a public memorial service for the late former Arizona head football coach Dick Tomey on May 31, 2019, at McKale Center in Tucson.
Now that GA, Brennan, is the man in charge of the Arizona football program more than two decades later, and the gang is back together. Arizona wide receivers Bobby Wade, who was a star at the UA from 2000-02, is also on Brennan’s staff.
Syracuse coach Dino Babers yells to an official during the second half of a game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta in November 2023.
The idea of that sort of reunion was enticing for Babers, who also played running back and defensive back for Tomey at Hawaii from 1979-83 before becoming a GA for the Rainbow Warriors. 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.
“Once I got the telephone call, it was an easy decision to come out and work for Coach B,” Babers said. “I have a lot of respect for coach Brennan and it’s going to be one of those things that’s going to surprise a lot of people based on the success that we’re going to have.”
As the offensive coordinator of Arizona’s 12-1 season in 1998, Babers coached the Wildcats to Top 20 national finishes in scoring offense (15th) and total offense (18th). Arizona utilized two quarterbacks in the ’98 season in Keith Smith and Ortege Jenkins; Jenkins is known for the “Leap by the Lake” against Washington, one of the most celebrated plays in program history.
Former Arizona running back Kelvin Eafon called Babers a “great motivator, great teacher and a good man,” adding that Babers has a “high IQ” for football offenses.
Dino Babers, Arizona’s offensive coordinator in 1998, coached the team to its first 5,000-yard season when the focus was on the Desert Swarm defense.
“He’s got a running back, two quarterbacks and a tight end in the (UA football) Ring of Honor, so you know what type of guy you’re dealing with,” Eafon said. “He develops players.”
Running back Trung Canidate, Arizona’s last offensive player to land in the first round of the NFL Draft, rushed for 3,824 yards, the second-most in program history. Wide receiver Dennis Northcutt holds the UA single-season receiving yards record (1,422 yards) from the 1999 season and has the second-most career receiving yards behind Wade.
“We were spreading the ball around, using Trung, throwing to Dennis, a lot of big things,” Jenkins said. “(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.”
‘Lethal Weapons’: ‘24
This year’s rendition of Arizona’s offense has a chance to evolve into a productive group akin to the “Lethal Weapon” offense from ‘98 — or even better. The Wildcats return four of their five starting offensive linemen from last season and one of the top quarterback-receiver tandems in the country in Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan, who led the Wildcats to a 10-3 season and a win in the Alamo Bowl.
UA football standouts Tetairoa McMillan, right, and Noah Fifita, left, cemented their legacy as Wildcat legends when they appeared on the court at McKale Center on Jan. 20 to announce they’d be staying in Tucson.
“They have that relationship where they know what the other guy wants to do. T-Mac knows what Noah wants him to do,” Babers said. “Noah knows what T-Mac is going to do. That relationship makes him dangerous.”
Arizona also added running backs Quali Conley (San Jose State) and Jacory Croskey-Merritt (New Mexico) through the transfer portal to add to a group that includes third-year slasher Rayshon Luke, redshirt freshman Brandon Johnson and ‘24 four-star running back Jordan Washington. Croskey-Merritt, who was fifth in FBS with 17 rushing touchdowns in ‘23, will not join the team for spring practices, which begins on Tuesday; he graduates from New Mexico in May and will join the Wildcats for training camp.
Plus, the Wildcats have junior tight end Keyan Burnett, McMillan and Fifita’s longtime teammate since their days at Servite High School in Anaheim, California, elevating to a starter role.
The million-dollar question: after inheriting an offense that has the makings to be one of the more productive units in college football, how does Babers plan on using them?
Quarterback Noah Fifita’s emergence is one reason Arizona may still contend for a Big 12 title in its first year in the conference in 2024.
“Everyone wants to know the answer to that question — not only people who are here but people who are recruiting against us. What I can say is that I’ve been in enough offenses that are successful. I’ve been in some offenses that weren’t as successful,” Babers said. “The most important thing is to do what they’re capable of doing. If there’s anything that they have a skill in, we’ll definitely exploit that to the best of our ability.
