This time a year ago, Brent Brennan arrived at Big 12 Football Media Days in Las Vegas excited as the newly minuted head coach at the University of Arizona. A year later, Brennan arrived at the 2025 Big 12 Football Media Days in Frisco with a much deeper understanding of what it takes to lead a Power 4 football program, and an Arizona team that belongs to him, his upgraded staff, and his veteran leaders like quarterback Noah Fifita, and defensive backs Genesis Smith, Dalton Johnson, and Treydan Stukes.
“I would say we learned a lot in our first year at Arizona. The biggest thing maybe I learned is it just transition is challenging, transition is hard. There’s lots of things that I could have done better as a head football coach, as the leader of the program that I have a better understanding now of what that looks like and exactly which way we’re going to do it.”
Coming off a 10-win season, Alamo Bowl victory, and the emergence of quarterback Noah Fifita in 2023, Arizona was projected to finish fifth in its inaugural season in the Big 12 last year, before finishing 13th in the league with a 4-8 record. Brent Brennan was the first to acknowledge the 2024 season’s shortcomings, and outlining critical coaching and personnel changes he thinks will have the Wildcats back on track in 2025.
“Well, I think it starts with the decisions we made with the coaching staff. I think our new defensive coordinator, Danny Gonzales, I’m really excited about his process with our team so far. I’m excited about Seth Doege and our offense. Just kind of the aggressive, explosive offense that we want to play at U of A. And then I’m also excited about Craig Naivar and what he’s doing with our kicking game. I think it starts with them, but then I also think about Noah Fifita being a year older, a year more mature. {I} think the consistency of our coaching staff, our leadership and the team knowing what my expectations are and how we’re going to do things going forward. I think it’s a lot cleaner right now than it was a year ago. And I’m optimistic about how this season’s going to go”
Brennan added when the team returned to campus following the holiday break in December, there were three things he and the newly restructured coaching staff were looking for:
“We started with a really simple, fundamental thought and that was we want guys that want to be at the University of Arizona, that are tough and believe in this program, and really, truly want to be here. The idea that we’re going to chase guys in and out of the portal every year…I just don’t think that gives you a chance to build the kind of connected, committed football team we want to build at U of A.”
Below is a full recap of what Brennan, Fifita, and Johnson and Smith said on Wednesday during press conferences and interviews on ESPN2 at the 2025 Big 12 Football Media Days held at The Star in Frisco, Texas:
Brent Brennan on the changes between Year 1 and Year 2 in Tucson:
“I think it’s night and day. One of the challenges when we first got there is the portal created by Jedd’s departure. So you have, like, a 30-day portal there, then you’re getting ready for spring practice, then you got another portal at the end of spring practice. And so I felt like we spent the first six months on the job kissing everyone’s ass, asking them to stay. It was just a horrible foundation for what we’re trying to get done there. The second year, we just feel much more stable in it. I think because of that, a lot of the players have chosen to stay, our retention has been high, and then also kind of the acquisition of new talent’s been really positive. So we’re in a great spot.”
Brent Brennan on the City of Tucson:
“It’s a special place, and I think it’s got an opportunity to be incredible for college football. We have a fan base and a city that’s kind of baked into this like, we’re it, right? The University of Arizona and the City of Tucson is it. And so we have this incredible fan base that we need to do the best job of engaging, then putting a product on the field they’re excited to come watch, and that’s the challenge ahead.”
Brent Brennan on the loss of Tetairoa McMillan to the NFL and Noah Fifita’s bounce back in 2025:
“So I think the step back for Noah Fifita is my fault, not his. We didn’t do a good enough job running the football and we didn’t do a good enough job protecting him, right. Which I think we’ve done. We’ve made some moves in the direction of making that better right now. I think when we get to December, everybody in the conference and maybe everybody in America is going to be talking about Noah Fifita.
When you watch how he delivers the football, he’s one of the cleanest throwers I’ve ever seen, and I’m excited to see what he’s going to do in Seth Doege’s offense. This is a perfect fit for him and it’s his time to shine. T-Mac or not, we love T-Mac. T-Mac’s going to crush it in the NFL. We put enough wideouts in that room. We put enough skill positions around him in an offensive front. You’re going to love what you see from Noah.”
Brent Brennan on new offensive coordinator Seth Doege:
“From the moment I met him, when he came and spent some time with us, I was just really impressed with the energy he brought, and just the conversation had incredible juice, which I’m looking for high energy guys, that’s a big part of who I am, and I need to work with guys that can feed off each other that way.
