What is Arizona first-year coach Brent Brennan’s greatest road victory as a head coach?
He leads No. 20 Arizona (2-0) into Manhattan, Kan., on Friday to face No. 14 Kansas State (2-0), which is the fourth ranked opponent he will coach against on the road since he started his career at San Jose State in 2017.
The results of the previous three were all defeats:
Sept. 15, 2018 — No. 20 Oregon, 35-22
Nov. 10, 2018 — No. 16 Utah State, 42-14
Aug. 26, 2023 — No. 6 USC, 56-28
Brennan was 8-29 in games on the road in an opponent’s city or facility during his seven-year stint with the Spartans. He won six of those games in his last three seasons, including the final three road games of last season.
The most substantial road win for Brennan came in the last regular-season game last year in a 37-31 victory against a UNLV team that was 9-2 at the time. The Rebels lost the following week in the Mountain West championship game against Boise State before falling to Kansas in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl at Phoenix.
Brennan’s greatest road win at San Jose State is the only one achieved against a Power 5 team — in 2019 against Arkansas, a 31-24 triumph that was also Brennan’s first road victory as the Spartans’ coach.
San Jose State was 0-13 in road games to start the Brennan era before that victory in Fayetteville, Ark.
Brennan was emotional in the postgame interview with ESPN. After concluding the interview, he practically sprinted toward a group of Spartans and leaped on top of them in wild celebration.
That was San Jose State’s first win over a Power 5 program since 2006 when Dick Tomey coached the Spartans to a 35-34 win over Stanford at home. It was also the program’s first road win against a Power 5 team since 2002, a 38-35 win at Illinois.
Arkansas was 2-1 and unranked going into that game in 2019. The loss started a nine-game losing streak to end that season for the Razorbacks. Chad Morris was fired by Arkansas as the head coach before the last two games of the season.
Brennan’s record against Power 5 teams on the road is 1-8.
Of course, these results and records were at a Mountain West program that has a history of struggling while deep in the shadows of California and Stanford in northern California.
Brennan is now coaching at Arizona, a Power 5 program with the longest active winning streak (nine games) in the FBS.
FOLLOW @JAVIERJMORALES ON TWITTER!
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
Recommended for you
