When Brent Brennan was hired to coach Arizona, part of a whirlwind few days last January, his number one goal was to try and keep together as much of the team that just won 10 games and the Alamo Bowl. By any means possible.
“I think we spent the first six months on the job kissing everyone’s ass, asking them to stay,” Brennan said last month at Big 12 Football Media Days in Texas.
While that approach did lead to the majority of the 2024 team staying put, it did not produce positive results on the field.
The Wildcats went 4-8, the 6-game decrease in wins tied for the most in school history.
“I think it was just it was a complicated way to start, and I don’t think I did a good job of managing that,” Brennan said this week, just ahead of his second season at the helm. “I don’t think I did a good job of establishing how we’re going to do business here as a program. And that was one of the things that, as we got through the season and all the ups and downs and frustration of the season, that was very clear to me how we needed to move forward as a program.”
This past offseason involved another round of roster retention, but with a different approach. Instead of begging, Brennan and his staff laid out what they wanted from their players, beyond their on-field skills.
“Making sure that we had players who loved the University of Arizona, want to be here, love football,” Brennan said. “That was the very clear parameters for what we’re trying to build it with. And I think the players that we have here check all those boxes.”
Arizona added more than 50 new players this offseason, including 20-plus from the NCAA transfer portal. Those transfers had to believe that joining a program that was coming off a massively disappointing season was the right move, though for some they’d already experienced that scenario.
“When I came to Texas State in 2023, they didn’t have a good season in 2022,” said running back Ismail Mahdi, who began his career at Houston Christian. “But they brought in the right people, the right coaches and the right culture. And I know what it looks like, and I feel like Arizona is in the trajectory of making a change from the season they had previous.”
Mahdi, who led FBS in all-purpose yards in 2023 and ran for more than 2,300 yards with Texas State, figures to thrive in new offensive coordinator Seth Doege’s scheme. Doege’s hiring helped former Texas Tech convince offensive lineman Ty Buchanan to join the Wildcats.
“When I saw he got the job, I knew I wanted to come here as well,” said Buchanan, who began his career at USC in 2021 when Doege was on the Trojans’ staff.
Mahdi’s teammate at Texas State last season, Max Harris, said he didn’t give much thought to what the UA did before he committed, though those around him did.
“That’s a question I’ve gotten from my family,” Harris said when asked why he’d use his last season of eligibility to play for a team that had a losing record in 2024. “Last year doesn’t really matter, it’s about this year. There have been teams that have been the top of the conference and then went down, and then there’s been teams that have been the bottom of the conference and then went up the next year.”
Buchanan, Harris and Mahdi were among the transfers added from FBS programs, but Arizona also signed a dozen who were at the FCS level in 2024. That meant taking a step up in competition and hoping the success found at the lower level would carry over.
But ex-Montana linebacker Riley Wilson sees it differently. He believes the competition he faced with the Grizzlies wasn’t that different from what he’ll go up against with Arizona.
“Football is football,” he said. “I’m not concerned about at all taking this jump up. I’ve had a great opportunity, even at the FCS level, to play against the top name talents, a lot of guys who’ve been drafted. South Dakota State, North Dakota State, those type of teams, they produce great talent and calibers of guys who would blow the smoke out here in the Big 12. I’m not scared at all for this talent, the talent the Big 12. I’m just really excited for this opportunity for me to showcase that I can do this.”
