While Arizona’s coaching staff remains intact for the time being it now has a big hole to fill in its front office if it wants to maintain the momentum it’s built this season.
John Brice of Football Scoop is reporting that general manager Gaizka Crowley
is leaving to take the same position at Arkansas under new coach Ryan Silverfield. Crowley had been Arizona’s GM the last two seasons for Brent Brennan after coming over from Western Michigan.Crowley, along with Director of Scouting Fletcher Kelly,
were instrumental in Arizona’s roster overhaul between the 2024 and 2025 seasons, adding nearly 30 players from the NCAA transfer portal including 11 that have started more than half the games this fall. Crowley also helped put together the Wildcats’ 2026 recruiting class, which is ranked 35th in the country and 4th in the Big 12.
Brennan has praised the efforts of Crowley and Kelly several times in the past month in their ability to keep everything organized from a recruiting and roster management standpoint and let he and his assistants focus on coaching during the season.
“When I came up in the game there was multiple years where I was the recruiting coordinator and also the receiver coach, or the recruiting coordinator and the receivers coach and special teams coordinator,” Brennan said last week. “Okay, am I focused on recruiting, or am I focused on trying to get the first down this week? I think what Gaizka and Fletcher do an incredible job of is, they’re kind of front door with some of the evaluation process. And then they do a great job of making sure everybody is accountable to our process. So the position coach is seeing the players, the coordinator is seeing the players, and me seeing the players, so that we have consistency of our evaluation process.”
Crowley is the first member of Arizona’s staff to depart in the wake of the breakout 2025 season, which has the Wildcats on a 5-game win streak heading into the Holiday Bowl on Jan. 2 against SMU. He might not be the last to leave.
Running backs coach Alonzo Carter has been mentioned as a top candidate for the head coaching opening at FCS Sacramento State, while other assistants and staff members are likely to be pursued by other schools.
