A week after officially parting ways with offensive coordinator Dino Babers, Brent Brennan has found his new play-caller to lead Arizona’s offense into 2025. On Thursday, John Brice of FootballScoop.com reported that Arizona is hiring Seth Doege to be its next offensive coordinator. The UA officially announced the hiring of Doege on Friday. He is the first of three new coordinators Arizona will hire heading into the 2025 season.
Who is Seth Doege?
Doege is becoming the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator after holding the same position at Marshall this past season. In 2024, the Thundering Herd averaged 31.8 points per game, 10 points better than Arizona, as well as 201.7 rushing yards per game, good for 20th in FBS. Compare that to Arizona, which saw it’s offense fall from 20th in the nation in 2023 under Jedd Fisch, to 97th with Dino Babers and Matt Adkins calling plays.
Before his journey into coaching, Doege was a quarterback at Texas Tech from 2008-2012 under the late-great Mike Leach, one of the pioneers of the air raid offense. During his junior and senior seasons, Doege threw for over 4,000 yards per season, as well as 28 and 39 touchdowns, respectively. Doege is 4th all-time in Red Raiders’ program history in passing yards (8,636) and touchdowns (69).
After brief stints with the Atlanta Falcons in 2013 and the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2014-15, he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Bowling Green in 2016. He stayed with the Falcons through 2018, serving as the wide receivers coach in 2017, adding special teams responsibilities in 2018. From there, Doege joined USC as an offensive quality control analyst for two seasons, before coaching tight ends in 2021. Doege then spent a year as an analyst at Ole Miss in 2022, and tight ends coach at Purdue in 2023.
What did Seth Doege say after being named the next offensive coordinator at Arizona?
On Friday afternoon, Doege held a joint press conference with head coach Brent Brennan. See what Doege had to say about his offensive style, the relationships he hopes to build with players and coaches, and his goals and aspirations for Arizona Football.
What can Arizona fans expect from a Seth Doege led offense?
“We ran the ball really efficiently last year, but I come from the air raid tree. Mike Leach was a big mentor of mine, so when we were at USC for three years under Graham Harrell, we led the league in passing two of the three years,” said Doege on Friday. “As my journey continued, I got to be around Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weis [Jr.] at Ole Miss, where we led the SEC in rushing the year I was there. Then, fast forward to putting my own flavor on it at Marshall, I think we’ve created a very flexible offense that you can do it, whether it be through the air or on the ground, and be very efficient and score a lot of points.”
Doege also added, “You can be flexible to your personnel. It’s still simple to learn, right, so the kids can play free in their minds, and play fast, and not have to worry about a whole different rules, or there’s a million different plays in the game plan. They just go play free. And then there’s a tempo aspect to it that allows you to equalize any deficiencies or any matchup problems that you have during the game because you’re playing fast and you get people tired, and so in the third and fourth quarter, it’s all equal.”
Doege also said on Friday that having a “real quarterback” in Noah Fifita is something he’s very excited about:
“Noah is a real dude. I’m excited about being able to have an opportunity to coach him. I’ve already sent him a couple of text messages, we’ve texted back and forth when I accepted the job. We’re going to get on the phone tonight – he’s priority number one for me, because obviously this offense is a lot better if Noah is behind center…I’m really excited about that quarterback, because I think he makes this thing go.”
Noah Fifita isn’t the only player Seth Doege has been in touch with. Arizona’s new OC has already been in contact with a number of Wildcat players in the transfer portal:
“I’ve already made some calls on my way up here. Just trying to get in touch with some of the guys that in the portal. Talked to Keyan [Burnett] – he was actually committed to us at USC when I was the tight end coach there, so I actually have a previous relationship with him. And then called some other guys as well, so just trying to get in touch with those guys. I know they don’t know me, and so I’m just trying to convince them, like ‘hey man, give me a chance. I think you’ll really enjoy the type of brand and the type of environment that you’ll be in offensively, and it’ll be a change from what you’ve been a part of.’
And I think Coach [Brennan] has done a great job of creating an environment where guys can be themselves, and I want them to be themselves, no matter if it’s the team room, or the offensive room, or the quarterback room, or the receiver room, it doesn’t matter, just come be yourself, and now there’s still a standard that you’re going to be held accountable for. There’s a standard of play that doesn’t change for anybody – I’m going to say that a million times – but at the end of the day, I want you to have fun, and I want you to believe in what we do, and I think if you give me a chance, you’ll really enjoy it and you won’t regret it.”
Seth Doege closed his remarks on Friday saying that he’s not just trying to score points at Arizona – he’s trying to bring a championship to Tucson:
“I think it was just a feel and a vibe to be honest with you. We’ve played here a couple times at USC, and then obviously visiting, there was something about this place I’ve always said I wanted to be here. It’s just really exciting for me. This is not a job for me that’s just like, ‘hey, let me go see if I can’t score some points and see if I can’t find the next one, right?’ This one to me is like, ‘let’s go win a championship here. Let’s go do something special, where we can stay at this place for a long haul.’ To me, this is a special place.
I wouldn’t want to do it with any other head coach to be honest with you. This guy reminds me of the people that I want to grow into and be like, if I ever get a head coaching opportunity one day, that I want to be like Coach Brennan. I think he kind of sets the standard for me. He reminds me a lot of Coach [Clay] Helton at USC. I think there’s a lot of similarities there, and so I just enjoyed coaching for Coach Helton. I think a lot of the players loved playing for Coach Helton, and so I see this kind of being very similar.”
What’s Next for Arizona?
With Seth Doege officially in place as the next offensive coordinator at Arizona, it remains to be seen whether he will keep the Wildcats’ position coaches in place, or if he will bring in some of his own assistants. And within hours of landing in Tucson, Doege is already busy at work recruiting transfers:
“We’re working through that right now,” said Brent Brennan. “Obviously, this was a big one for us, and getting this done, but we’ve also had official visits every single day this week. We’ve got a bunch of young people here and their families, some arrived this afternoon and some are pulling in right now, so it’s good we’ve got Seth here. Let’s go to work, and let’s bring in some of the best football players we can.”
Arizona is also still on the hunt for new defensive and special teams coordinators. Danny Gonzales, who coached linebackers and specials teams this season, is a candidate for the DC role.