“We’re going to do what’s best for the players,” he added. “If you’re the best player, you’re going to get the ball and we’re going to give you opportunities to make plays so we can win games.”
Across head coaching stints at Syracuse, Bowling Green and Eastern Illinois — that’s where he coached NFL quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo — Babers said he was the primary offensive play-caller for 10 of his 12 years as a head coach. The other two years, he had “veto power.”
‘Just gather information’
Throughout his well-traveled coaching career, the 62-year-old Babers has worked with renowned offensive minds, including June Jones, Ted Tollner, Walt Harris, Jim Colletto and the “uptempo” Art Briles.
Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan drags Oklahoma defensive back Reggie Pearson for an extra yard or two after his one of his 10 catches during the 2023 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
“I’ve worked around some amazing offensive guys,” he said. “Through that process, you just gather information.”
Babers plans on using his 40 years of coaching experience and collaborating with the offensive-focused Brennan and Fifita, who set the school’s single-game passing record with 527 yards against Arizona State and was named the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year.
“We have to talk to Noah,” Babers said. “He’s the bridge between the coaches and the players. The starting quarterback is like a coach. He’s got one foot in the coaches’ room and one foot in the locker room, so that’s very, very important.”
As for McMillan, a potential Biletnikoff Award favorite this upcoming season after becoming an Associated Press All-American, Babers plans to help “fine-tune this guy like a pencil sharpener” for what is likely his last season playing college football before declaring for the NFL Draft as a first-round selection.
“There’s always things that you can improve on. If he improves on those little things, that’s what’s going to separate him,” Babers said of McMillan. “We understand that we only got him for (this season). We understand that. My thing is: we’re going to use him. I know how to use people, and he wants to be used and we want to use him.”
A path Babers recommended for McMillan to follow is that of Larry Fitzgerald, who had a detailed and technique-focused mindset as a receiver. McMillan’s extraordinary athletic abilities, 6-5 frame and expanded route-running tree have positioned him into first-round pick territory when he’s draft-eligible next year. Now it’s time for McMillan to polish up his skills as a receiver.
“Larry Fitzgerald’s technique, fundamentals is what kept him so long in his career,” who coached at Pittsburgh while Fitzgerald was a Panther. “That’s what you go after with T-Mac.
“(McMillan) has God-given ability. I don’t have to sit here and tell everybody that he’s extremely talented.”
If all goes according to plan, McMillan could also walk away from Arizona as the Wildcats’ all-time receiving leader, passing Wade.
A ‘nostalgic’ return
Working with Babers, “it’s nostalgic,” Wade said. “The cadence is the same when he speaks. His voice, his tone, mannerisms and all of these things come back to me.
“He’s always been a person that I’ve always given a lot of credit to because of the discipline and the attention to detail. Him being a military-minded person and grew up in a military family. It was obvious that was how he was going to push the room and push the offense. It really helped me a lot.
Wade said “I had some rough moments where I couldn’t figure out the why. ‘Why are we doing this? ... “Sometimes it’s not about the why, it’s about doing what you’re told. That’s how you’re going to get production on offense. It’s great to work with him.”
The last time Babers was in Tucson was in 2019, when he spoke at Tomey’s memorial service at McKale Center. After moving back to Tucson, Babers visited his house that he designed near Broadway Boulevard and Houghton Road; the same family who bought his house in 2000 still lived there.
“The people answered the door and I said, ‘Hi, excuse me, this is going to sound weird but I used to live here’ — and they said, ‘Coach Babers!’’ Babers said. “’Can I just walk through the house and the yard?’”
One phone call took Babers from central New York back to his old stomping grounds when he thought about taking time off. A second act at Arizona “was too good to sit on the sidelines,” he added.
“When Coach Brennan got this job and made that call, I just want to make sure he gets off to a fast start here. I want him to be here forever,” Babers said. “The fastest way to do that is to be successful and get him to his next contract. If he gets one more (contract) after that, he’ll be good to go. My whole thing is making sure he gets a good foundation to get started on.
“And we really enjoy being in Tucson,” Babers said. “I love this place. We didn’t have to learn the fight song. We already knew it.”
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.
