Where does the University of Arizona football team go from here?
It could go many ways – as can the school’s athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois – when and/if she makes a decision to keep first-year head football coach Brent Brennan.
That’s for another day – if she makes any decision public. Surely, no one asked her after yesterday afternoon’s “soul-crushing” 49-7 blowout to Arizona State.
The two – Reed-Francois and Brennan – were seen walking away together from the post-game press conference leaving to who knows where.
Clearly, decisions have to be made on all fronts. That said, Brennan spoke like a coach who feels he has a lot to look forward to next year and is eager to get that chance.
Clearly, he’ll have to go about it differently, given few things worked well this season. It was a debacle of a season after UA enjoyed one of its best seasons in school history a season ago.
What a difference a year and a coach make. And this is in no way to compare Jedd Fisch to Brett Brennan. Fisch may have caught lightning in a bottle for a year; Brennan may have just shattered the bottle. Evaluate as you wish.
All Saturday’s performance did was confirm what the season was about – a mix of haphazard play, inconsistent plays, lopsided losses, poor tackling and strange decisions.
Saturday just highlighted it all. At least Arizona was consistent – albeit consistently bad throughout the season.
“This was a really hard year, a hard year for everybody associated with the program, but I’m optimistic for the future,” Brennan said, telling the media as part of his opening statement. “This year was not fun; it was absolute misery.
“There were some fun moments, but not nearly enough. And I feel bad, because I feel like I let down these players. I feel like I let down this community, and I feel like I let down this university. This thing starts with me looking in the mirror and doing a hardcore evaluation of the choices and the decisions I made, and then building that out with our entire program every step of the way. The evaluation process begins.”
Shouldn’t it have occurred weeks ago?
By all accounts Brennan is a good guy, one who cares – the prototypical “Player’s coach.”
Here’s the thing – at least with me. I don’t know a good guy coach who has ever done well. Name one …
“He’s like a genuine guy,” said running back Quali Conley, who transferred to UA from San Jose State to join Brennan. “He’ll tell you the truth, if you want to hear it or not, he’ll tell you. He’s a player’s coach. He’ll let the players voice their opinions.”
Of course, that’s a good thing currently in the players are important and have a voice era. How that impacts his coaching is anyone’s guess, but the first year here it didn’t go well – for whatever reason.
Since the first month – even in disjointed and weird wins – I wondered what ailed this team, one that seemed so promising to begin the season.
Injuries? Possibly.
Chemistry? Again, possibly.
Talent? Maybe.
His style not fitting the personnel? Again, maybe.
The play calling? It was baffling at best.
His style of coaching, including demeanor (of being a good guy)? Another possibility.
So many factors – probably too many to review.
How is one to believe any of it – or all of it – is fixable? Why next year when it couldn’t be done while preparing this year? Each and every week it was about him “having to coach better.”
Clearly, it was more than that – unless that wasn’t happening. (Insert your own raised eyebrows here).
When asked how players can expect it to be better next year, he said it was a fair question then said: “It’s a little bit of a leap of faith. But they have been around us. They have been around our coaches. They know our level of ability to teach and coach. I do feel like we have a great relationship with these players. I do think that is strong.”
He continued by saying “the culture is healthy. And I think if you want to be a part of building something great. If you want to go try and jump on a bandwagon somewhere else, if that’s who you are, go. I’m confident that everything that’s going on within the program, the coaches, the players, where we’re at with our administration, and the (revenue) share, all those things, those are all part of the conversation right now. I’m confident where we’re at. I think we’ll be in a good spot with retention.”
But will he be here? That too is a fair question. To be fair, Reed-Francois was there in the press conference, and no one asked her for an endorsement of Brennan. I’m guilty of it too.
But again, Brennan spoke like a man/coach who will come back for a second crack at this.
“I believe in the support we’re getting from our athletics director and our president,” he said. “I’m extremely optimistic about the recruiting class that we’re going to put together and the action we’re going to get done in the portal, and I believe in our coaches and these players, so I’m excited to move forward.
“Now, the good news is, I’ve been through things like this before. I’ve been a part of a lot of staffs that have taken over programs, so I’m not afraid of the challenges. I’m excited about them.”
Let the excitement begin – and while you’re at it get your popcorn. Might be an interesting watch or wait to see.
