According to various college football financial-tracking websites, 66 assistant coaches were paid $1 million or more this season. Arizona has never paid an assistant football coach $1 million.
This year, defensive coordinator Duane Akina was paid $785,000, offensive coordinator Dino Babers $500,000 and special teams coordinator Danny Gonzales $425,000. The only other UA assistant paid more than $400,000 was offensive line coach Josh Oglesby at $440,000. Jedd Fisch’s highest paid assistant at Arizona was offensive coordinator Brennan Carroll, at $775,000.
Arizona defensive coordinator Duane Akina directs his players during a fall preseason practice at the Dick Tomey Practice Fields.
Is this the year the UA breaks the bank and hires an offensive coordinator for $1 million? That seems to be the market rate for a top OC.
Belying his eight years as a head coach, Brent Brennan doesn’t have much experience in hiring/firing assistant coaches. Incredibly, Brennan dismissed just two assistant coaches in his seven years at San Jose State: defensive backs coach Aric Williams and offensive line coach Joe Bernardi, who both parted ways with SJSU after 2-11 and 1-11 seasons.
Brennan kept the same defensive coordinator, Derrick Odum, all seven years. His first offensive coordinator, Andrew Sowder, left for a job at Kent State after one year and was replaced by Kevin McGiven who is still the OC at San Jose State.
That’s almost unheard of. It’s the type of continuity Dick Tomey created at Arizona in the 1990s.
It’s now up to Brennan to create a similar aura of stability in his Arizona staff, which is as important as any upcoming transfer portal transaction.
