Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Bill Belichick makes return visit to UA, which has become Head Coach U

The Star's longtime columnist on why Arizona is Head Coach U in football (seriously!), why the Cats were smart to be proactive in their infractions case, and how Azoulas Tubelis is a Pac-12 rarity:

30 years later, Belichick revisits Head Coach U

Six large tour buses carrying the New England Patriots and their support staff parked on National Championship Drive adjacent to Arizona Stadium early Wednesday afternoon.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick probably took a look around and thought, "I remember this place."

In May 1992, Belichick, then the first-year head coach of the Cleveland Browns, walked into Arizona Stadium on pro day. He had flown to Tucson to scout UA receiver/kick returner Michael Bates of Amphitheater High School.

But before Belichick left Tucson, his purpose changed. It’s unclear what he thought of Bates — who went on to become a five-time NFL Pro Bowl standout — but he was impressed by UA offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Pat Hill.

Belichick offered Hill a job coaching Cleveland’s offensive line and within a month Hill had sold his house and moved to Cleveland. HIll is one of 25 former Arizona assistant coaches who went on to become a head coach; he left the Browns to become the head coach at Fresno State from 1997-2011

The UA football program is no one’s idea of the Cradle of Coaches. its coaching tree isn’t a giant Sequoia like that at Ohio State or Michigan. But when Arizona coach Mike Stoops’ 2011 defensive back coach, Ryan Walters, last week left a similar role at Illinois to become the head coach at Purdue, it added further esteem for those who have coached at Arizona.

In order, here’s the full list of UA assistant coaches who became college head coaches:

Max Spilsbury, 1955, became the head coach at NAU.

Ed Cavanaugh, 1959-66, became the head coach at Idaho State and Army.

Bob Weber, 1967-69, became the head coach at Arizona and Louisville.

Larry Smith, 1973-75, became the head coach at Tulane, Arizona, USC and Missouri.

John Mackovic, 1973-76, became the head coach at Illinois, Texas and Arizona.

Mike Gottfried, 1977, became the head coach at Kansas.

Bob Davie, 1979, became the head coach at Notre Dame and New Mexico.

Chuck Amato,1980-81, became the head coach at North Carolina State.

Steve Axman, 1980-84, became the head coach at NAU.

Moe Ankney, 1980-85, became the head coach at Bowling Green.

Ron McBride, 1987-89, became the head coach at Utah.

Dave Fagg, 1987-89, became the head coach at Davidson.

Rip Scherer, 1987-89, became the head coach at James Madison and Memphis.

Pat Hill, 1990-91, became the head coach at Fresno State.

Jeff Woodruff, 1998-99, became the head coach at Eastern Michigan.

Rich Ellerson, 1992-2000, became the head coach at Southern Utah, Cal Poly and Army.

Dino Babers, 1995-2000, became the head coach at Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green and Syracuse.

Josh Heupel, 2005, became the head coach at Central Florida and Tennessee.

Dana Dimel, 2005-09, became the head coach at UTEP.

Mark Stoops, 2004-09, became the head coach at Kentucky.

Sonny Dykes, 2007-10, became the head coach at Louisiana Tech, Cal, SMU and TCU.

Ryan Walters, 2011, became the head coach at Purdue.

Seth Littrell, 2009-11, became the head coach at North Texas.

Charlie Ragle, 2013-15, became the head coach at Idaho State.

Don Brown, 2021, became the head coach at UMass.

Head Coach U., anybody?

Proactive Cats avoided a further postseason ban

The NCAA infractions committee, founded in 1951, used to be the college sports version of a hanging judge, dealing extreme punishments for 50 years. There was little wrist-slapping.

Pac-12 teams have been punished 62 times over that period; 33 times, they've been hit with postseason bans.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

But things subtly began to change 20 years ago. Since then, the NCAA has penalized Pac-12 teams 21 times, but only three were given postseason bans: USC’s football program in 2010; ASU’s baseball program in 2009; and Cal’s football program of 2002.

Now most schools are proactive during investigations, eliminating personnel and imposing recruiting reductions while enforcement agencies — in Arizona's case, it was the Independent Accountability Resolution Process — dawdle. It took 1,904 days for the Arizona basketball case to resolve.

The most postseason bans in Pac-12 history? Arizona State has seven times been so punished.

The Sun Devils’ football program of 1954 got a one-year ban; its football program of 1959 got a two year-ban; ASU’s track team of 1980 got a one-year ban, followed by another one-year ban in 1988 and another one-year penalty in 1997; its baseball team was similarly penalized in 1985 and 2009.

Stanford is the only Pac-12 school to avoid a postseason ban over that 71-year period.

Schools have been conditioned to create their own compliance rules. For example, UA basketball coach Tommy Lloyd has a clause in his contract that says he can be fired for "failure to maintain high levels of integrity, honesty, moral character, professionalism and dedication to the university."

That should now be standard language in the contract of every college head coach.

