Duane Akina replaces Ricky Hunley as one of Arizona football's on-field coaches in 2023

When Arizona hired senior defensive analyst and “Desert Swarm” assistant Duane Akina in February, the Wildcats were under the impression the NCAA would potentially alter its rules on the number of on-field coaches permitted per team.

Due to the current NCAA ruling, which doesn’t allow analysts to personally coach players, Akina will temporarily become one of the Wildcats’ 10 on-field coaches and “he’ll be very active with the (defensive) secondary” and work with safeties coach Chuck Cecil and first-year cornerbacks coach John Richardson.

“The three of them will be working together and running the back end,” Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch told the Star.

Akina takes the on-field coaching spot of UA great and defensive line coach Ricky Hunley, who is recovering from knee surgery and will will have a “senior assistant role” this season. Outside linebackers and defensive ends coach Jason Kaufusi will lead the Wildcats’ entire defensive front, with additional assistance from defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen. Fisch said at Arizona media day on Tuesday that Hunley will continue to assist the Wildcats in recruiting players.

“Coach Hunley has an amazing opportunity to help us in so many different ways,” Fisch told the Star prior to media day. “He’s not only the most connected guy in Tucson, he’s an incredible mentor for the kids. He’ll have an opportunity to work with our whole defense rather than the interior D-line.

“We thought it was going to be a huge advantage — kind of initially the reason we brought in Coach Akina, a real experienced guy. (Hunley) will come in and help not just the D-line, but he has a linebacker perspective as a former linebacker. He’s a former coordinator, so he gives us perspective there, and he can dip into the community. We can use him at events and opportunities to connect with all members of the community. He can almost free up all of his time. He’s also been very involved in our camps and academics, so he’s doing a good job of monitoring and mentoring certain areas.”

Hunley was sidelined for the entirety of spring ball to rehab a knee surgery. Hunley also cited reoccurring blood clots in his legs that have hindered him from coaching. The Arizona defensive line coach lauded Fisch as “the type of coach that is aware of his coaches’ health situations.”

“I missed all of spring, and you’ve got to able to have someone coach the guys consistently,” Hunley said. “If all of a sudden my knee flares up and you have a history of clots, you don’t want to run the risk of making it worse. ... We’ll see how it goes. It’s smart to play it the right way instead of saying, ‘I’m going to try all of this,’ then it doesn’t work. You can’t interrupt the flow of getting ready for the season. The most important thing is getting these guys ready to play.”

Added Hunley: “When you’re not concerned or worried about your health, you’re a lot more energetic and intuit, but when you have to take care of your body, you have to take care of your body. If you’re not going to take care of your body, then who’s going to do it?”

Before Akina’s first stint at Arizona, which spanned 14 seasons from 1987-2000, he spent five seasons as a defensive assistant under former UA head coach Dick Tomey at Hawaii, followed by one season with the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders. Hunley referred to Akina as “an old head — an O.G. (original gangster).”

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“He brings years and years and years of experience, and we’re thrilled to have him around,” Hunley said. “It makes a world of a difference having another guy like that in the room.”

At Arizona, Akina held multiple roles, including defensive backs coach, associate head coach, defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator.

Following the 2000 season, Akina had a similar role under Mack Brown at Texas. Most recently, Akina worked for David Shaw as Stanford’s defensive backs coach from 2014-22. The 66-year-old Akina mentored three Jim Thorpe Award winners: Darryll Lewis (Arizona), Michael Huff (Texas) and Aaron Ross (Texas). Akina compiled footage of the aforementioned players, along with former standouts — or the who’s who — he coached, such as Chris McAlister, Quentin Jammer, Brandon Sanders and Earl Thomas, and created a “gold reel” he often shows to players.

Akina said he’s “here to support Johnny, the secondary coaches ... and blend what we’ve done here in the past, what we’ve done at Texas, what I’ve done at Stanford in the throwing aspect of it and cancelling gaps — all of those systems, Arizona football went with it.”

Nansen called Akina an “unbelievable teacher.”

“He’s going to be a person that I can count on and help out, because of all of the experience he’s had in this league. He’s been in this league for a long time. The passion that he’s got for the University of Arizona is unbelievable. The guy has more juice — I try to match his juice every morning when he gets in the building. The kids are feeling that, and I’m excited to have Duane as one of our coaches.”

Fisch said Akina’s most important traits as a coach include “great passion and energy and experience and knowledge.”

“It gives you all four spots — all four prongs on the fork that you’re looking for when you’re bringing in a coach to help your program,” Fisch said. “The energy, enthusiasm and confidence he brings is great. All of the people he’s coached, it brings automatic respect from the players, and he has a way to really connect with the guys and demand excellence.”