Arizona Head Coach Brent Brennan Says Noah Fifita Has a Heisman Trophy Resume | Sports Illustrated

Brian Fisher here for Sports Illustrated at Big 12 Media Day.

He's joined now by Arizona coach Brent Brennan.

And Brent, uh, always seems like this is the time where you know football is right around the corner.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think everyone's gearing up.

This is always a great event.

The Big 12 puts on a great day here for us, and it's, it's fun to see the other teams, the other coaches, meet, you know, meet, meet the other players, and it's also fun for us to be here talking about Arizona football.

Well, when we talked here last year, you know, you were so excited about your team that's certainly shone through.

Uh, in terms of your guys' record, in terms of your success, what, what kind of saw, what did you see last year going into that season that you said, all right, we're, we, we know we're gonna have some success.

I just saw a lot of players that chose to be there, you know, even through some adversity that we had had the year before in 24.

I saw some guys that were just really committed to each other and, and to the UFA, and, and that part of it gave me like, you know, some hope and belief.

And then as we continue to attack the offseason.

And I just saw that, that kind of that brotherhood, that, that thing really, really coming together.

I knew that we had something fun.

Well, you have something fun at at quarterback in in Noah Fifita.

What can you say about his growth these last couple of years?

Well, it's, I, you know, I think the funny thing I keep telling everybody is, is he, he really does have a Heisman Trophy resume.

And when we talk about a player who's played his entire career at the same school, he's the leading passer in every category right now.

If not, he will be by the end of the season.

Um, and he's a guy who's continued to choose the University of Arizona, choose his teammates, choose our program over and over again, even though he's, you know, lots of people have been chasing him and trying to get him to make other decisions, but his incredible, high character, his, the values that his parents, you know, instilled in him as a young man, and who he is for our program, our institution, and our community is second to none.

Is there's somebody that, uh, maybe we don't know right now, but you know what, and come this fall, we're we're definitely gonna know that that's a household name.

Oh shoot, that's a big question.

I, I think we're really excited to see Trey Smith come back.

Uh, you know, he was, you know, someone that people had on the preseason list a year ago and he had a shoulder injury and so he had to miss a bunch of time.

And so he ended up redshirting.

So we're excited to get him back.

I think he's someone that can make a lot of noise in this conference.

I think Chase Kennedy is another player for us, you know, kind of a linebacker hybrid guy that can get to the quarterback, make plays, can run and hit and play.

He's really, really kind of emerging as a leader for us also.

So I think there's a couple of guys people are gonna be excited about.

You've mentioned, uh, red shirts and, and, and retention, and, uh, that thing's.

Changing a little bit now and given the eligibility changes that we've seen, how are you kind of approaching that as a head coach looking at, hey, not only do I maybe have this guy right now, I could have him for 5 years.

And we're excited about that.

And you know, our program is always gonna be built on majority recruitment of high school players and the development of those players.

And, and I think, you know, if we made good, good choices and good decisions on the evaluation of those players is who's the.

Who they are as people, and then who they are as players, and we can put them in our program for, you know, 234 years, we're gonna have something that's gonna be a lot of fun to watch, you know, as those guys come through the program.

And so, you know, for us, the, the idea of the 5 for 5 , I'm excited about it.

I think it's great.

I think, uh, I thought it was a good move when the NCAA kind of went to 44 games and you could still redshirt.

I think that part of it, um, this gives guys a chance to get their feet wet.

Play some, get an idea if they do have an injury, they're protected because they got another year.

So I think there's a lot of benefit for, for the players and the, and, and the programs.

This is such a tough league and obviously talking with a lot of coaches, it seems like every game comes down to that 4th quarter, a play here or a play there.

How, how do you deal with that as a head coach and how's that kind of changed for you really the last couple of years as you've gotten to know the Big 12?

Yeah, I think that's one of the unique things about it.

I think I saw a statistic last fall that said, you know, this, in the Big 12, more games are decided in the last.

You know, 4 minutes of the game than any league in, in college, you know, in college football.

And I think, you know, that 11 thing is I think it's something that your team has to be aware of and everybody has to understand, you know, you know, you know, 8 to 4 minutes left in the 4th quarter is when these games are gonna be decided, right?

So, how do we prepare for that in the practice environment?

Can we put them in those situations?

in practice to give them an idea of what is coming when the game actually happens.

And then, you know, what is the resilience of your team?

How do they recover from a good play, a bad play in those moments?

And I think that's developed through the course of the offseason training camp, and then when you get in games.

When it comes to your, your current team going into, uh, the season, is, is there something that you think is, is gonna be a little bit different this year compared to last year?

Well, I think the easiest thing to point to is that we had 4 players drafted in the secondary, and, and, and those guys are all moving on to their NFL careers, and we're really excited for them.

And so we got a lot of work to do in, with that group, and we have some great candidates back there, and we have, you know, a couple of, uh, you know, returning players and a couple of players that we added through the portal and a couple of high school kids.

