Arizona linebackers learning 'dominant contact' mantra under Josh Bringuel

Josh Bringuel always knew he wanted to coach football.

He recalls having that desire as far back as 2004, when he drew up plays for his flag football team in his father’s work notebook while the older Bringuel dropped off ballots for the presidential election.

Josh Bringuel (pronounced bring-GALE), now the linebackers coach for the Arizona Wildcats, was “6 or 7 years old” at the time.

“From an early age, I knew I wanted to be a coach,” said Bringuel.

If Bringuel wasn’t coaching college football, he’d be a teacher and high school football coach.

“Great coaches are great teachers,” Bringuel said. “We just get to have a little fun being on the grass.”

Bringuel, a San Jose, California native, signed with San Diego State in 2016 to play linebacker and edge rusher for the Aztecs’ Rocky Long-inspired 3-3-5 defense with disguised blitzes from the linebackers and defensive backs. Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales, who was the Aztecs’ defensive play-caller in 2017, led SDSU to finish the season 17th in college football in total defense.

However, Bringuel’s college career “was short-lived” due to injuries, he said.

“No one wants to get medically retired ... but if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be here,” said Bringuel. “I got to get a jumpstart on my coaching career and I got very lucky to get started, with (San Diego State head coach) Brady Hoke giving me my first official job as a coach, and I got jumpstart. ... In the moment you’re not happy about it, but looking back I’m like, ‘Wow, I wouldn’t be here with this amazing staff, this amazing group of players.’ It’s funny how it all works out. You just work hard and things work out.”

Prior to his stop at Arizona, Bringuel was an assistant linebackers coach at Nebraska in 2024 after a season as the Cornhuskers’ defensive quality control coach. Before Nebraska, Bringuel was a graduate assistant at Syracuse under former Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White, who’s now at Florida State.

Reuniting with “an elite football mind” in Gonzales, who is working with Arizona’s linebackers and safeties, “is really cool,” Bringuel said.

“Coach Gonzales, one of his elite traits is being able to relate to his players and relate to his coaches,” Bringuel said. “He’s a great person first and foremost, a great father, a great husband and you see that when you first come to him as a player. ... Getting the opportunity to get back with him was a really special thing for me.”

Bringuel said “the ethos” of Arizona’s defense is similar to the defense he played in at San Diego State. It’s “free, fast and aggressive” and “there’s a lot of similarities, but there’s a lot of cool intricacies that evolved when he went off and did his thing (after San Diego State),” Bringuel said.

“That’s what’s cool about this defense, is that it was different year-to-year when I played in it,” he added.

Bringuel inherited a linebacker group that lost ringleader Jacob Manu, who transferred to Washington following a productive career at Arizona that ended with a season-ending knee injury, and Kamuela Ka’aihue.

Arizona’s linebackers are now led by junior Taye Brown, who had 69 tackles and 2.5 sacks as a starter last season, Montana transfer Riley Wilson, Texas State transfer Max Harris, former edge rusher Chase Kennedy, redshirt freshmen Jabari Mann and Stacy Bey, redshirt sophomore Leviticus Su’a, Northwestern State transfer Blake Gotcher and redshirt senior Justin Flowe, among others.

Brown, Wilson, Harris and Kennedy have been the top contributors at linebacker for Arizona this spring.

When Bringuel first started coaching Arizona’s linebackers this spring, “they were really intentional with how much they care and how much they want to be great,” he said.

“Something I coach in the classroom, I can see them deliberately practicing it on the field,” Bringuel said.

Working with Coach Bringuel “has been very good for me,” said Harris. “He has a lot of knowledge and he played in the defense, so he knows the ins and outs of it.”

Bringuel is “huge on running to the ball, playing with effort and dominant contact,” Brown said.

What’s dominant contact?

“He wants us going through guys and not catching guys or bracing for guys,” Brown said. “He wants us to go through guys and that’s something I can improve on. I feel like I see the game pretty well, I just need to be more aggressive and more downhill and things like that.”

Dominant contact is “a mentality and a technique,” Bringuel said.

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“You’ve gotta have that mentality of, ‘I’m running over there to the ball and not because coach is yelling at me to run to the ball,’” Bringuel said. “’We’re running to the ball and we’re going to stripe people. We’re playing with violence.’ That’s the mentality aspect of it. The technique aspect of it is how do you generate the most force on contact? That’s body position.”

Bringuel said Brown is “a phenomenal example of putting time in the classroom and that allows you to play fast on the field.”

“You’ll see him breaking on passes before the ball is even thrown,” said Arizona’s linebackers coach. “He has an elite sense, because he puts the work in.”

The next gear for the 6-2, 231-pound Brown as the leader of Arizona’s defense is “playing with consistent dominant contact, because he’s a big, strong and physical guy,” Bringuel said.

“Now it’s just letting him come out of himself and play with dominant contact and be that dude out on the grass, because he’s a great leader and everyone respects him for how hard he works and the work he puts in day in and day out,” Bringuel added.

Harris’ college journey ‘has been a ride’

The UA is Harris’ fourth school in as many years.

After starting his childhood in Montgomery, Alabama, Harris moved to Arlington, Texas, where “I fell in love with the game, because I had coaches believe me in at a young age, push me and help me with the details ever since I was little,” Harris said.

Then a safety, Harris signed with Incarnate Word in San Antonio and started as a true freshman, then played his sophomore season at Louisiana Monroe and his junior season at Texas State, where he had 44 tackles and a forced fumble.

“My college journey has been a ride,” Harris said. “Coming out of high school, I wasn’t highly recruited. ... Playing at these schools increased my knowledge of the game, and that’s what I’m hoping to do here, as well.”

But “ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to challenge myself to play at the Power 4 level,” Harris said. Despite changing scenery every year, “I’ve adjusted well to things,” he said.

“Football has helped me do that,” said Harris. “There’s things you can do on the football field and prepare all week, then they come out with a whole different (offense). That’s how I approached it. I apply football to the game of life a lot.”

UA leaning into skillset of Kennedy, Wilson

Kennedy and Wilson add an edge-rushing component to Arizona’s linebackers corps.

Wilson, a Prosper, Texas product, played three seasons at Hawaii before transferring to Montana, where he became a Second-Team All-Big Sky selection. Wilson had the second-most tackles for loss (15) in the Big Sky in 2023 and finished his Montana career with 136 tackles and 26.5 stops for loss.

“Ever since he got here, he’s always had a lot of juice and you can tell he really loves the game,” Brown said of Wilson.

Kennedy played in 10 games at defensive end for Arizona last season after transferring from Utah. In the second half of the season, Kennedy’s position evolved into a stand-up defensive end or a blitzing outside linebacker.

“When I was coming off the edge, it was a lot of third-down stuff,” Kennedy said. “So I have to work on pass-rush and dropping back in coverage, reading runs, things of that nature. I’m evolving and just adding tools to the toolbox.”

Kennedy “is a great player and gifted athletically,” Brown said.

“He can bring a different side to it,” said Brown. “He’s great at pass-rushing and stuff like that, so he can really bring that to the table.”

Added Bringuel: (Kennedy) “does have an elite skillset and we should encourage those and lean into those as coaches. We should also develop those traits that still need to be developed.”

Depending on the matchup in the upcoming season, Arizona will rely on Wilson and Kennedy’s skillset in a three-linebacker lineup.

“I love the fact that we’re really dynamic and we all bring something different,” Harris said. “My style of play might be different than Riley and Taye. Now we’re all on the field? It just causes havoc.”