Brent Brennan walked into his postgame news conference Saturday, grabbed a water bottle, cracked a slight smile and then let the emotions flow.
“Yeah, let’s go,” he exclaimed. “Wake up. Wake up, baby! What an awesome day in Arizona Stadium. I want to thank you all for being here. Really, really appreciate it. Really, really special day.”
Brennan then acknowledged the former players who attended and thanked the crowd for impacting Kansas’ placekicker, who missed a field goal in the final minutes of Arizona’s 24-20 victory.
He mentioned Arizona’s preparation and the challenges Kansas posed with its physicality and special teams.
“But our players kept responding,” Brennan added. “We just kept finding ways to respond in some really tough moments.”
He was referring, of course, to Arizona rallying from 10 points down late in the second quarter and then from three points down late in the fourth.
But the backdrop was hard to miss: The entire year has been one giant response from Arizona’s players, staff and head coach.
Just 11 months ago, the Wildcats were wrapping up a season gone unimaginably wrong — a season in which they won four games, were blown out six times and watched their rival rise from nowhere to win the Big 12.
The public outcry was severe enough that on Dec. 2, athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois felt compelled to confirm that Brennan would return for Year 2 — a highly unusual move. But the implication seemed clear: Brennan’s job would be on the line in 2025.
Reed-Francois termed the season “disappointing and unacceptable” in comments to Tucson.com. “We know we have to be better next season, and that process starts immediately.”
Brennan used the long winter months to demand accountability, overhaul the coaching staff and say goodbye to players who were not fully committed.
In other words: Everything he didn’t do during his first winter with the Wildcats.
Upon taking the job in January 2024, Brennan sacrificed the culture in a desperate attempt to preserve Arizona’s momentum.
Players who prioritized NIL deals over team success were allowed to stay.
Assistants who could help keep those players were retained.
When the 2024 season arrived, Arizona was picked fifth in the Big 12 media poll (with three first-place votes) and seemed poised for another big year.
But internally, the program was engulfed in a doom cycle that only became evident as the lost season unfolded with lopsided loss after lopsided loss.
“I felt like we spent the first six months on the job kissing everyone’s ass, asking them to stay,” Brennan told ESPN during Big 12 media days four months ago. “It was just a horrible foundation for what we were trying to get done there.”
“The second year, we feel much more stable in it. Because of that, a lot of players have chosen to stay. Our retention’s been high … We’re in a great spot.”
That was clear in the opening weeks, as the Wildcats dispatched Hawaii and Weber State and, tellingly, Kansas State. The offense showed structure, the defense was aggressive. A level of competency was visible that hadn’t existed in the fall of 2024.
The two-game skid in the middle of the season was revealing, as well: The Wildcats were in position to beat both BYU at home and Houston on the road — the two Cougars have a combined record of 16-3, by the way — but simply couldn’t close.
They closed on Saturday, courtesy of an 80-yard drive and game-winning touchdown with 39 seconds remaining.
Eleven months after rock bottom, the Wildcats (6-3) are bowling for just the third time in a decade and Brennan’s seat is cold. (With so many coaching vacancies across the power conferences, this would have been a bad year for Arizona to enter the hiring market.)
And there’s room for more.
The trip to Cincinnati is daunting on several fronts, from the long flight and early kickoff to Cincinnati’s preparation time (two weeks) and the Bearcats’ first-rate running game.
But the Wildcats return to face Baylor, which is .500 in conference play, and finish the season in Tempe, where the Sun Devils will be without quarterback Sam Leavitt.
Arizona should win one and could win two. Either way, there’s a lesson to carry forward: “Kissing everyone’s ass” is no way to win games.
It took Brennan a year to figure it out, clean house and reset the culture. But the Wildcats are back on a reasonable trajectory. The public statement expected this December will have details on their bowl destination.
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