Saturday morning news broke of now-former Arizona defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen leaving the desert for Texas as he has become the Longhorns' new co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach according to Anwar Richardson of Orangebloods.com.

Nansen is leaving the Wildcats after two seasons where he took a defense ranked 124th in total defense in year one to 48th nationally. The main reason behind the turnaround was due to the play of the underclassmen on the defensive side of the ball with five players starting on defense headlined by linebacker Jacob Manu.

When looking back at the 2023 season for Arizona and winning 10 games with the bowl victory over Oklahoma, you have to talk about the job Nansen did on the defensive side of the ball, helping the Wildcats re-establish itself as a good defensive team. UA went from giving up 36.5 points per game during his first season to 21.1, which ranked 29th in the country.

Although the 4-2-5 zone-based defense was the system that Nansen ran while being the defensive coordinator, he wasn't afraid to switch things up depending on the matchup and threw in different concepts at opponents. Plus, he was able to keep his defensive line fresh while rotating 8 to 10 guys throughout the game in order to insure they were ready for the fourth quarter.

Arizona will now be searching for its third defensive coordinator under coach Jedd Fisch as it tries to keep the program on the same path it has been on over the last couple of years.

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