So we, we're excited about that, but when I look at it, I, you know, I think that's the thing that we're gonna, as we get into training camp and we start to play a little bit more football, that's gonna be one of those things that we're gonna really have to make sure we, we have a good feel for.

Uh, exciting times there there in Tucson, certainly with, uh, with the Final Four run on, on the men's basketball side.

I'm kind of curious how you kind of, can kind of draft off that success that you guys had in, in one of the marquee sports there.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think, you know, we got so much respect for Coach Lloyd and that, and that basketball staff in the program.

We have great relationships with the, you know, the players all know each other.

It's one of my favorite things about the UFA is all of our athletes eat together every day.

So, you know, they're, they're, they are really supportive of each other, and every sport is represented in there , you know, and I think that's a really cool thing.

Um, but yeah, watching what they did last, last spring, um, you know, being able to, you know, see them on their run through the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight all the way to the Final Four, I think that's something that obviously continues to raise the profile of the University of Arizona athletics, but it's also something that our players can see like, hey, we can get there from here.

Commissioner, your mark has, has mentioned, uh, getting multiple teams in the CFP winning games there.

Uh, you, you had a lot of coaches kind of say the same thing.

How can this league get, uh, multiple teams into the college football playoffs this year?

Well, that, I mean, I think that's the thing we talked about at the beginning of this interview, like just the, the parity in this conference and the, and the depth of it.

And how every, every game you play, you better bring it because everybody, everybody can play.

You know, but I think as we continue to move, um, you know, I think last year we had a couple of teams that had a chance to be in it.

You know, if there is any expansion, obviously, we would have had for sure 2 teams in that thing last year, probably 3, you know, so I think, you know, as we look at it, the big picture and we keep moving forward, how do we find Ways to continue to play quality football that gets us into November where those games are really important and really impactful.

When you, when you do look at that kind of expansion debate, a lot of mentions about 1624, it seems like most of the Big 12 coaches coming down on 24, you kind of share that enthusiasm over that kind of.

Yeah, let's go.

Like, the more people that get a chance to be a part of the college football playoff, like why not?

Like what's the What's the, you know, negative, uh, uh, to that, right?

I think that part of it, there was so much fun because what it's gonna do, in my opinion, it's gonna make November crazy.

It's gonna add so much intensity and enthusiasm and excitement to the month of November.

Those games are gonna be so huge when you have this year coming down the home stretch and you know, hey, there's a college football playoff, you know.

Opportunity on the line here.

I think it'll be awesome.

Do you, do you feel like expectations would, would change, you know, surrounding, say, your tenure as a head coach, whether it's all right, you didn't make the playoff.

All right, that's more pressure on you, or you did make the playoff, you didn't win a game.

You feel like that pressure would end up changing if you did move external, external, yeah, sure.

Yeah, I think that's, I mean, I don't know that it's that much different with You know, getting to the postseason, you know, I mean, I think, and I, I think most coaches would tell you that like the most pressure they feel is from themselves.

So it doesn't really, you know, like, doesn't the external thing, that's always gonna be there, um, but, you know, we, you know, in our program, we, we focus on what we can control.

I, I, I know it's, it's always tough when you do focus on, on so much of the near term to, to look at the big picture, but how would you kind of say, you know, going into this season, what would, what do you consider a success?

I think if any coach comes in here and tells you they don't want to play for the conference championship, they're, they're out of their minds.

I mean, I, I think that's always the goal, right?

Is to put your team in a position to be playing for the conference championship in November.

And we were close last year.

You know what I mean?

So, I think that part of it, and knowing that like, if you do that, there's a great chance for the college football playoff, all that stuff.

But really, I think it needs to start with, you know, how quickly can you get to a situation where you're in the race in November.

Uh, how, how are you, how close do you think you are to getting into that race in November?

I think, I think we've made a lot of progress, and I think we've got some good people in place that can do that, right?

We obviously we talked about Noah Fafita and just how special he is, but I think when you talk about the offensive line we have returning, some of the skilled people we have returning, what we've been defensively a year ago with Danny Gonzalez and how that shifted.

Um, you know, I think that part of it makes me optimistic because I think we have really good people leading our offense, our defense, and our special teams, and then we have a veteran group coming back.

Do, do you feel like, I mean, just going into this year that because that there's so much stability there around the program that, you know, you've been able to do a little bit more, maybe a bit hands-on with.

The position group or not that you probably didn't do a year ago, you know, I, I think, you know, one of the things is, you know, my, my style as a head coach is that I do trust my assistant coaches, and I do, I do let them do their job, and I, and then I've, I've been in situations as an assistant coach where I was getting micromanaged and, you know, just everything and And like, like I just don't think I was as effective, of a teacher or of a leader in those moments when I was in that situation.

So how much autonomy, how much ownership can I give our coaches?

And then when something gets out of line, then obviously it's my job to make sure we get back in alignment as quickly as possible.

Well, hopefully that, uh, that will happen right away, uh, from, from game one all the way through.

Uh, Brett Brennan, thank you so much for stopping by here at Big 12 Media Days.

Thank you, Bear down.