Arizona Wildcats head coach Brent Brennan has attacked player retainment first. But if that’s his priority, building trust with players who are thinking about entering the transfer portal is about giving them a coaching staff they either know or can build a relationship with quickly.
Here’s the latest coaching staff news for Brennan as he replaces a staff that was gutted with former coach Jedd Fisch’s move to take the head-coaching job with the Washington Huskies.
Gonzales is a former Arizona State defensive coordinator and New Mexico head coach.
Gonzales, who joined the Sun Devils coaching staff as head coach Herm Edwards’ defensive coordinator in 2018, was named as the team’s assistant head coach after his first year.
He took the New Mexico job following a 7-5 season for Arizona State in 2019 but was fired after last season.
Under Gonzales, Arizona State’s defense was one of the best units at creating turnovers, averaging 2.2 turnovers per game in 2019, tied for second in the country.
He was a safety and punted for the Lobos from 1994-98.
He joined the San Jose State staff in 2017 and added titles of recruiting coordinator the next year and assistant head coach in 2021.
Carter oversaw the development of Kairee Robinson, a 5-foot-7, 190-pound back who over five years developed from reserve back to No. 1 option this past year.
Robinson broke out in 2022, gaining 752 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns before improving in 2023 to 1,194 yards and 18 scores, tied for third-most in college football. Robinson averaged 7.0 yards per rush last year.
Carter has been a head coach himself, leading Contra Cost College from 2010-16. The head coach worked as a high school coach in the Bay Area from 1999-2009.
Josh Oglesby, offensive line coach
Oglesby coached at SJSU under Brennan from 2000-23. Prior to that, he was offensive line coach for the XFL’s Seattle Dragons (2019), tight ends coach for the AAF’s San Antonio Commanders (2019) and a quality control assistant at UTEP (2018) and Oregon State (2015-17).
He played for the Wisconsin Badgers and was a graduate assistant there from 2014-15.
Duane Akina, defensive coordinator
The 67-year-old Akina will return to work under his third head coach with the Wildcats.
Akina served under Dick Tomey for the head coach’s entire run in Tucson from 1987-2000, working as defensive backs coach, associate head coach and even offensive coordinator.
Akina then spent 2001-13 at Texas under Mack Brown, holding similar titles before jumping to Stanford from 2014-22 to coach defensive backs under David Shaw. He returned to the Wildcats last year under Fisch but appeared to be departing after a single season — that was before Fisch jumped to take the head-coaching job with the Washington Huskies.
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