Brent Brennan 'incredibly honored to be the head coach at the University of Arizona'

The feeling of "I'm the head coach of Arizona football" didn't settle in for Brent Brennan until Wednesday morning, less than a day after he was hired.

After all, the process of interviewing the former San Jose State head coach for the job, flying to California to sign Brennan and return back with Arizona's new football coach took less than three days. As Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke put it, "it was a swift process." 

Flanked by Ben Thienes, Brennan's first official staff member at the UA after serving as San Jose State's director of football operations, the 31st head coach in UA football history "got off the elevator in the wrong place" in the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility attached to Arizona Stadium.

"We ended up outside on the concourse (facing inside the stadium)," said Brennan, who was formally introduced as Arizona's head coach on Wednesday.

Brennan looked ahead at a graphic of himself wearing a photoshopped UA polo shirt on the 5,356-square-foot video board at Arizona Stadium, with sun rays peaking through the stadium for a symbolic moment.

The feeling sunk in. 

"That was it. I was like, 'Oh my God, let's go!' I was so stoked," Brennan said. "Ben and I were laughing and then we walked over to the cafeteria and met some of the players and got a cup of coffee. But that was that moment for me." 

Just about every emotion was felt at Arizona Stadium on Wednesday as Brennan was introduced to UA athletic department staff, fellow coaches, boosters and local media.

Up on the dais, there were smiles and there were laughs. There were even a few tears — first when Heeke choked up talking about the legacy left behind by the late UA coaching icon Dick Tomey, the winningest head coach in program history. Then, Brennan himself nearly broke into tears when he glanced at Tomey's wife, Nancy, who sat front row at the introductory press conference.  

"I don't think very often in your life when you work, you think about someone every day. But that's what Coach Tomey has been for me. Every single day, I think about, 'What would Coach T do here? Coach T would kill you for what just happened in this game.' That kind of stuff," Brennan said. "People make the place. And Dick and Nancy made this place home for a very long time and obviously did a lot of incredible things with the football program."

Added Brennan: "So much of how I'm built is because of what he instilled in me, and really it starts with loving your players and caring about your players. It's about person first, player second. And that's how I built every program or every position group I've ever been a part of."

Brennan was a graduate assistant under Tomey in 2000 and "shared a supply closet" with ex-Wildcat defensive back and fellow GA Dave Fipp, who Brennan called "one of the Tomey guys." Brennan's brother, Brad Brennan, played wide receiver for the Wildcats from 1996-2000. The younger Brennan caught a go-ahead touchdown pass in Arizona's win over Nebraska in the 1998 Holiday Bowl; the UA's 12-1 season remains the best record in program history. 

After Tomey's firing in 2000, the older Brennan followed former Arizona assistant Rich Ellerson to Cal Poly for four years and then reunited with Tomey at San Jose State in 2005 as a wide receivers coach, before coaching wide receivers at Oregon State under Mike Riley. 

As a head coach at San Jose State, the 50-year-old Brennan posted a 34-48 record, including a 27-19 mark over his last four seasons. He was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year in 2020. The Spartans had back-to-back seven-win seasons in ’22 and ’23, while going 7-1 overall in the pandemic-impacted 2020 season.

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"All these people had a real impact on my process and my development as a coach, but none other than Coach Tomey," Brennan said, "because even if I was away from him, I always heard from him.

"He always had all these lessons for me and they just never stopped." 

Although Brennan hails from Redwood City, California, and is a former UCLA wide receiver, he's home. His wife, Courtney, is a UA alumna. They got married in Tucson — and they're go-to date-night was eating dinner at Wildflower. 

Back as a Tucson resident for the first time in over two decades, Brennan was introduced Wednesday as Arizona's next leader, succeeding Washington's Jedd Fisch after three seasons in Tucson. Brennan's contract is worth $17.5 million total over five years, pending approval from Arizona Board of Regents; his base salary in his debut season will be $2.2 million. 

With UA football greats Chuck Cecil, Ricky Hunley, Brandon Sanders and Glenn Parker, among others in attendance, along with softball coaching legend Mike Candrea, Arizona women's basketball head coach Adia Barnes and baseball head coach Chip Hale, Brennan was welcomed to the UA coaching family. Cecil greeted and hugged Nancy Tomey in the moments after Brennan's press conference. 

"It's a landmark day for Arizona football, Arizona athletics, our institution, Southern Arizona and certainly the city of Tucson," Heeke said. "I'm thrilled, I'm excited, I'm proud to have our new head coach, to have Brent Brennan as our head coach leader of this football program. ... You'll love what he stands for and the vision of excellence that he has.

"It's more than just football in his life, but football is a big part of it," Heeke added. "He's authentic, he's genuine, he's a real person, he's a man of highest integrity, great character. He cares about people. I've learned that in my time around Brent. He invests in relationships and invests in people. That's important. That goes a long way." 

Nancy Tomey said she's "delighted (Brennan) ended up here, because I think this is his dream destination."

She said she "believed that from the very beginning," adding "they loved it here and they come back already loving it, so they don't have to learn to love it. I think he's going to do a great job."

What Brennan accomplishes — or doesn't accomplish — at Arizona in the program's Big 12 era remains to be seen. But the Wildcats officially begin chapter No. 31 of their program history with Brennan at the helm. 

"All I can say is that I am incredibly honored to be the head coach at the University of Arizona," Brennan said. "This is an amazing moment for me. I'm trying to get to know the team.

"I absolutely believe we can build a consistent winner here. We have everything you need to do that," he said. "I promise we're going to have great leaders, mentors and developers of talent in the building to help (the players) get to where they want to go and elevate our program as high as we can.

"Lots of schools talk about family and I think it's a cliche thing in the football world. I don't think anybody did it better than Coach Tomey," he added. "That's what we're going to continue to do. We're going to double-down on family, double-down on loving each other and caring about each other, and we will build something that I know you can be proud of."