Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Here's to 10 good years at Arizona for Brent Brennan (though history says less)

The Star's longtime columnist on the potential longevity for Brent Brennan at Arizona, Tucson vs. Sunnyside in the first game of the season in boys' soccer, Dino Babers's triumphant return, a new role for Ricky Hunley on Brennan's staff in 2024 and more.

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History doesn't give college football coaches, like Arizona's Brent Brennan, much time

I’ve participated in or listened to about 10 recent Q&A sessions with Arizona football coach Brent Brennan, and each one included a variation of this question: Do you think this will be your last job?

Those questions should be asked with a Beatles song playing in the background: Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?

The numbers suggest that Brennan will leave Arizona in about five years. Numbers? From 1978-2023, Pac-12 schools have employed 97 head football coaches with an average tenure of 4.6 years.

Coaching college football isn’t a long-haul job.

Only seven of those 97 coaches at Pac-12 schools retired or stepped away from coaching in good standing: Oregon’s Mike Bellotti, UCLA’s Terry Donahue, Washington’s Don James and Chris Peterson, Colorado’s Bill McCartney and Stanford’s David Shaw. The only one with ties to Arizona is Jim Young, who left UA for Purdue, then finished his coaching career at Army.

That’s 6.2% who made it to the finish line unscathed.

Fifty-three were fired, including Arizona’s Dick Tomey and his former UA offensive line coach, Ron McBride, who then was the most successful football coach in Utah history (88-63 in 13 seasons). Much like Tomey, McBride found the school expected more-more-more and fired him in 2002.

Momma, don’t let your babies grow up to be football coaches.

Thirty-one of the 97 Pac-12 coaches left for better jobs, but many of those didn’t work out, such as WSU’s two-time Rose Bowl coach Mike Price at Alabama, Stanford’s Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame, Colorado’s Mel Tucker at Michigan State, Arizona’s Larry Smith at USC and Oregon’s Rich Brooks and Chip Kelly, both fired from NFL jobs.

Those who bolted the Pac-12 for the “big time’’’ had varying success.

ASU’s John Cooper went 111-43-4 at Ohio State, but that included just one Rose Bowl, which Buckeye fans never let him forget.

WSU’s Dennis Erickson went 63-9 at Miami but then became a job-hopper, ultimately getting fired for going 31-31 at Arizona State.

USC’s John Robinson won two national championships with the Trojans, bolted for the NFL, was fired, and returned to USC where he was fired after a 6-6 and 6-5 finish.

Good luck, Jedd Fisch.

Football coaches don’t necessarily get better with time, as Arizona should understand as much as any Pac-12 school.

Prior to this month, of the 31 UA head football coaches dating to Pop McKale in 1914, the three oldest when hired were John Mackovic, 57; Kevin Sumlin, 54; Rich Rodriguez, 49. All were fired, with RichRod’s six years the longest tenure.

So maybe it’s concerning that Brennan is the third oldest head coach Arizona has ever hired.

Brennan is 50, looks 40. But his gentle demeanor suggests he might not have a burn-out barrier, an anger-fueled, let-the-game-eat-you-up-inside approach as did Mackovic and Rodriguez.

Coaching college football has evolved mightily since McKale was hired at age 27. He was followed by 34-year old Fred Enke, 30-year-old Gus Farwick, 34-year-old Tex Oliver and 34-year-old Orian Landreth, and soon thereafter by 33-year-old Bob Winslow, 39-year-old Ed Doherty, 34-year-old Jim LaRue, 38-year-old Darrell Mudra, 35-year-old Bob Weber and the 38-year-old Jim Young.

It is now an older man’s game. At 50, Brennan is, in many ways, just getting started. Will he coach at Arizona until retirement, say 2040 or thereabouts? Brennan’s college coach at UCLA, Terry Donahue, was the only Pac-12 head football coach on the job for 20 years. He retired when he was 51.

Brennan turns 51 in March.

When I get older losing my hair;

Many years from now;

Will you still be sending me a Valentine;

Birthday greetings, bottle of wine.

Here’s to 10 good years, Brent Brennan.

Prep game of the year in Tucson: Blue Devils vs. Badgers

If you’re going to attend one high school sports event this year, any sport, let me suggest Thursday’s 6 p.m. boys soccer game, Sunnyside vs. Tucson, at the Blue Devils’ field.

Sunnyside, 19-0-1, is ranked No. 1 in Class 6A, the top classification in Arizona. It has outscored its opponents 112-12.

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Tucson, 16-1, is ranked No. 2 in 6A. It has outscored opponents 79-15.

Both Sunnyside coach Casey O’Brien (126-23-7) in his seventh year, and Tucson coach Ben Haouala (76-8-2) in his fourth year, have elevated their programs to Wolfgang Weber/Salpointe Catholic levels.

O’Brien led Sunnyside to the 2019 state championship with a 24-0-2 record. Haouala coached the Badgers to a 20-1 record in 2022, opening the season 20-0 before losing in the state semifinals.

Sunnyside is led by three prolific scorers: Angel Bracamonte-Pulido has 29 goals, Aaron Abarca has 26 and Johan Jimenez 23. The Badgers’ Christopher Arviza has 32 goals; the only player in Tucson with more goals is Salpointe junior Leo Gutierrez, 34.

If you can’t make Thursday’s game, the Blue Devils and Badgers will have a regular-season-ending rematch Feb. 5 on the THS pitch. And then perhaps there might be a rubber match in the 6A state championship game a few weeks later.

Babers returns to scene of triumph

Dino Babers was just 36 when he replaced the iconic Homer Smith as Arizona’s offensive coordinator in 1998. How’d it go? The Wildcats went 12-1, and Babers’ offense set UA school records with 32 points and 484 yards per game.