But then also, when we started talking about the football we started talking about what we were trying to build at Arizona, I also thought it was interesting to hear an Air Raid guy talk about ‘last year at Marshall, we found some real success running the ball.’ And I had never heard an Air Raid guy talk that way. In my mind I was like, okay, how do you win games late in the season? You got to be able to run the football, right? And so talking to Doege and talking about the championship run they went on last year at Marshall, like his ability, or his willingness to adapt the scheme to fit the personnel is what really solidified it for me.”
Brent Brennan on player(s) that surprised throughout spring camp:
“You know, I think, I think we’re excited about Ty Buchanan. I think he’s done a lot of good stuff in the offensive front. When I think about the receiver room like I just mentioned or the running back room, those have been both rooms where we added, probably 75 percent of the room is new. I think those things are going to be really exciting to watch, whether you’re talking about Quincy Craig or Ismail Mahdi at the running back position. Luke Wysong, Tre Spivey, Kris Hutson at the receiver position.
There’s a lot of change there, but there’s also a good influx of what we consider high-level talent guys that have played a lot of snaps in college football and have really good experience that I think are going to contribute greatly to what we’re trying to get done…Genesis Smith has just been a consistent, high-energy, high-effort player. A lot of fun to coach and made a lot of plays last fall for us, and you know he was a guy that the people came hard after in the portal, but he stayed true to Arizona like Fifita did, and we feel great about him too. So there’s a lot of players and people gonna have fun watching this fall.”
Brent Brennan shocking folks that have discounted Arizona this season and competing for a Big 12 title:
“I think if you’re not playing in this conference looking to play for the conference championship, like you’re full of it, and you’re cheating your team. I mean, that should be the goal every year. And I think what ‘The School Up North’ did last year, you got to respect it. I think it’s really plain and simple. Our fans might not like to hear me say that, but I can respect it, because what they did was hard to do. That’s what we’re trying to do. And so, as we look at what they did or what other teams would do, that’s one of the things I love about the Big 12, is I do think anyone has a chance to win it.”
Noah Fifita on bouncing back from his 2024 season:
“Individually, I have two years under my belt now, so using that experience, and then using Coach Doege. He’s super experienced, he’s super smart, one of the best offensive minds I’ve ever been around. So just kind of learn from him, building that relationship with him, trying to be the smartest, most prepared player on the field, and then try to become more of a threat with my legs as well.”
Noah Fifita on learning from Seth Doege’s experiences as a former Big 12 quarterback:
“We talked about it, and we’ve built a fantastic relationship from the moment he got on campus. That’s a big reason I wanted to stay to Arizona was a play for him. Like I said, he’s probably the best schemer I’ve ever seen from an offensive standpoint, but he’s a fantastic person, and we’ll hang out in this office all the time and just talk stories. So I’ve heard a lot of stories about his playing days. He knows the Big 12 in and out, played in it, and now he’s coaching in it. So we’re definitely going to lean on that leadership, lean on that experience.”
Noah Fifita on his offseason:
“My offseason has been been hectic. We have a lot of goals, a lot of expectations that we have for me individually, but more importantly, for our team that we’re trying to live up to this season…This is where you build the foundation. This is where you build the brotherhood, build the love that that gets you through the season. And that’s what we’re aiming towards.”
Noah Fifita on the culture inside the locker room:
“Just kind of building the culture, building the mentality and belief. Everybody in the locker room right now is Coach Brennan’s guy. We either stayed for Coach Brennan or we came here for Coach Brennan, so we have an unwavering belief in him. We have an unwavering belief in our coordinators that they can lead us to where we want to get to and that’s a Big 12 Championship.”
Dalton Johnson on adjusting to the coaching change a season ago:
“I would definitely say a switch up. A new coaching staff comes in, they have their techniques and their ways of doing things, and it’s kind of blindsiding. But we decided to stay, bought in to Coach B, and the season didn’t go the way we wanted it to. But we got a redemption season coming up, so it’ll be alright.”
Dalton Johnson on schematic changes under new defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales:
“There’s a few different things that we do, maybe some more games up front, and little different disguises and looks in the back end. He keeps it new and fresh each week.”
Genesis Smith on returning to Arizona after entering the transfer portal this offseason:
“Just the brotherhood we have going on. It’s been the same since we got here, never wavered through the wins or losses. It’s always been the same love, same attention to detail daily, and I’m just here to run it back with my brothers.”
Genesis Smith on Danny Gonzales’ promotion to defensive coordinator:
“It’s been great. He’s definitely changed some attitudes around the building, really emphasized the Redline for us, which is effort, execution, accountability, and just pushing that standard daily. And I feel like that just elevated us as a whole, the whole defense, and the whole team.”
Genesis Smith on how he developed his mentality and skills as a ballhawk:
“Just growing up playing with my brothers, backyard football, that’s just what it seems to be out there, just always trying to get the ball.”