The biggest knock I continue to hear about Brent Brennan isn’t about play-calling, substandard recruiting, lopsided losses or wearing those Polynesian leis.
It’s about his sideline presence. Or lack thereof. He doesn’t get angry. He doesn’t celebrate. Judging from Brennan’s demeanor, you can’t tell if the Wildcats are up 28-0 or trailing 41-3.
I didn’t keep the statistics, but while watching a replay of the UA-ASU game, I swear Fox cameras focused on demonstrative ASU coach Kenny Dillingham 20 to 25 times. Brennan? Twice.
Dillingham was painted as a rising coaching star. Brennan, Mr. Nice Guy, was as invisible as the UA football program.
Arizona coach Brent Brennan talks to one of his assistants during the Wildcats’ 56-12 loss to UCF on Nov. 2, 2024, in Orlando, Fla.
This is a dramatic change from previous UA coaches Mike Stoops and Rich Rodriguez, who led the Pac-12 in sideline tantrums to the excess that Stoops actually received therapy for anger management. And RichRod was far worse than Stoops; RichRod was fired, in part, for maintaining a hostile work environment.
I’ll take Mr. Nice Guy every time.
Brennan’s sideline demeanor reminds me of a “Seinfeld” episode when Jerry’s girlfriend chides him for never getting angry.
“Oh I get peeved,” Seinfeld says. “I get miffed. Irked.”
Brennan is in the peeved/miffed/irked mold.
If there’s a problem, and I think there is, it’s that football coaches are traditionally loud and demonstrative. That’s part of the game’s soul. Brennan’s predecessor, Jedd Fisch, actually had less sideline presence than Brennan. Fisch looks every bit the part of a tennis player, which was his boyhood sport.
But once Fisch puts on a visor, doesn’t shave for a week, tugs at his headphones and holds a play-calling chart in front of his face, he looks like a legit football coach. Brennan? No headphones. No unshaven face. No play-calling chart. No visor.
Brennan is probably the nicest guy in college football, which is not what UA fans want to see. Even nice guys can get more than irked. I remember UA baseball coach Jerry Kindall, one of the nicest men on the planet, getting ejected from a home game against Cal State Fullerton, shouting at the umpire as he walked off the field and out of the stadium.
Perhaps Brennan needs to attend an “express yourself” therapy class.
Some of the most successful coaches in 50 years of Pac-12 football were nice and pleasant guys, such as UCLA’s Terry Donahue, Arizona’s Dick Tomey, Washington’s Don James and Stanford’s David Shaw. But they weren’t nice guys to a fault; even Tomey could unleash an I’m-mad-as-hell-and-I’m-not-going-to-take-this-anymore tirade.
They were nice but not softies.
I’m not in the counseling business, but I would recommend that Brennan show up for the 2025 season with a hard edge — not an over-the-top RichRod hard edge — but at least with a different look. Some emotion would help considerably.
Put on a cap, backward if needed (Tomey did that). Study sideline films of elite NFL hotheads Mike Ditka, Bill Cowher and Bill Parcells. Examine video of Utah’s silent warrior Kyle Whittingham, who leads the NCAA in expressions of distress, with flared nostrils, clenched teeth and furrowed brows.
Brennan doesn’t need to be unnecessarily aggressive. But being aggressive would be a nice change. As Hall of Fame baseball manager Leo Durocher famously said “Nice guys finish last.”
Or, as in Arizona’s case this season, tied for 13th place.