Wildcats host Flowe brothers

One year after Arizona football coach Jedd Fisch signed five-star tight end Tetairoa McMillan, the highest-ranked UA football recruit in the Rivals.com era, the UA is hosting Class of 2019 five-star linebacker Justin Flowe this weekend. Flowe, who made 35 tackles for the Oregon Ducks this season, bolted the Ducks and entered the transfer portal two weeks ago. When he graduated from SoCal’s Upland High School in 2020, Flowe was ranked as the No. 10 prospect in America, the second-highest player Oregon has ever signed. Flowe’s Oregon career was scuttled by a season-ending injury in 2021 and by the shortened COVID-19 season of 2020. If Fisch can sign Flowe he will probably also get his brother, ex-Ducks defensive back Jonathan Flowe, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2021 who redshirted this season in Oregon. Both are in Tucson this weekend. …

USC's addition of Barrs shows how hard it is to recruit DLs

Why would USC sign former Arizona defensive lineman Kyon Barrs, who was not among the six Wildcats chosen to the All-Pac-12 honorable mention team of 2022? Barrs, who does not appear to be an NFL prospect, made 23 starts in four seasons for an Arizona defense sorely lacking skilled defensive linemen. But the defensive line is the most difficult position to recruit and even though Barrs is probably a step too slow and not athletic enough to start for a standard USC team, he can be, at minimum, a solid player for 20 snaps a game for his one remaining college season. Arizona signed Barrs four months after letter-of-intent day in 2019. He was not given a star-rating by Rivals.com and had scholarship offers from Florida Atlantic and Portland State before signing with the Wildcats. …

UA's gauntlet starts Sunday

Four of Adia Barnes' next nine games as Arizona’s women’s basketball coach are about as difficult as it gets. On Sunday at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN, the Wildcats play No. 18 Baylor on a neutral court near Dallas. How good is Baylor? The Bears have gone 195-23 in nonconference games the last 12 seasons, and have played in four Final Fours and six Elite Eights the last 18 seasons. That game will be followed Jan. 2 at No. 2 Stanford, a week later at McKale Center against No. 16 Oregon and a week after that will be a showdown in Salt Lake City against the Pac-12’s rising program, No. 13 Utah, which has a reasonably good chance to be 16-0 on the day of that game, Jan. 15. We’ll soon discover if last week’s stunning 77-50 McKale Center loss to Kansas was a one-game slip or a look into the future.

Arizona's Azoulas Tubelis a Pac-12 rarity

When Azuolas Tubelis became the 53rd Arizona player to score 1,000 career points last week, Arizona inched closer to catching UCLA, the Pac-12 leader with 57 1,000 point scorers. After that it’s Utah with 40, Oregon with 38 and ASU with 37. Duke has 67. Those 1,000-point scorers at one school are going to become more and more rare, given the transfer portal and early entrees into the NBA Draft. It’s likely Tubelis is the only player on the current UA roster who will score 1,000 points as a Wildcat. The next Pac-12 player on target to score 1,000 is Utah’s Branden Carlson, who had 939 points through Friday. ….

Bianca Pagdanganan impresses

Bianca Pagdanganan was probably Arizona’s best golfer on its 2018 NCAA championship team. She finished second in the NCAA individual finals and made an epic eagle at the 18th hole, putting Arizona into a playoff for the final spot in the match play championships. But at the grueling, eight-round LPGA Qualifying Tournament last week, Pagdanganan missed earning her 2023 LPGA Tour Card by one stroke. She was terrific for seven days, shooting rounds of 68,73, 68, 67, 73, 68 and 68. But in the middle of that eight-day showdown, she shot an 80. That’s how tough it is to be an LPGA Tour regular. Pagdanganan’s 2018 title-winning Arizona teammate, Yu Sang-Hou, earned her 2023 LGPA Tour card last week, shooting 19-under par to finish 12th overall. The top 24 made it. …

'Legends' in LIV's Dove Mountain tournament

When the LIV golf tour officially announced it will play at Dove Mountain’s Gallery Golf Club March 17-19, it barely got a shrug in Tucson. The event won’t be televised. The LIV organization issued a press release referring to Abraham Ancer among the "golfing legends" in the field with Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Cam Smith, who, at 29, is hardly a golf legend. If you plan to attend, entry to the Birdie Shack hospitality area will cost $150-225 a day. The Gallery Club area will cost $225-325 a day and the Club 54 will cost $600-700 per day. My guess is that plenty of tickets will be available.

My two cents: ASU's Kenny Dillingham breaks the mold with coaching hires

Let’s say that 20 years ago, Arizona football coach John Mackovic hired a coaching staff that included state championship Tucson high school coaches Jeff Scurran of Sabino High School, Howard Breinig of Sahuaro High School, Richard Sanchez of Sunnyside High School and Wayne Jones of Mountain View High School.

The public reaction would’ve been loud and negative, not because those men weren’t superb coaches, but because almost no Power 5 school has ever gone with a locally-heavy, high school-tinted coaching staff.

But that’s essentially what Arizona State’s new head coach, Kenny Dillingham, did in recent weeks, hiring uber-successful Phoenix-area high school coaches of the last decade: Jason Mohns of Scottsdale Saguaro, Charlie Ragle of Scottsdale Chaparral and Shaun Aguano of Chandler (and later ASU).

Dillingham further concentrated on hiring Phoenix football blood by acquiring Vince Amey, who played at ASU and coached at three Phoenix-area high schools as well as at Arizona and Idaho State, and signing former Glendale Community College players A.J. Cooper and Brian Ward, both from the Washington State staff.

On paper, the Sun Devils have the least impressive coaching staff in the Pac-12. Dillingham did hire 27-year-old Los Angeles Rams running backs coach Ra’Shaad Sample and Cal Poly head coach Beau Baldwin, but his 10-man staff strays from the hire-the-best-man-available routine that most Power 5 coaches follow.

It is surely a staff whose strength will be local recruiting as opposed to on-field coaching and development. By comparison, Fisch’s current Arizona staff includes four former NFL coaches, a former NFL running back, three coaches from UCLA and another from the Washington Huskies.

Hiring a 32-year-old, first-year coach like Dillingham comes with a risk, as does hiring a staff heavy on local coaches with as much or more high school experience as college experience.

Will it work? If nothing else, it will be fun to see if Dillingham can break the same-old, same-old mold. At this point, what do the forever-mediocre Sun Devils have to lose?