Now, 62, Babers is back in the same position. His numbers with the ‘98 Wildcats are about a push with Jedd Fisch’s UA offense of 2023 (34 points and 448 yards per game). Fisch bases his offense on that of San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan. Babers’ offense is an amalgam of the men he learned under the last 35 years.

He was fired at Syracuse this year not for offensive system failures, but because, like most fired coaches, he didn’t have enough good players. Previous Babers teams were very productive. In 2015, Babers’ offense at Bowling Green finished No. 4 nationally in points (42) and yards (561 per game). His 2018 Syracuse team averaged 41 points and 467 yards. So, yes, he is a skilled play-caller.

Arizona isn’t known as an offensive school in football, but if you rank the five best offensive coordinators in UA history, it’s an impressive group: 1, Sonny Dykes; 2, Steve Axman; 3, Homer Smith; 4, Babers; 5, Rich Rodriguez, who was the de facto offensive coordinator although Rod Smith officially held the title.

Short stuff I: Hunley to new role with UA football program 

• Ricky Hunley will return to the Arizona football staff this season, but not as a position coach. Hunley, who was the UA’s defensive line coach in 2021 and 2022, is likely to transition to be the executive director of player relations and external development activities. It’s a 2020s type of role, where Hunley’s engaging personality, football acumen and Hall of Fame career should be a home run.

• Brent Brennan’s first UA coaching staff includes new defensive line coach Joe Seumalo, who probably has more ties to UA football than anyone. Seumalo played for Dick Tomey at Hawaii in the mid-1980s, and coached under former UA defensive coordinator Rich Ellerson, a Salpointe Catholic grad, at Cal-Poly from 2001-04. Brennan was a receivers coach on those Cal Poly teams. Seumalo has subsequently coached at ASU, Oregon State, UNLV and San Jose State, all while his children built impressive football careers.

Seumalo’s son, Isaac Seumalo, was a starting center for the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl team of 2017 and now plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. His daughter, Jessie, is working toward next month’s Super Bowl in her role as the San Francisco 49ers’ player personnel coordinator. ...

• Pac-12 women’s basketball recruiters Anthony Turner of Arizona, Tre Simmons of Oregon and Jordan Sullivan of Utah attended last week’s Salpointe Catholic-Flowing Wells game to see Salpointe’s Taliyah Henderson score 20 points. Henderson, who is also being recruited by No. 2 Iowa, is probably Tucson’s top girls basketball college prospect since Salpointe’s Sybil Dosty 20 years ago. Meanwhile, Adia Barnes sent assistant coach Bett Shelby to Logan, Utah, last Tuesday to watch Ridgeline High point guard Emilee Skinner score 27 points. Skinner is probably the top point guard recruit in the West. Full disclosure: My brother, Mike Hansen, is the athletic director at Ridgeline. Asked about Skinner and her college potential, he says “She’s a game changer; whoever gets her is going to be very happy.’’

Short stuff II: Beavers' Top 10 hex on UA; Mickelson's 1991 amateur run in Tucson

• Arizona’s somewhat perplexing loss against a bad Oregon State team Thursday in Corvallis can’t possibly be defined as a shocker. It’s a hex of some sort, isn’t it? Here’s a list — a mere four games — of OSU’s victories over Top 10 opponents the last 25 years:

— 2024: OSU 83, No. 9 Arizona 80

— 2015: OSU 58, No. 7 Arizona 56

— 2000: OSU 70, No. 3 Arizona 69

— 1999: OSU 60, No. 9 Arizona 59

Those OSU teams were not good. The ’99 Beavers went 7-11 in conference; the ’00 Beavers were 5-13 in conference; the ’15 Beavers were 8-10 in conference. Is it the ghosts of Gill Coliseum? Nonsense. Gill Coliseum hasn’t been a difficult venue for opposing teams since 1990. If you've got an explanation, let's hear it.

• I strongly remember the 1991 Tucson Open, played at Starr Pass, when ASU junior Phil Mickelson beat veteran pros Bob Tway and Tom Purtzer by a stroke with a birdie at the 18th hole. The boyish-looking Mickelson opened the press conference by saying he would remain an amateur and not accept the $180,000 first-place check. “I’m on scholarship,’’ he said, drawing laughs from reporters. Last week, Alabama sophomore Nick Dunlap won the American Express Open and did not get a cent. How times change. First place last week was worth $1.5 million. Maybe that’s why Dunlap turned pro last week. Mickelson has turned out OK. His official money winnings on the PGA Tour, with 44 victories, is $97 million.

My two cents: More absurd examples of lavish spending in college sports

The lavish spending in college sports that strongly contributed to the firing of Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke has many absurd examples. Here’s one: the Washington Huskies are paying Jedd Fisch $200,000 for moving expenses to Seattle.

When your base salary is about $7.7 million per year, isn’t that a bit excessive?

Heeke was forever proactive in trying to create more revenue in the spend-spend-spend world of college sports. He began serious conversations to rename Arizona Stadium and McKale Center, which could create about $5 million annual in revenue.

That’s a move that won’t be unanimously popular in Tucson. I would expect the next AD will get negative feedback when he/she inevitably announces Arizona Stadium will be called, say, Casino del Sol Stadium. And that sacred McKale Center will be officially known as “McKale Center presented by, say, Tucson Federal Credit Union.’’

Six years ago, UCLA took the unpopular step of renaming John Wooden’s holy turf, Pauley Pavilion, “Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom.’’ The Los Angeles-area credit union is paying $38 million over 10 years to get its name painted on the floor at Pauley.

Expect the same at McKale in the next year or two.