Brennan Evaluates Regular Season Before Bowl Game Decision
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The No. 22 Arizona Wildcats ended their season with a 9-3 record after dismantling their longtime rivals, the ASU Sun Devils, 23-7 in Mountain America Stadium this past Friday.
In that gritty win, Arizona caused five turnovers and scored 20 straight points in the second half on the way to the biggest win of its season.
Now that the regular season is over, the Wildcats are now waiting to hear the status of what bowl game they will be playing in and against what team, which will be announced this Sunday.
Head coach Brent Brennan, who is responsible for turning the program around from an abysmal 4-8 season in 2024, was more than excited about his team, which is playing in a bowl game for the second time since 2023, the first time in his coaching tenure.
Here is a collection of his thoughts as his group prepares for what is to come in the very near future.
On appreciation for Arizona amidst a chaotic weekend for coaches
"This is a crazy year, a crazy situation for all that kind of stuff, but I think it's awesome. I think we have, I've mentioned it a lot, really good alignment with our coaches, really good alignment with our administration. And I think we're really fortunate for that. And I think we're just fortunate to have the outstanding coaches and people that we have in our building right now."
On stopping ASU's rushing attack
"I just think Coach Gonzalez has done a fantastic job. I think that whole side of the ball has it's been really fun to watch them as they've progressed over the season. And I think whenever you put together a game plan for somebody, right, like you don't know what's going to go that way, right? Like you're confident what you do. You're confident with the answers or the adjustments you can make in game."
On what the team is doing as they wait for their bowl selection
"Big recovery week for us. They'll have some work with Coach (Cullen) Carroll and the wait staff over the next couple days. it's a long season. It's a long season. And I think that the physical brand of football that we play, our bodies are beat up, and so a little bit of rest, a lot of recovery, a lot of time in the training room, all those things for our players, so that when we do get ready to go to work on the next opponent, and wherever we're going for a ball game, we are ready to attack that phase of our preparation, ."
On Danny Gonzales giving input during games
"I think that's the value of having someone that's been a head coach on your staff. It could be anything. 'Hey, what do you think here? What do you think? Should we pun it? Should we go for two? You want to go for it. What do you like? You think you can stop them from here?' I think that's been really healthy between Danny ((Gonzales and (Seth) Doege and (Craig) Naivar in game about ,'Okay, how do we want to handle whatever situation we're in?'"
On the relationship between Seth Doege and Danny Gonzales
"I think it's great with them from the start, and I think that's a really important thing. I've been around football long enough to see a lot of those offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator situations be almost adversarial, almost unhealthy, like us against them. And I think when you do that, it's really hard to build the kind of team you want to build. And so from the beginning, even in spring practice, there were days where whatever the offense was getting after the defense, or the defense was getting after the offense, but there was always conversations between Danny and Seth."
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Nathaniel Martinez and a set of shoulder pads at 7 years old. He later graduated from Pima Community College in 2023, where he began writing for the Pima Post. He is working to achieve a Bachelor’s in Mass Communication and Media Studies.